snowe , 11 months ago

I’m afraid you missed the point of mine.

no, I didn’t. You still aren’t understanding even what you are saying, much less other people.

standard measurements are based on practical things that people interact with every day

no. no they are not. Let’s look at some ‘standard’ measurements as you call them (they’re actually not standard as you’ll immediately see):

The foot was a common unit of measurement throughout Europe. It often differed in length not only from country to country but from city to city. Because the length of a foot changed between person to person, measurements were not even consistent between two people, often requiring an average. Henry I of England was attributed to passing the law that the foot was to be as long as a person’s own foot.

Great. so we’re off to a perfect start. A foot is… as long as your own foot. ^simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit)^

Next up! Inch!

Oh, well you might say “an inch is just a foot divided by 12”. nope. no it was not (all stuff in this comment is past measurements, because every unit of measurement on the planet uses metric as its base)

The inch was originally defined as 3 barleycorns.

Perfect. What’s a barleycorn’s length?

As modern studies show, the actual length of a kernel of barley varies from as short as 0.16–0.28 in (4–7 mm) to as long as 0.47–0.59 in (12–15 mm) depending on the cultivar

Oh ok, so it could be up to 3x the distance from one barleycorn to another. Perfect. Another ‘standard’

^simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch^ ^en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barleycorn_(unit)^

How about the ‘rod’ or ‘pole’ or ‘perch’ (all the same thing) ^simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(unit)^

In medieval times English ploughmen used a wooden stick with a pointed tip to spur or guide their oxen. The rod was the length of this stick.

Great. So this one I have no visual reference at all. Is this pike length or sword length? (oh you’re all about referencing ‘standard’ objects, but just in case you don’t know a pike can be up to 25 feet long)

Do you see how ridiculous this is? You’re talking about standards that evolved over time from some ‘base’ to mean absolutely nothing today in relation to what they were hundreds of years ago. Metric was also based on ‘standard’ things, like the kilogram, which is just the weight of a litre of water (see, simple). You’re acting like the ‘standards’ of one unit are superior to the ‘standards’ of another unit, except that the unit of measurement you’re saying is superior is completely disconnected from each other. If it wasn’t for standards bodies coming in and saying “a foot is not the length of your foot, it’s exactly this … long” then there would be absolutely no way to convert between any units in imperial measurement.