Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Counting in Dozens

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  • 5 comments
christinaathena

christinaathena

March 12 2008, 02:52:34 UTC 13 years ago

Dozenal is better than decimal, but I don't think it'll ever succeed. There'd be far too much difficulty adjusting, particularly when dealing with very large numbers. Not to mention that there'd be an inevitable period when both systems are in use. You think the confusion from the US using customary and the rest of the world using metric is bad, that would be nothing compared to the difficulty of decimal/dozenal.

Wow

Anonymous

March 12 2008, 04:16:36 UTC 13 years ago

So that's why English uses the base 12. I'd never realized before.

As for the "abominable" metric system, just because it's in the evil base 10, doesn't make it a bad system. The reason techs favor it over the English system isn't because it's in base 10; it's because it's a better system of measurement for science purposes than is the English system. The system is better developed, and all of the translation factors are simple factors of 10 (hey, however abominable it is, it's the one we use every day), which makes it very complete and easy to use). Even measuring simple things like mass in English units is hard (gravity translation, slugs are awkward, and distinguishing between lbm and lbf is a pain). And measuring electric current in English units? Can't be done (well it could, but it'd be really ugly and more trouble than it's worth).
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Wow

ysabetwordsmith

March 12 2008, 04:26:26 UTC 13 years ago

The metric system is useful for some things, mainly because base 10 is convenient in certain ways. But they're right in saying it sucks if you need to use fractions. It also lacks a foot-equivalent, and that's a size of measurement that is really useful. The English system is often better for human-scale activities. Metric is usually better for scientific or theoretical uses.
dianavilliers

Re: Wow

dianavilliers

March 12 2008, 08:59:03 UTC 13 years ago

I'd say rather that the metric system was designed to do physics in, and is not inconvenient for everyday use in a culture that is used to it. It's also very nice to be able to slide from one realm to the other without a change in unit system - eg. from vehicle fuel efficiency in l/100km to petajoules of energy used in transport nationally.

Twelve does have nice divisibility traits. I wonder what the process of introducing it would look like.
daev

daev

March 12 2008, 07:28:44 UTC 13 years ago

Oh, they missed a chance to link to the funkiest, spaciest, catchiest musical introduction to the duodecimal number system, Multiplication Rock's "Little Twelvetoes". (But I won't!)