• ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Flounces are the best part of US Customary units. It’s all base 2/8/16, which is a hell of a lot more sensible than base 10 units.

    • radix@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      You’re serious? Why? I’ve genuinely never heard this stance before.

      Is it because they’re powers of two and are therefore easier to halve, quarter, etc. for baking and cooking purposes?

      • joel_feila@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah this is why most old measurement systems used 4 8 12. 4 fingers to a palm, you don’t count the thumb as a finger. Then 4 palms to arm, for a total of 16 fingers. At 12 arms into a bigger unit so you can count the joints on your hand

        • radix@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I can’t tell if you’re kidding. How do you keep track of four palms per arm?

          • joel_feila@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            That actually how the Egyptians made their cubits. Tuck your Thumb under you hand and place all four finger at your elbow. You have about 4 palms before you get to your wrist.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe before we had the scientific ability it measure micro-measurements. It makes no sense today.

    • Bluetreefrog@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s all base 2/8/16, which is a hell of a lot more sensible than base 10 units.

      Debatable. I probably shouldn’t restart the whole imperial vs metric debate, but I might just say that people who grow up with metric think exactly the opposite.

      • Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ll convert to metric once we convert to a dozenal number system. Ten is a terrible number to base our counting system on.

        • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Imperial sucks, and metric is better, but still +1 for dozenal. Anybody who isn’t for it is either confused about the very concept of different bases (I’ve talked to plenty of those), or biased.

          I don’t know why you dozenal advocates are being downvoted.

        • Bluetreefrog@lemmy.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Ten is a terrible number to base our counting system on.

          Maybe when you are counting apples, but not when you are dealing with arbitrary amounts. Why else is our number system base 10?