From: W Izzy (pepeguama_at_gamebox.net)
Date: Sat May 01 2004 - 08:46:55 PDT
Rather automatic in another sense is to say that 10 of these make the next
one (as in the metric AND international systems happen) and 1/10h of that
make the previous... Too abstract given the fact that you have 10
fingers....neat uh?
Maybe is more "automatic" to use metric when you're sending a little ship to
the next planet or counting the beats in a radioactive device just to make
sure it wont blow your lab and surroundings up. In fact you wouldn't use
1/2048th of an inch to measure the wavelength.....I hope..
on 4/29/04 11:01 PM, Robert Benschop at rbenschop_at_telebyte.nl wrote:
The mixed measuring system that it represents comes out of real life, using
"real" things as their basis (thumb, foot, etc.) and are hence, rather
automatic, in a sense.
Metric comes from a lab and is too abstract for practical life.
Plus, its whole method forces one to either measure in mm, or cm or m or
(strangely enough, straight to km--when was the last time you ever heard
somebody say that something was 3 dkm long?) I like the mixed measurement
system which is only as precise as you need it to be, dividing down by
halves.. Very intuitive once you get the hang of it.
Sorry, just had to unload on that...
-- -Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net> -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu May 06 2004 - 13:39:32 PDT