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u/FreddieThePebble

▲ 16 r/Metric

Every reason i like the metric system

It goes up in 10s

The metric system goes up in values of 10s each time opposed to the imperial system that seems to be random.

Metric:

Name Meters
1 terameter 1000000000000 meters
1 gigameter 1000000000 meters
1 megameter 1000000 meters
1 kilometer 1000 meters
1 hectometer 100 meters
1 decameter 10 meters
1 meter 1 meter
1 decimeter 0.1 meters
1 centimeter 0.01 meters
1 millimeter 0.001 meters
1 micrometer 0.000001 meters
1 nanometer 0.000000001 meters
1 picometer 0.000000000001 meters

Imperial:

Name Feet
1 twip 5.7874e-5 foot
1 thou 8,33333e-5 foot
1 barleycorn 0,0277778 foot
1 inch 0,0833333 foot
1 hand 0,333333 foot
1 foot 1 foot
1 yard 3 foot
1 chain 66 foot
1 furlong 660.001 foot
1 mile 5280 foot
1 league 15840 foot
1 fathom 6 foot
1 cable 608 foot
1 nautical mile 6076,12 foot
1 link 0,659449 foot
1 rod 16.5 foot

Naming

The metric system work on a [prefix, type of measurement system] for example a kilometer is kilo + meter, kilo meaning 1000 and meter which is the unit of measurement so a kilometer is 1000 meters.

However the imperial system is just random words.

  • Metric: millimeter*, centimeter, decimeter, hectometer, kilo*meter
  • Imperial: barleycorn, inch, furlong, league, fathom, rod...

Additionaly, the metric [prefix, type of measurement system] works on all types of measuremtns including length, weight, area and volume.

Metric:

Type of measurement Name
Length [prefix]meters
Weight [prefix]grams
Area [prefix]meters^(2)
Volume [prefix]meters^(3), [prefix]litre

Imperial:

Type of measurement Name(s)
Length barleycorn, inch, furlong, league, fathom, rod...
Weight grain, ounce, pound, stone, ton...
Area perch, rood, acre...
Volume gill, pint, quart, gallon...

Abbreviations

The metric Abbreviations make more sense as its usally [prefix first letter, measurement name first letter]. Some examples are listed below.

Metric:

Name Abbreviation
kilometer km
meter m
centimeter cm
millimeter mm

Imperial:

Name Abbreviation
ounce oz
hundredweight cwt
pounds lbs
hand hh

Temperature

Thing Celsius Fahrenheit
Water freezes 0 32
Water boils 100 212
Absolute 0 −273.15 37 −459.67
Human body temperature 37 98.6

Compatibility

The metric system was designed so that different types of measurements relate to one another. For example: 1ml of water occupies **1cm******^(3) of space and weighs 1g.

Metric Prefixes

Prefix Symbol Factor Power
tera T 1000000000000 10^(12)
giga G 1000000000 10^(9)
mega M 1000000 10^(6)
kilo k 1000 10^(3)
hecto h 100 10^(2)
deca da 10 10^(1)
1 10^(0)
deci d 0.1 10^(-1)
centi c 0.01 10^(-2)
milli m 0.001 10^(-3)
micro μ 0.000001 10^(-6)
nano n 0.000000001 10^(-9)
pico p 0.000000000001 10^(-12)

Sources:

edit: theres a bug with reddit so some of the tables display data diffrently in the text editor and the post

u/FreddieThePebble — 3 days ago