[sdiy] Metric vs imperial, was: My new Moog 960 sequencer clone module project.. slowly but surely ..

[Donald Tillman]

On Nov 11, 2020, at 5:11 AM, Tom Ivar Helbekkmo <tih at hamartun.priv.no> wrote:
> 
> Also: "serious disadvantage"?  Only to the extent that you're either
> working with tools and material that are in Imperial units, or you've
> grown up with Imperial units, and have no intuition for the metric.
> That's just saying that trying to change confers disadvantage, which of
> course it does.  It's not an inherent problem with the metric system.

Measurement units, ratios, and multiples are very important in design.  For example, ewe see that the standard unit in typography is 72 points to the inch.  Metric measurements don't evenly divide by 2,3,4,6,9...


> You sound like one of those people who go "Metric? Hah! When people ask
> me how far it is to the post office, I say 'about a mile'.  I don't say
> 'about 1.609 kilometers'", and think they've made a valid argument.

Actually, I've done the opposite.  I've talked about the fundamental relationships between the units of measurement and the applications that rely on those units to accomplish things.  Life is good when you can embrace those relationships.

Consider the Nautical Mile.  It's a little longer than a statute mile, 1852 meters.  And it's the standard international unit for navigation by sea, air, and space.  Why is that?  Because a nautical mile is 1 minute of latitude on the earth's surface.  It's incredibly useful.


> Most people who graduate with CS degrees don't understand the significance
> of Lisp.  Lisp is the most important idea in computer science.  --Alan Kay

Now that I will agree with!

  -- Don
--
Donald Tillman, Palo Alto, California
http://www.till.com

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