Metric system

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There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on Wikipedia about Metric system

The metric system uses measures that are all synchronized,^[1] and are used in a decimal fashion for smaller and larger measurements, using standard prefixes to indicate orders of magnitude. This makes the system incredibly easy to work in. It has been almost universally adopted for use around the world, and is the only system of measurement used in scientific work.

The system shares most of its measurements with the "Standard International system", abbreviated "SI", which are the specific units used in science.

[edit] Clinging medievalism

However, in the United States, there has been tremendous resistance to its adoption, for two reasons - (1) it was (apparently) invented by the French, and all good American citizens know they're not to be trusted, and (2) all those awful complicated headachy conversion thingies. In spite of this, everyone in the U.S. is quite comfortable with two liter bottles of carbonated sweetened beverages and 9 mm bullets. And every alcoholic knows perfectly well that 750 ml is the same as a "fifth". ^[2]

[edit] Awesome simplicity

As these examples show, the metric system is a far clearer way of expressing simple truths:

• I'd walk 1.6 km for a Camel.
• (Sings): "2.54 centimeter worm,2.54 centimeter worm, measuring the marigold..."
• I'd walk 1,609,344 km
  For one of your smiles
• A stitch in time saves nine (wtf?!)
• 28.35 g of prevention is worth .45 kg of cure
• 0.454 l is 0.454 kg the world around (Er, well actually only in the USA)
• That British money is soooo confusing (they decimalized in 1969, kids)
• Give them 2.54 cm and they'll take 0.9144 meters!
• "96,000 km Under the Sea" by Jules Verne
• How many teaspoons in a cup, again?
• "Many multiples of 1.6 km to go before I sleep"
• "A fer piece thataways" and "you can't git thar from heah" both retain the exact same meaning.
• The longest word in the English language is smiles, because there is 1.609 km between the first and last letters

[edit] Metric time

Ironically, if decimal time was also adopted (10 hours/day, 100 minutes/hour and 100 seconds/minute), the "new second" would be within 10% of the "old second". So counting off would translate to "one nine hundred, two nine hundred, three nine hundred, ...". See how easy this is?

[edit] Problems caused by having two systems

In 1999, confusion within NASA about the use of metric and SAE units resulted in the loss of a 125 million dollar Martian space probe. ^[3]

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ Their units relate directly to each other, ie, 1 cubic centimeter = 1 milliliter, and one liter of water (at STP) weighs one kilogram.
2. ↑ The metric system has, however, found wide use among entrepreneurs in America's inner cities.
3. ↑ Metric muddle crashed rocket.