How many kilos of fat doth the br. courts and politicians have between their ears? Methinks a pound or two. Sad. The fr. system is decimal sort, of. It matches sort of. Equally arbitrary, as all systems are, it matches no common measure, or practice. This is called the pseudo-science of the pretentious. The "systeme internationale", or metric, pretends to some kind of greater "accuracy" and usability. Nose in the air, the metricist will have you believe that if he divides a rule, it measures finer, than if some rank br. ormodon, divides it his way. It reminds one of the Hooynyms and Brobdignagians, each opening their eggs at the opposite ends, and claiming evident superiority (from Gulliver's travels.) And the metricist will tell you his unit of energy would be a watt, first suggested of James Watt in a decidedly imperial system.
In one my engineering courses a question was asked that if one was parachuted into the Amazon without one's scale weights, could one setup a measurement system with river pebbles and would it be as accurate or precise and if one did that what would one have to do to relate it to any other system? It was from a chemistry text, and methinks there was a way to relate the measurement to some ratio of chemical combinatorial weights so one did not have to haul back ones stones to compare with the stones of the realm. I would haul the stones back and compare them to standard weights.) The object was to show that one measurement system is as good or finely divided or as accurate as another, and all else is prejudice. Cubits or varas or inches or drams will do.
The logic of divisors of a decimal kind breaks down as soon as fractional measurement of the real world is needed. parts of a millimeter must be 10ths? Why not 13ths, if that is what they are? Decimal fractions are no more accurate than any other, and no more convenient. In the real everday world binary systems of volume and weight measurement are probably quicker, more accurately scaled and more accurate. That would be the English sysem that, is binary from the spoon to the firkin to the pipe. Evolved systems are always handier.
But psuedo science of suits wins out.
A measurement system is a standard of comparison. Its unitary divisions can be also systematized to give the greatest practical use. That is why carpenters and architects measure in fractions (greatest number of even divisors of a unit.) and why a foot has 12 inches, a yard thirty six. (duodecimal has greatest number of divisors of the decimal number system). So the imperial system works out more exact more often in common everyday household measurement. The English measurement of volume was binary, 2 gills to a cup, 2 cups, a pint, 2 pints a quart, 4 quarts a gallon, 2 gallons - one peck, 4 pecks to one bushel -- so that new quantities could be made accurately and quickly with only one or two measurement devices.
Jack and Jill from the nursery rhyme are the two ounce and 4 ounce measure. The rhyme refers to Charles II reducing the "Jack" or two ounce measure in order to get more tax. The gill or "Jill" (4 ounce measure) which was related, "came tumbling after" or had to be reduced too.
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Moral of the story is don't let governments fool with your measurements, they are after your money.
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