As a European who grew up using only metric I like inches for crafting. It’s a good scale for the things I craft and I prefer fractions over decimals when doing quick math or measurements.
But that doesn’t mean metric shouldn’t be the standard.
There’s nothing nice or consistent about those fractions. A third of one is one of the other, but a third of that is four of the other? Imperial units don’t convert in any meaningful or logical way, you have to memorise the conversions. With the metric system, it’s all tens.
And the fact that there are no usable units smaller than an inch and you have to use fractions should drive any craftsperson up the wall.
I agree there’s nothing consistent, but having 3 as a factor in ratios does make things nicer - it lets you stick with integer numbers for more things. I’m not saying it’s better than metric, but I do think having more small factors in ratios is nicer than having only the factors 5 and 2.
I too think having factors of 3 and 4 would be neat, which just proves we should change our number system to base 12, as somebody else in the thread suggested 😊.
The fractions don’t help me when I go to the grocery store and unit price of one bag of nuts is “per pound” and the unit price of another is “per ounce”. You’d better be good at dividing by 16 in your head if you want to price-compare! And you’d better be good at remembering how many fluid ounces are in a quart when you go to the olive oil aisle (hint: it’s not 16).
Fuck I wish imperial would just disappear. Metric is 100% better in every single way, bar none.
As a European who grew up using only metric I like inches for crafting. It’s a good scale for the things I craft and I prefer fractions over decimals when doing quick math or measurements.
But that doesn’t mean metric shouldn’t be the standard.
I think we should all switch to base twelve and then measure everything in dozenal metric. All problems solved.
Edit: TGM by the Dozenal Society of Great Britain
Base-60 ftw.
I’m all for it if you can manage to make people learn 60 digits <3
Above link stopped working for me so here’s another: http://www.dozenalsociety.org.uk/apps/tgm.htm
Imperial unit ratios tend to have a greater number of smaller factors, which makes fractions nicer. 1yd/3 = 1ft. 1ft/3 = 4in.
There’s nothing nice or consistent about those fractions. A third of one is one of the other, but a third of that is four of the other? Imperial units don’t convert in any meaningful or logical way, you have to memorise the conversions. With the metric system, it’s all tens.
And the fact that there are no usable units smaller than an inch and you have to use fractions should drive any craftsperson up the wall.
I agree there’s nothing consistent, but having 3 as a factor in ratios does make things nicer - it lets you stick with integer numbers for more things. I’m not saying it’s better than metric, but I do think having more small factors in ratios is nicer than having only the factors 5 and 2.
I too think having factors of 3 and 4 would be neat, which just proves we should change our number system to base 12, as somebody else in the thread suggested 😊.
The fractions don’t help me when I go to the grocery store and unit price of one bag of nuts is “per pound” and the unit price of another is “per ounce”. You’d better be good at dividing by 16 in your head if you want to price-compare! And you’d better be good at remembering how many fluid ounces are in a quart when you go to the olive oil aisle (hint: it’s not 16).