Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins
Yes, imperial measurements are closer to how nature works.
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Whoa Nelly I've got to stop you there. There ain't nothing "natural" about a yard or a nautical mile. Calling factors of primes more sensible than base-10 is a non-starter. A well distributed basis that's hard to work with is no better than an uninsightful basis that's easy to work with.
There's a subtle but important distinction between the Imperial and Metric systems when it comes to units. Feet and yards and miles and inches are four distinct different units of measuring distance while metric only has the meter. Picometer, kilometer, centimeter, etc are not actually different units of measure but simply modifiers. To have many different units for the same measure is dumb, Metric doesn't do this.
As for extolling the virtues of 1/16ths of an inch... that's not a property owned by Imperial, just commonly used with it. Fractions are not part of the measurement system. I can use 1/32nd of a meter just as easily as I can use 1/32nd of a yard.
The only reason people use knots anymore is due to how ostensibly stubborn the world is such that there are conventions that the metric system wouldn't bother tackling like 60 seconds per minute or 360 degrees in a circle. Radians are the natural unit of angular measure in a Euclidean universe, no matter what base your numbering system. Oh, 1/3600th of the circumference of the Earth... that's reasonable and not arbitrary.