Sunday, November 9, 2008

Lack of terse science and engineering measurements

As many people know, the metric system is great in terms of managing powers of ten and simplified unit conversion. However, it isn't very intuitive. Let me explain: the measurement of a person who is 5'6" is a measurement that nearly everyone can wrap his/her hear around. The reasons are partly cultural and mostly comparative: people tend to be able to compare numbers under 20 readily, and have trouble with any number over 20. As an example, 165 cm is relatively meaningless to most English speakers and is a less intuitive measurement. How tall is 165 cm compared to 185 cm?

In fact, most imperial measurements are more intuitive than the metric system (the rod, mile, and peck being excepted).

As one minor way of making the metric system simpler, we could work with easier names. I realize that this argument does not follow from the above justification, but naming is a key part of the success of any product or system. (iPod vs Sansa).

So for the following measurements, let me suggest some names.

mim - millimeter (simpler name)
duse - 25 millimeters (replacement for the inch)
gounce - 25 grams (replacement for the ounce, almost)
cup - 250 grams (the equivalent of 8 ounces)
sot - 1 1/2 meters (useful for everyday height. My height is 1 sot - 25, my sister is 1 sot - 18)
trisot - 4 1/2 meters (typical roof height)
mistud (mee-stud) - 40 cm (useful for studs in a house which are normally 16" on center)
guy - 30 cm (replacement for the foot, great for wire, or other linear measurements)
square guy - 30 cm2 (replacement for sq ft, great for housing measurements like a room
that is 300 square guy)
clik - kilometer (common military term for distance)
wale - 10 kilometers (simple name for common distances -
3 wales between London and Brentwood
4 wales between East Village and Long Beach -NY)

These are simple suggestions and I would love for us to start using such measurements.

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