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

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2021-03-11 kl. 23:11, skrev Michael Moroney:
> On 3/11/2021 1:39 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 3/11/2021 12:44 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> On 3/11/2021 11:45 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> 
>>>> Science is based on it.
>>>
>>> Some scientists may use it, but science is not based upon some numeric 
>>> scheme.  That claim is beyond absurd.
>>
>> Scientific papers are usually required to specify measurements in SI units.
>>
>>> Do you imagine the universe in general gives a damn about your base 10 
>>> numeric system?  Not even the computer you're using does so.
>>
>> The internals of computers are mostly two based (exceptions being BCD
>> and some old IBM FP).
>>
> 
> What's funny is some of the imperial units are base 2 underneath.
> 
> 8 fl oz = 1 cup
> 2 cups = 1 pint
> 2 pints = 1 quart
> 4 quarts = 1 gallon
> 
> And there are uncommon names for other binary units, 2 fl oz, 4 fl oz, 2 
> quarts (other than half gallon) as well as things like hogshead but I don't 
> remember them.
> 
> Personally, I think the metric system would have been more easily accepted 
> if it didn't try to use completely new definitions for units like 1/10000 
> the distance between the North Pole and Equator. Imagine if they started 
> with "Let's make the liter equal to the quart" and people would have little 
> problem with a gallon being a quaint name for 4 liters. But it was created 
> by the French and I have no idea what they used before the metric system.

Well, actually France had what was called a "foot". The problem was that
there were over 300 different length of that "foot" in France alone.

So yes, having one common meter was a *huge* advantage. And still is.
It just happend to become the meter as we know it today.

And part of the success was to *not* try to select one of the 300 old
measurment units and try to replace the other 299 units. It was more
clever to replace all 300 at once. Selecting one of the current systems
would not have been easily accepted by those using the other 299 systems.

And it was from the start 1/10.000.000 of the length from pole to equator.
Today it is defined in other ways.

So the main reason behind the "meter-system" was to unify the measurment
units all over France, not to invent something new just for the sake of it.

Today the world at large would of course benefit from a unified measuremnt
system world-wide. It would simplify world-wide trade a lot.