• somethingDotExe@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Never got this. I saw one fucking dumb american actually defend the rrtarded system by saying “It’s actually more precise” - what a fucking stupid thing to say, when you don’t even have a smaller unit than freaking Inches. Atleast we have mm. You guys use 1\4 Inch. Wtf is that??

    • Eh-I@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      It’s a fraction. So like if you had one apple to split between four people then we would all get one quarter of a whole apple.

      1 apple per 4 people = 1 per 4 = 1/4 = 0.25

      I don’t know that I would say that fractions are more or less precise than decimal.

    • So that guy was an idiot, but you’re wrong about the smaller units.

      Fractionals commonly go all the way down to the 32nd. If you need to be even more precise than that we have the thou, which is defined as 1/1000 of an inch or 0.0254mm.

    • Soggy@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Fractions are pretty good for quick ratios, which is why it’s popular in carpentry, but I’d never call it “more precise” than decimal numbers. Anything that needs tighter tolerances than 1/16" is probably going to use metric measurements.

      I will say that for most people it doesn’t impact their life either way. If the Imperial system (or the modern American system based on it) were truly inferior they would have been replaced but it’s mostly an issue in laboratories and engineering.

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          I fully forgot about thousandths even though I see them all the time as “mils”. Definitely metric but worse.

    • Billegh@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      The only argument they have is for temperature, because they’re afraid of decimal points.