This article is about my bizarre obsession: units of measurement.
Although the contents of this article may give the impression I am in favor of the Imperial system, I assure readers that is not the case. Until fairly recently, I was in favor of the metric system, seeing as I grew up with it. I’ve never really used Imperial units at all.
However, I believe the metric system has flaws the Imperial system does not. Those are detailed later. Most significantly, I believe unless you’re a ‘science man’ you won’t generally benefit from relying on the metric system…and in some cases, I’d argue it would be less helpful.
The first half of this article details a suggestion I have for an alternative system, or systems, of measurement. The second half focuses specifically on the metric system, and the flaws I perceive in it.
The system is built around different ‘layers,’ where each one is intended for different purposes. While there are three layers explained here, each would likely be split further to deal with different occupations and the like. However, these layers would be the ‘primary’ ones:
I believe this is the most reasonable way to deal with units of measurements.
It should be noted that the units I use as examples wouldn’t necessarily be the ones used in a real version of this ‘system.’
This lists a number of units as examples. The units for the ‘scientific’ layer won’t be listed as they’re just the metric ones.
The local units are vaguely based on the aforementioned Japanese units, but I redefine some. I’ll explain those when they come along.
The specialty units are essentially just ones I find neat, nothing deeper there. I have a strange obsession with some of them.
I use the converters here to help define the units. The converter also includes a link to an explanation of those units, if you’re interested.
Sun, Bu and Jō are redefined to make division easier, as multiples of 6 are very easy to divide, compared to multiples of 10.
From smallest to biggest:
I don’t know whether the rest should be left as-is or whether they should be redefined, so I’ll only leave these two. The Shaku (勺) is a bit of a confusing one in particular.
There aren’t any specific units of velocity, besides specialty units, so I’ve come up with one of my own.
I haven’t come up with any specific ones for now.
I can’t figure out how to deal with this just yet…so let’s not split them into local and specialty.
Despite how it’s usually described, there isn’t just one metric system.
The system can split into two ‘groups,’ the first being the SI system, the second being all the regional varieties of the metric system. While all the regional varieties do still rely on the same general set of units and metric-derived units, the common folk typically just stick to a limited subset. This does cause confusion, even if it is a limited amount.
Listed below are a few arguments is a single argument against the metric systems. I may add more in the future, maybe even counter examples.
I will reiterate that I don’t like the Imperial System either. But it should be noted that the metric system being better than the imperial system doesn’t make the metric system ‘good’.
The metric system isn’t as comfortably divisible as possible. To demonstrate this, let’s say there are 1800 yards in a mile, then we compare the divisions of the mile to the divisions of the kilometer. The actual lengths of these units in the real world don’t matter.
For those who think a system like this wouldn’t make much sense, you should remember that this is how we deal with time.
I remembered one other anti-metric argument that I’ll detail at some point in the future, be excited!
The example I’ll use once I bother to write this bit will concern the ℓ.
I remembered another one! However, this one is much weaker than the other two.