this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Why state a car's length in millimeters? Why state any length over a meter in millimeters?
Why doesn't the world use the decimeter? I don't think I've ever seen it used anywhere.
Using millimeters is pretty common in engineering.
So is using meters.
millimeters allow these numbers to be displayed as integers
Is that how numbers work, fascinating.
I've seen technical drawings where the dimension of something is 10000+ mm. At that point I feel like the whole utility of the metric system is moot.
I disagree with you. If you need five digits of precision, 12345 mm is precise and perfectly usable (and slightly less complex than 12,345 meters). Others might just say that the machine (or whatever) is twelve meters long. And all the math you need is removing three digits.
Yeah, I only use furlongs, rods, chains, and links in my calculations.
Don't forget hectares!
This guy gets it!
In countries that aren't America, we use centimetres and metres. But it was suggested that yanks are a bit thick and might be happier using woodworkers units of millimetres and metres.
No one uses deci anything, in my experience.
I've seen deciliters around some places for beverages.
Interesting, only place I have seen them is in science fiction books, and the occasional scifi themed bar.
We use deci-bells to measure sound volume
Good point well argued. I had not thought of them!
Builders, carpenters, plumbers etc all state any length up to 10m in mm
My decimeters be decimating
Because too many people don't understand sig figs
Its quite common around here to see height restrictions signed in mm. For example a car park entrance might have a sign labeled 1800mm max height
I'm curious to see how the arguments for using mm instead of dm varies from the argument for using imperial vs metric. You're right that there's way better units to use here, but I think mm is used out of convention. Which is the exact same reason that feet and miles are used, because everyone is used to it.