Metric Measures

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 12

Metric Measures

Sir, —Why does the editorial column of “The Press” so frequently advertise the metric system? Practical people in the past had little use for decimal systems and will not use them much in the future, either. Decimals will become known as the twentieth century heresy, though the archaic term “century” will be used only as we now use the term dynasty for the epochs of the ancient Egyptians. Your reference to the “elegant” metric ton is also puzzling. Our present system of weights makes much greater use of the elegant binary principle (the natural principle of the computer), described by a former American Commissioner of Weights and Measures (before the days of computers) as “one of the few perfect things in this world.” If we cannot leave well alone, it would be more foresighted to propose a ton of 20481 b—a simple relationship established by the fundamental binary operation of successive doubling.—Yours, B. A. M. MOON, Director, Computer Centre, University of Canterbury. August 19, 1968.