Brexit Thread

[Husar]

A half-inch bolt is a simpler measure to work with than a 12.7mm one. Of course, it's all arbitary anyway - if we had used a Metric system originally we'd just have 15mm bolts and 10mm bolts.

Exactly, a 1000th of a millimeter is also smaller than a 32nd of an inch...

Before you chortle too much at the "barleycorns" though you should think about WHY we didn't start with a base-ten system and why one had to be invented arbitrarily.

That may all have been valid in the middle ages but we now live in the 21st century.
I still wonder how you're going to use a sextant from the cockpit of an airplane by the way.
The base 10 system is a lot easier to use and the old system was even more arbitrary given that not every barley corn has exactly the same size. A meter always has the same size unlike the distance a person can walk in a day.