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Units of Measurement

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Bernard C:
I notice that everyone seems to have ignored my point about careful use of imperial measures conveying accuracy of measurement as well as quantity, something that the metric system has completely lost.   The artificial metric system is the one which is archaic and inefficient, whereas the imperial system has evolved to near perfection, or, at least, maximum efficiency.    The only two reasons that imperial is thought to be difficult today are that it is not taught at our schools, and that calculators are not designed for it.

Bernard C.  8)

taylog1:

--- Quote ---Also I notice that everyone seems to have ignored my point about careful use of imperial measures conveying accuracy of measurement as well as quantity, something that the metric system has completely lost.
--- End quote ---


I sort of agree with what you're saying here, however I don't think it's quite that bad.

I would suggest that a fair number of people, when they read 1.25 cm, would understand it to mean  1 1/4 cm, rather than rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a mm.

If you take 2" - 5cm as an example, then you've got 24 different imperial described distances using 1/12" as the smallest measure, and 20 different metric described distances using 0.25cm as the smallest measure.

OK, you could use 1/16" which would give you more - my point is that metric's not as bad as it first appears for measuring distance.

[having said that, I find myself using C for low temperatures, and F for warm temperatures, so I'd agree that measures can feel more naturally suited to certain tasks]

taylog1

Glen:
To Adam - huge thanks for your input on the barrel measurements at Sowerby's. Fascinating information. I don't know if Fenton gave their barrels specific size references, but I do know what they were able to pack inside their standard barrel.

Any one of these below....

 ~~~ 6 full water sets
 ~~~ 4 full punch sets
 ~~~ 48 regular size compotes
 ~~~ 72 standard vases
 ~~~ 90 mixed items (including bowls, compotes, vases, bonbons)

Glen

Frank:
Another aspect of the imperial system that has not been mentioned but is highly relevant is that it was also manipulated politically for financial advantage and from country to country there are variations in how the different units are defined. One that is dangerous in the antiques trade are the unscrupluous who would give rare metal weights in avoirdpois when the tradition was troy weight. I always carried spring balances in both systems so that I could prove the case on those early morning stalls at Bermondsey.

Connie:
I was introduced the metric system in high school as a novelty.  In college, it was used some some science classes.

But I still think in Imperial measurements.  When posters here use metric measurements, I just skim past them because they mean nothing tome. If I am really interested in the item, I have to do a conversion since I just do not think in metric.

I am involved in international trade and almost all goods imported into the US are dual labeled.

I have a 13 y/o daughter and I know that while she has been taught metric in school, it is not the primary system used and she also thinks in inches, yards, Farenheit and gallons.

If you are marketing glass to the US remember that the baby boomers are the group with the highest buying power at this time in the antique/collectibles market and I can almost guarantee that few think in metric.

JMHO  8)

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