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

[Henry Crun]

On 11/03/2021 18:18, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> 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
> 
> 

+1
as in off-the-cuff answer to
"How many inches in a mile" or worse "How many lines in a furlong"
compared to "How mant millimeters in a kilometer"

-- 
Mike R.
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