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David Cameron Says Brits Should Be Taught Imperial Measures
00_NOP writes: Children in the U.K. have been taught in metric measures in school since (at least) 1972, but yesterday British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that they should actually be taught in Imperial measures (which are still in use officially to measure road distances and speeds, but not really anywhere else). Is this because he hasn't a clue about science or because he is catering to a particular political base?
Why should people change? I'm English and we happily use metric for any financial transactions or scientific purposes but the Imperial system is more human friendly for things that matter. It developed over the centuries because its scales fit their purpose rather than being dictated by irrelevant physical phenomenom.
A tall person is over 6 foot. that has a nice ring to it. 1.8 metres is not human friendly. A foot is about the size of an adult foot, it makes sense.
We still use stones for weight. You end up at a nice number. 10 stones is a slim man, 15 stones is a porky man, 20 stones is a fatso. The equivalent range in Kg goes from around 60 to 120. We don't normally use numbers that high in every day life.
Time is still an imperial system, we just don't think of it that way. The French tried to metricise that too but it was crap. Using 60 minutes and 24 hours makes sense as they divide nicely into quarters and thirds unlike 10.
Also, our language, literature and petry is full of imperial words. We would lose a vital link with the past if we abandoned their use.
Metric has its place, but using it everywhere makes no sense.