AutoCAD Civil 3D
eau contraire. What advantages ares built into the imperial measurement system?
1. Divisibility. We use a dozen (inches, for example) instead of ten because of its divisibility. 1/3 is an exact measure in the fractional world, but not in the decimal. (.3333333333 ad infinitum)
2. A foot equals the size of a human foot and a yard is a step. What's a meter in human terms? (( One meter is the distance traveled by a ray of electromagnetic (EM) energy through a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 (3.33564095 x 10-9) of a second. The meter was originally defined as one ten-millionth (0.0000001 or 10-7) of the distance, as measured over the earth's surface in a great circle passing through Paris, France, from the geographic north pole to the equator.)) That's definitely simpler than a foot and a yard.
The only advantage metric has is that it's easier to calculate because it's base-10. So what, I never saw a baker offer donuts in tens. Mothers of three, four or six wouldn't stand for it.
Plus, who wouldn't prefer to walk ten miles rather than 16 kilometers. I mean, sixteen, that's such a big number.
An engineer a physicist and mathematician were on a camping trip. They went to sleep and a short while later an ember from the camp fire jumped and set the tent on fire.
The engineer wakes up to see a fire has started. He does a quick back-of- the envelope calculation adds 5% contingency, gets the water and extinguishes the fire. Then returns to sleep.
A short time later the physicist wakes up to another fire and calculates to within one standard deviation how much water would be required to extinguish the flames. He gets the the water, douses the fire and goes back to sleep.
The mathematician is then awoken by the smell of smoke! He then proceeds to develop a derivation and computes to PI exactly how much water would be required to put out the fire....................He was so pleased with his calculation that he patted himself on the back and went back to sleep
1. How often do you need to divide things in three? Honestly?
Ok, do one for me quickly in your head: what's a third of a mile in feet? or in inches?
Third of a kilometer? 333.333m, or 333333mm. Exact, no. But close enough to make no difference. And easily done in the head.
If dividing by 12 is such an advantage why do engineers (in imperial countries) use decimal feet?
2. Is your foot a foot long? Mine certainly isn't, and I don't walk in yards either. Not tall enough, sorry. All measurement systems are arbrtrary originally, but you have to start somewhere. I believe the definition of a metre has been uptaded from what you said to so many wavelenths of a certain band of light from whatever gas, but it doesn't matter. What's the actual scientific definition of a foot? Any idea? A foot is equal to 0.3048 metres. That's it. So the imperial system depends on the metric for its acuracy, and gets updated any time that the metric one does.
So I go shopping and I see a microwave volume in cubic feet, but the picnic cooler is in quarts. How many quarts is 0.6 of a cubic foot? Quickly, in your head. That divisible by three thing should really speed you up!
If the original number was quoted in metric? 0.017 of a cubic metre is 17 litres. Or if it were something bigger, say 0.6 of a cubic metre would be 600 litres. So the advantage of the metric system is not only the divisible by 10 though that is very useful. But also that the units for area and volume are logically based on the units for distance. The unit for mass is also based on the unit for distance, through the substance water. Therefore a mililitre of water weighs a gram, a litre of water weighs a kilogram and a cubic metre of water weighs a tonne. This is incredibly useful when the relative densities (or in American 'specific gravity') of substances are quoted. Gravel is 2.4 RD (SG)? Then a cubic metre of it will weigh in at 2.4 t.
You can't get away from the metric system. I already said that the foot is defined by it. But do you ever hear of Amps or Volts? How are they defined? An electrical current of one Amp at a potential difference of one Volt has one Watt of power. If it runs for one second, it converts one Jouel of energy. What is a Joule? It is the energy required to give a mass of one kilogram an accelaration of one metre per second per second. If you use Ohms or Coulombs you are also in metric.
The original question was not about how to do the conversion, but how to display it, and you gave a good answer. But I have to think: if I needed to convert from cubic metres to hectare metres, all I have to do is divide by 10,000, or multiply by 0.0001. But mothers wouldn't stand for it, of course.
By the way, was "eau contraire" a reference to the contrariness of measuring water volumes in imperial, or did you mean to say "au contraire"?
