One should point out to Jake (does this go to him?) that the second is a metric (SI) unit. minutes, days, etc. are not but... All these exchanges have sort of struck me as silly recently. With a 95% world majority our side has already won. People who argue against the world standard because of the alleged inconvenience of factoring 10, or whatever, are just a bunch of Canutes telling the tide to stay out. Scott C > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of kilopascal > Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 1:29 PM > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:8527] FW: Time vs. mass, volume, etc. [Yahoo! Clubs: > Metric America] > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: danb_83 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, 2000-10-13 01:12 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Time vs. mass, volume, etc. [Yahoo! Clubs: Metric America] > > > Jake, you seem to have a different definition of "metric" than I do. The > real advantage of metric units is not that they are based on 10 > (that helps > calculations a lot, of course, but is by no means essential) but they are > the same in every country and their sizes never depend on what is being > measured. > > Our system of time, although nondecimal, lacks the ambiguity of the > so-called "standard" units. Every nation in the world long ago agreed that > "minute" means 60 seconds, "hour" means 60 minutes, and "day" means 24 > hours. Since there is never any confusion over the units of time, > the "If it > ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality can safely be applied. Although > decimalized time might make a few calculations easier, the benefit is far > too small to justify replacing every clock in the world. And it still > wouldn't do anything to simplify the 365.2425 days in a year. > > On the other hand, Olde English measurement units are much more ambiguous. > For example, an "ounce" could be 28.4 g, 31.1 g, 28.4 mL, or 29.6 mL. > "Barrel" and "ton" also have multiple definitions. Now, can you > honestly say > that this doesn't cause confusion? > > --------------------------------------------- > DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE BY EMAIL! > --------------------------------------------- > You have chosen to receive messages from "Metric America" by email. > > Reply to this message: > http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica/bbsfrp?action=r&tid=met ricamerica &sid=12177109&mid=811 Unsubscribe from the Club mailing list: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica/config/change_mb_list Return to "Metric America": http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/metricamerica ---------------------------------------------- Not a member? Remove yourself from this list: http://edit.clubs.yahoo.com/config/unsubscribe_mb_list?.userID=millitesla&.g roupID=metricamerica&.groupType=&.code=kqkKEmys7C
