Hello from episode three. And yes.

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Ohhh... so, is this why pre-decimal European money worked the way it did? Decimals don't make sense in a ratio world? (Basically the only book I've read on the history of measurement is Hasok Chang's amazing Inventing Temperature; frantically googling)

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I’ve long been an annoying “Fahrenheit is superior for human scale things” person, but way to add evidence that the foot/inch system also makes sense.

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Base ten with decimals is far better for scientific precision. No one should argue otherwise. But a lot of those older measurements were designed for daily use by regular people for simple issues, and things like inches, feet, yards, etc. were easy approximates to use by anyone.

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The thing about pre-metric measurements is that a base 12 system where 60 is a common denominator allows for the easiest divisions of whole goods like sheep or fruits or pelts into even amounts. The Babylonian mathematicians weren’t stupid. Math started as a way to deal with inventory and trading.

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