We do such a shit job at teaching our own actual measuring system that nobody has an intuition what a pound feels like, what an inch and a foot look like and how to scale those up. So we resort to objects and comparisons instead of actual measurements.
Ehhhhh… measurements aren’t that hard to learn. They’re still measuring the same kinds of things. All measurements are still arbitrary to a human.
Basically the ONLY thing the metric system has over imperial is it matches our number system by being base-10. I know I know, it’s a BIG difference for a lot of calculations to not have to throw in non-matching unit conversions, and the metric system is ultimately based on absolute values pulled from the universe. At least by definition, as meaningless as that fact is to humans just looking at a length and going, “yup, that’s about 1 1/2 meters.”.
Anyone who failed to build an intuition simply didn’t use units enough. A lot of US carpenters like imperial units for a similar reason most like the metric system: The ratios match up to what they work with. Most people work with base-10 numbers A LOT more than base 8, 12, or 16. Though for woodworkers, when boards come in feet, blades are clean fractions of inches in size, and buildings are sized 8’ tall, etc, etc, it all lines up nicely to reduce a worker’s mental load.
I still think metric is superior, but imperial very much is not “senseless”. The biggest reason we’ll never switch is because so many industries have their ratios set for imperial units or interact with other American construction based on those ratios. Not to mention maintenance on things already built. It’d be a huge headache of a transition for many industries.
We do such a shit job at teaching our own actual measuring system that nobody has an intuition what a pound feels like, what an inch and a foot look like and how to scale those up. So we resort to objects and comparisons instead of actual measurements.
Our measuring system is so shit I rather use hamburgers as a distance than miles.
Ehhhhh… measurements aren’t that hard to learn. They’re still measuring the same kinds of things. All measurements are still arbitrary to a human.
Basically the ONLY thing the metric system has over imperial is it matches our number system by being base-10. I know I know, it’s a BIG difference for a lot of calculations to not have to throw in non-matching unit conversions, and the metric system is ultimately based on absolute values pulled from the universe. At least by definition, as meaningless as that fact is to humans just looking at a length and going, “yup, that’s about 1 1/2 meters.”.
Anyone who failed to build an intuition simply didn’t use units enough. A lot of US carpenters like imperial units for a similar reason most like the metric system: The ratios match up to what they work with. Most people work with base-10 numbers A LOT more than base 8, 12, or 16. Though for woodworkers, when boards come in feet, blades are clean fractions of inches in size, and buildings are sized 8’ tall, etc, etc, it all lines up nicely to reduce a worker’s mental load.
I still think metric is superior, but imperial very much is not “senseless”. The biggest reason we’ll never switch is because so many industries have their ratios set for imperial units or interact with other American construction based on those ratios. Not to mention maintenance on things already built. It’d be a huge headache of a transition for many industries.