> The nice thing about imperial (as well as the customary system used in the US) is that it's based on measurements that people have found useful over thousands of years. They're human units, adapted to what people need to do with them, not the other way around.
US customary is not "thousands" of years; temperature (Fahrenheit) only came out in 1724 for example, and many other units were only standardize much more recently:
Second, even with-in the system itself there was also sorts of inconsistencies. Until just a few years ago there were two "foot" units; one was recently retired:
Here's another one: which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? A pound of feathers. Because feathers use one 'pound-system' [1] and is 453g, while gold uses another pound-system [2] and is 373g. But of course an "ounce" of gold (31g) is more than an "ounce" of feathers (28g), because Troy is 1/12 of pound but Avoirdupois is 1/16. In addition to the above "ounces" there is also "fluid ounces". And let's not forget about the third system [3], which got replaced by… the metric system in 1971.[4]
> Think about it. Imagine you were never taught a measurement system. You find yourself needing to come up with a unit to make measurements for wooden planks you're going to use to build a house. Would you choose a unit as long as a meter? Or one as short as a centimeter or even a decimeter?
Millimeters. That single unit gets you down to very small scales (finer than 1/16") and to large lengths: four significant digits (9999mm) gets you to the equivalent of >32' (~11yd).
US customary is not "thousands" of years; temperature (Fahrenheit) only came out in 1724 for example, and many other units were only standardize much more recently:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_measurement#History...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_of_units_of_measurement...
Second, even with-in the system itself there was also sorts of inconsistencies. Until just a few years ago there were two "foot" units; one was recently retired:
* https://www.nist.gov/pml/us-surveyfoot
Here's another one: which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? A pound of feathers. Because feathers use one 'pound-system' [1] and is 453g, while gold uses another pound-system [2] and is 373g. But of course an "ounce" of gold (31g) is more than an "ounce" of feathers (28g), because Troy is 1/12 of pound but Avoirdupois is 1/16. In addition to the above "ounces" there is also "fluid ounces". And let's not forget about the third system [3], which got replaced by… the metric system in 1971.[4]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoirdupois
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecaries'_system
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pharmacopeia
Also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(force)
> Think about it. Imagine you were never taught a measurement system. You find yourself needing to come up with a unit to make measurements for wooden planks you're going to use to build a house. Would you choose a unit as long as a meter? Or one as short as a centimeter or even a decimeter?
Millimeters. That single unit gets you down to very small scales (finer than 1/16") and to large lengths: four significant digits (9999mm) gets you to the equivalent of >32' (~11yd).
* https://web.archive.org/web/20200516223819/https://themetric...
As evidence for this Australia/NZ/EU do everything in millimetres in construction.