With the exception of the US, Liberia, and Myanmar, pretty much everyone uses the metric system. It's a pretty constant sticking point, and a really convenient way to call Americans lazy and stupid, as if the world needed any more examples. But while we're grasping at straws for reasons to keep using cups and feet other than "cause it feels nice," this Tumblr user provided an alright reason for why the Imperial system/customary system made sense at all in the first place. The thinking here is that counting things in 12 is more highly divisible than 10, and if you're an illiterate medieval peasant who needs to do quick mental math, measuring things with a system that makes fractions easy is a better tool than a more precise, but also more rigid system like metric.
Maybe that's precisely why it's so difficult for us to get away from customary units? We just keep wanting to divide things into thirds and it freaks us out. This still doesn't cover the fact that none of us are medieval peasants trying to do masonry or bake pies in a world without widely available and precise scales. But it's at least a perspective that customary units may have at one point made some sense.
Like what you see? Follow our WhatsApp channel for more.
Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!
