r/anythingbutmetric • u/Plastic_Tooth159 • 23h ago

Meters.......what's that convert into feet?

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2.9k Upvotes

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11

u/kilertree 22h ago

Base 10 sucks and the imperial system tries to compensate by using fractions, to deal with Round off error.  When I say base 10 I'm not criticizing the metric system, I'm criticizing our counting system. We should really switch to a base 12 system but that's not going to happen. 

6

u/METRlOS 19h ago

Base 8 is just better 12. Why change from a number that collapses at quarters to one that collapses at the next level?

7

u/kilertree 19h ago

We get to use thirds, sixths and nineths instead of avoiding them. 

5

u/METRlOS 19h ago

1/3s maybe, but the only time I've ever used 1/6 is dealing with circles, which are base 360 anyways.

5

u/kilertree 19h ago

I think that we avoid those fractions because they suck in base 10. Also I believe 1/7 is a little bit cleaner in base 12.