[Info-vax] Why is starting epoch 17 Nov 1858?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 3/11/2021 10:51 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 3/11/2021 9:03 AM, Tom Wade wrote:
>> On 2021-03-09 23:49, Michael Moroney wrote:
>>> If it were up to me, I would have used whatever date the Gregorian
>>> calendar first went into effect somewhere, so that earlier dates, in
>>> fact all valid Gregorian calendar dates, could be represented. But, of
>>> course, it wasn't up to me.
>>>
>>> (somewhere = some Catholic country/ies, probably Italy. The Protestant
>>> countries were quite reluctant to implement such popery at first.)
>>
>> It may seem quaint that a sensible measuring reform could generate the
>> kind of hysterical opposition that the Gregorian Calendar did,
>> particularly in Britain. They held out for 170 years against what was
>> perceived as a foreign attempt to foist something alien on them.
>>
>> The same irrational not-invented-here resistance can be seen today in
>> the US by those opposing the adoption of the Metric System, despite the
>> fact that is far more logical and easier to use.
> 
> There is a major difference..  The Gregorian calendar is somewhat more 
> accurate.  The metric measurement system is no more accurate.
> 
> Your argument is the same as "French is a better language than English, 
> stop using English".  It is an opinion.  I understand English, I do not 
> understand or speak French.  I understand the English measurement 
> system, I know how long an inch is without having to think about it.  If 
> someone tells me an object is 2 inches in length, I know about what that 
> is.  If someone tells me an object is 5 centimeters in length, I really 
> have to think about that for a while.
> 
> Why am I irrational if I choose to use something I'm familiar with?

The unit itself is just a choice - nothing magic. But it is obvious
beneficial if everybody use the same unit.

The system does matter. There are computational benefits if
the system is well aligned with the number system. And since
we use decimals then something decimal based is easier to
work with.

The imperial units (customary units in US English) are not decimal
based when converting between smaller and bigger units - and there
is also a strong tradition for using fractions that are not decimal
based.

Arne