First let’s get rid of the misnomer.. which I used as well. Metrication really means the application of metrics – another word for ‘measurement’. At some particular intellectual low-point the British decided to confuse ‘metric’ with ‘decimal’. Probably because the proposers of the decimal system referred to it as a new system of metrics.
After the French revolution it was thought a good idea to revise metrics so that long-distance trade could be simplified. The chosen standard system of decimaly-related metric units had existed as a concept in Europe since at least the seventeenth century, and had been proposed for the US by Thomas Jefferrson as early as the American Revolution.
The size of units (metrics) is one arbitrary consideration, and makes little odds (think spanners). Its how they devide or multiply into each other that is the contention. The decimal system uses the same ‘base’ throughout – in this case 10 because that is how our counting system works. The imperial system uses a varying base depending both on what units you are using and what property is being measured. The latter simply does not make as much sense.
However, if you want to use it it really should be your choice!
State school, John. While yours was telling you Napoleon devised ‘the metric system’.
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