Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Well 1000 metres = 1 km; 1760 yards = 1 mile. Which system makes most sense? Same for other metric/imperial comparisons. Metric is easier.
Being an old fuddy I still prefer miles for distance, but it will change at some point as it's archaic. The only reason we didn't go over to km is that we couldn't afford to change all the road signs !
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Unless you’re needing to do calculations, the awkward subdivision of imperial units isn’t really an issue. The issue is whether or not you have a feel for how far something is. When I’m behind the wheel in a moving car, I have a sense of speed I’d instinctively relate in miles per hour. I have a sense of when I’ve driven about a mile. That’s not something anyone’s learned in a classroom for around 50 years now, but as it’s the way our roads are still marked up, we all learn it by experience when we start driving.
Conversely, while you’re taught metric in school, you’re never given any experience of using it at scale. You trot round the playground with a metre wheel, other than that it’s whatever you can measure with a 30cm ruler or calculate on a piece of paper. You only really get the chance to think in metric distances if you do map and compass work, and not even just on the desktop, but actually getting out in the wild. I think in miles in my car, but I think in km when I go out walking because that’s what I learned at the outward bound school.