Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tom Wier wrote:
> > Here's the second misconception:  nothing would be in the old system.It would be stupid to
> > have some in the new and some in the old;
>
> But, how could you prevent that?  Even today, you'll see some things
> measured in metric, and some things measured in customary.  Some people
> would continue to use the old system, while others would use the new.
> If someone tells you that something is 3 feet long, how do you know how
> long it is?  Is it 75 centimeters ("new"), or 91.44 centimeters
> ("old")?  That's a big difference.
>
> And WHY keep the old names at all?  You've still not answered that.  If
> we're going to change, what's wrong with the metric system?  Over time,
> perhaps, pound, etc. might remain in colloquial speech, and be
> redifinied accordingly (half-kilogram, etc.), but why try to force it?
> Why give ourselves a *new* system, which would lose the advantages of
> the old (tradition, easy division among others), have no more advantages
> than the metric, and make us *still* different?  If we want to be
> different from the rest of the world (and I don't see why), let's keep
> the old!  But if we want to make it easier to deal with the rest of the
> world, let's just conform to their system - metric!
Nik, it sounds like from what you write that you think that my idea
was to replace our current system (called "Customary") with some
new system, which has no name as of yet, and not replace it
(i.e., the customary) with the internationally used metric system.

This is not what I have been advocating.

I am not planning just to have units which are the same as metric units,
and call them by something else.  This has never even been implied, so
I'm not sure where everyone is getting this.  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.

This is no wacky system here.  It's already in use in France, Germany,
and Italy, according to someone on this list (was it John?).   It simply
uses what we already have and regularizes it according to the metric
system used internationally.  If that is a stupid idea, then the Germans
and French and Italians are also stupid insofar as they use such a system.


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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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