Tim Walker’s Metric

A mile long ago lost favour to the kilometre, one yard was supplanted by a metre; a pound gave it up to the kilogram, an ounce was overthrown by a gram; the quart became a litre, a fluid ounce was downgraded to a millilitre; then there’s decimal currency…

Since learning of these measuring amendments a number of decades ago I have often pondered: why, when a metre has a hundred centimetres and a kilogram a thousand grams, does a minute still have 60 seconds? Why does an hour have 60 minutes; why are there still 24 hours in a day? Why did we stop simplifying before the job was finished?

Further to that, I am genuinely baffled that after seeing logic prevail over so many units of measurement, some clever bugger still thinks it necessary to count 360 different points of a circle.

The 24 hour day and the 360 degree circle are no more logical than the twelve inch foot or the 16 ounce pound and if I had the authority to say that at 10:00, the final hour of the day, an about turn had a numerical value of fifty, you better believe I’d do it.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Stu Pod

Photography by Nun Since

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