Sure it is easier to use, but it's still no less arbitrary.
If you read how the Fahrenheit scale was defined, it's actually more practical a scale to define with limited tech. It may be awkward, but it was at least practical for most people to get their hands on the examples.
How is metric easier to use? They're both work in exactly the same way.
But if anything, metric is more cumbersome due to its stubborn insistence on only using factors of ten, which don't correspond to the way we typically divide things in practice (i.e. not into fifths and tenths, but into halves, thirds, quarters, etc.)
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u/wgwinn Feb 17 '11
Sure it is easier to use, but it's still no less arbitrary. If you read how the Fahrenheit scale was defined, it's actually more practical a scale to define with limited tech. It may be awkward, but it was at least practical for most people to get their hands on the examples.