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Derek Ross (talk | contribs) yard or metre? I can't tell the difference without a measuring tape. |
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*A base-12 measuring system is superior to a base-10 system, as 12 has many more factors than 10. The American system of liquid measurement is actually base-2 (a gallon is 64 fluid ounces), which has other advantages.
*Because one degree Fahrenheit is smaller than one degree Centigrade, degrees Fahrenheit are more accurate. (In practice, meteorologists and other scientists who are concerned about precise temperature often report temperatures in tenths or hundredths of a degree, in either system. For example, the human body temperature, as expressed in Fahrenheit, always uses a decimal value.)
*Supporters of American units consider them to have a more human scale than metric ones. (This is highly subjective, especially when one is arguing for miles and quarts instead of kilometers and liters. Still, the yard was originally defined as the length of some dead king's arm. The meter's original definition was 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator on a meridian through Paris, France, based upon an inexact measure of the circumference of the Earth. Which one is a more human scale? Given that the two lengths are within 10% of each other, it's your call.)
*The naming system of the metric system is systematic but repetitive. Humans find words that are distinct easier to store. The metric system does not lend itself to this. (This ignores the extra information that users of most traditional systems have to learn; multipliers of 4, 5.5, 12, 14, 16, 20, 200, 220, 1760, etc. Still, it is a lot easier to divide 12 by 3 than 10, which is why metric boards come in 120-centimeter lengths, not 100.)
*Different countries using metric units show preferences for different, often non-SI units. For example, in France, agricultural production is often measured not in kilograms, or grams, but in "qx" - metric [[quintal]]s (100 kg). In this, American traditional units, standardized by international agreement in 1959, are more stable than metric units. (Again, this claim ignores the existence of troy ounces and pounds, the two slightly different [[mile]]s used in the US, and the difference between U.S. and imperial units of the same name. The quintal is no longer legal in France. Furthermore, the existance of units such as quintal, and the "metric pound" of 500 grams (non-legal, but commonly used in France and Germany for example; a U.S. pound is 453 grams) can be taken to show that the metric system allows local flexibility, while retaining ease of conversion.)
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