Quote from: creighto on March 08, 2011, 06:46:55 AM

Quote from: Neereus on March 08, 2011, 05:55:49 AM

Quote from: creighto on March 08, 2011, 05:20:53 AM

Quote from: The Script on March 08, 2011, 03:07:12 AM

Just use the wonderful metric system and stop worrying about this subject.

I don't think most people will have a probably with mBTC, uBTC, etc.

Metric sucks, and would fail without explicit government advocacy and support. Case in point, most Americans grew up learning American Standard (very close to Imperial, but not quite) because all the adults used it, and also learned Metric in school, because the government wanted people to use it. Most everyone, if they have a choice, prefer American Standard in regards to the kinds of useful metrics lay people use; i.e. miles for traveling distances, feet/yards for sight distances, and inches and fractions of inches for fine distances. The fact that an adult can convert traveling distances (km) into sight distances (meters) in their head is generally a useless feature, because people rarely have any reason to do so.

American here, confirming Metric does not suck, and is in fact superior to that of the American Standard.

Neerus sucks, too.

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And I would like to see where you got your information on "Most everyone, if they have a choice, prefer American Standard".

Look around you. Unless you are an engineer or some kind of scientist, the majority of people who are around you at this very moment have been educated in both systems, and continue to choose American Standard for daily functions. They can do so because they are free to do so. Their local, state and federal governments have to deal in whatever metric that the pubic insists on using.

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Also, the fact that every other country in the world has adopted the Metric System seems to contradict that statement.

Edit: Ok, most counties have. Myanmar and Liberia appear to be exceptions.

I hope you realize this is not an argument in favor of the free choice of the Metric Standard, since in most (if not every) cases, the public must deal in Metric because either their governments refuse to deal in any other system, Metric is the only system of measurements taught to children, or more likely both. I can understand how Metric was better in Europe than the differing standards that were similar to Imperial, but different than the nation-state next door. But that is not the case in the US, as we have been using the same standard across a land and culture vastly more intertwined than anything Europe could replicate before the European Union, but the Metric Standard was a great leap forward for interoperability and clear communications. Not because it was a base 10 standard, but simply because it was a cross-border standard. As far as consistency, American Standard is broken. But it's never really been about consistency, but utility. And for Americans, being the only significant population taught two different standards of measurements, the utility remains decidedly on the side of the American Standard. Brokenness aside, American Standard is mostly a base 2 (or base 4) standard based on fractions, which is easier for lay people (and particularly those who are math illiterate) to understand intuitively. For example; Gallon (1/1), Half-Gallon (1/2). Quart (1/4), Pint (1/8), Cup (1/16), Gill (half-cup, 1/32). Beyond either end of the range of that example, things get broken, but this range alone covers most of the useful range (utility) for everyday measurements of liquid volume. We do the same thing to all other units less explicitly, but we do it. Half-mile, Quarter-mile, half-inch, quarter-inch, half-pound, ounce (1/16th), dram (1/256th lb), etc. The greatest advantage Metric had that led to it's adoption in Europe, and most of the former colonies of Europe, was it's cross border interoperability. Metric did not have an advantage over American Standard in this regard, so it has never gain common usage outside of professional fields. The fact that Metric doesn't dominate in a large society free to choose it is evidence that it was not superior enough for a free public to choose it over what they already used.

The fact you have to use a personal attack shows you obviously can't back up what you say. You have nothing but opinions and logical fallacies.
Show me proof of what you claim instead of just assuming you know what every one in the world thinks and feels.

Neereus

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