R0x0rk1tt3h Central

Making the Metric System Useful by the Dozen – The Meter

[…] Continued from previous page […]

Let’s leave the meter alone, and just change the metric around it. A kilometer becomes almost exactly a mile, and 1/1000th of a mile is almost exactly a yard(check it, X: 1728 yards = .9818 miles)., which has always been very close to a meter. Therefore a third of a meter is about a foot, and is now 40 cm, just like a third of a foot is 4 inches. The equivalent of an inch then is 40 / 10, that is, 4cm. Three inches is 10 cm, four inches is 14cm, six inches is 20cm.

I just arbitrarily decided a kilometer was about a mile, and all these other numbers and equivalencies just fell into place. This is why no one voluntarily switches to the metric system, making measurements and dividing them up was always easier in base R, only the calculations were harder, because dividing things in base X is harder. Now the calculations are easy too.

The new common metric equivalents to imperial measurements, we’ll also go ahead and give the same measurements in base X, as they are now, and pretending the yard = a meter, like we did for base R. Everything outside of the X-Metric columns are assuming base R.

I use fractions sometimes because you’re probably not familiar with their common equivalencies yet, but all the standard metric conversions(that is, just moving the decimal point), still apply.

e.g. 1/3 a meter is ;4 meters, or 40 dm, or 400 cm, etcetera, and vice versa

Think you’d need a law requiring you to switch to the metric system now?