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How Pirates Thwarted America’s Plan to Go Metric (psnaudus.medium.com)

submitted 1 year ago by CaspianXI@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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In the late 1700s, Thomas Jefferson wanted the United States to adopt a unified system of measurement and saw the metric system as the best solution. However, a pirate attack in the Caribbean disrupted these plans. Joseph Dombey, a French scientist carrying a kilogram and meter stick to demonstrate the metric system, was captured by pirates. By the time France sent another scientist to explain the system to the Americans, Jefferson was no longer in office, and plans to go metric were disregarded.

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[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 1 year ago

Powers of 10 is actually the main problem with the metric system. It makes geometry ugly as sin, and isn't sufficiently granular for convenient use in the kitchen.

Whatever asshole invented us with 10 fingers instead of 12 is begging for my boot in his ass. Geometry is elegant in duodecimal. But because we developed basic arithmetic with 10 fingers, we have to resort to ugly hacks like a sexagesimal unit circle to make geometry compatible with decimal.