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I came across a site from a slashdot article which expounds the idea that the imperial system is far superior to the metric system, and that using the metric system meant giving up freedom. Obviously the imperial system is more useful and
logical. It’s clearly more easy to use and is infallible.

Not. Know your imperial units? Here’s a rundown on measuring distance.

There are many riddles when it comes to imperial units of measurements. Wtf is a bushel of something? How many quarts are in a gallon? And how many ounces are in a pound? Why 12 inches in a foot? And why are there 7920 inches in a furlong?

A furlong you say?

1 furlong = 10 chains

1 chain = 4 poles

1 pole = 5.5 yards

1 yard = 3 feet

1 foot = 1 and 17/33 links (WTF?!?!?!)

1 link = 7 and 23/25 inches (WTF?!?!?!?)

1 inch = sources are disputed, but apparently an inch is the measure of an average man’s thumb, or 3 barleycorn, or 1/12th of a yard (which is the distance between King Henry 1st’s thumb and nose when his arm is stretched out).

Obviously, the base 10 standard for the metric system is flawed and it makes complete rational sense to use the imperial system. Especially in scientific settings. This will allow NASA to once again send a space probe worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the wrong direction because of poor unit conversions.

The people who created this website seem to think so, check it out for a laugh.

http://www.freedom2measure.org/

Extra hilarity for the part where they write that the metric system is sexist… whereas the imperial system isn’t:

“Sexist

The metric system has been almost wholly created and standardized by male scientists and bureaucrats. At the time, during which women were considerably less liberated than today, woman had virtually no say in the creation and, in many countries, the imposition of these units. Perhaps, if they had, the value of the practical units used in those tasks undertaken by woman at the time would have been recognized.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2007 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.