Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tom Wier wrote:
> > What I was advocating is
> > that we adopt the metric system (which I'm sure is no really controversial
> > claim) and in addition to that, do as other European nations have done
> > in also having other units, which are relics of the old system, and which
> > also happen to be very useful terms to use.  That is, we would also use
> > e.g. the meter in addition to the foot, but the foot would be redefined in
> > metric terms.
>
> Okay, I see what you're saying.  But why would you have to "advocate"
> it?  If we did adopt the metric system, then the old units would
> gradually lose their preciseness and become simple multiples of the
> metric system (e.g., 1 inch = 2 centimeters), which is what you're
> advocating.
If it were formalized, it would make those measurements much easier.
I mean, that's the reason why we have standard units in the first place:
so that people don't get cheated or mishaps don't occur when a given
measurement takes place.  Say you want to go into a shop and buy some
cheese or something.  You ask the person behind the counter for "about
a pound" of cheese (or whatever) and that person, unless he or she had
some sort of guide by which to charge you, might give you much more
or much less than you want.  They might give you 500 g, 550 g, 450 g,
400 g, or whatever, the difference among those being very great when you
actually think about what you're asking for.  In the one case, you might pay
more than you want to and more than you need, in the other, you'll get
less than you need.  Even informal measurements like these need *some*
level of formalism, some degree of precision, if they are to be useful at all.
So, if we all just agreed that the new pound would be a nice, easy to use,
500 g, then nobody would argue or quarrel about what they were ordering.

It's same principle behind having a standardized language, and behind having
written laws (rather than customs) : they make it possible to compare against
an "absolute", however arbitrary it may actually be.




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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

We look at [the Tao], and do not see it;
  Its name is the Invisible.
                 - Lao Tsu, _Tao Te Ching_

Nature is wont to hide herself.
                 - Herakleitos
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