[btilly]

Right. And that after calling 'decimal time' a limit case of absurdity by decimalist agitators ? (iirc it was just a marketing stunt by swatch).

You need to read more closely. The article claimed that decimal time was an excess of the French Revolution. The French revolution was over 200 years ago, which predates anything in your memory by quite a bit. And indeed, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time verifies that during the French Revolution, when the metric system was invented, the French also tried to introduce decimal time.

This was the same time period that they tried to decimalize the quarter circle, resulting in a measurement system with 400 gradians in the circle.

And yes, it is accurate to call this a limit case of absurdity.

As for the article itself, it is impossible to say how serious it is. It is true that everyone accepts that it would be a lot of work to switch to a dozenal system. However it is absolutely true that a dozenal system would be much more convenient.

[hugh3]

However it is absolutely true that a dozenal system would be much more convenient.

How is that, exactly? Even once we've solved the problem of convincing everybody on Earth that it's a good idea, and the other problem of going back and burning and reprinting every existing book, newspaper, film and inscription so that nobody need ever face the confusion of having to translate back and forth between old decimal and new dozenal numbers, what's the big upside again? That we no longer have to say "a third of a kilogram" and can just say "400 grams"?

[btilly]

That is one upside. Another is that the times table is much simpler to memorize. Another is that when storing round numbers of things, it is more likely that we'll have convenient packings. Another is that a dozenal based measurement system is convenient enough in enough places to justify using dozenal based time and angle measurements, making for easier conversions. (For instance in the metric system it is sometimes convenient to think in terms of km/hour and other times m/s. Converting between the two is a PITA. Using dozenal everywhere would make that conversion entirely unnecessary.)

There are many small details, but every one you compare finds conveniences for the dozenal system that aren't there for the decimal one.

However it is clear that the wins aren't nearly enough to justify the transition in any reasonable time frame. Which is why the dozenal movement is bound to remain an amusing curiousity.

[jacquesm]

My bad, I missed that, I remembered the 'beat' system (and swatch is Swiss anyway).

As for the rest, I don't know. Decimal time may have had its advantages, but once a system is sufficiently entrenched swapping it out for a better one gets costly, and if the costs outweigh the benefits then it won't get done.

For a nice example try explaining the benefits of metric to an American or Canadian contractor, and for the Canadian one that's in a country where everything else is metric.

It sure sucks to be a canadian mechanic, you never know whether that bolt staring at you has a 3/8" head or a 10mm one, the difference (less than half a mm) is hard to eyeball.

The French tried to standardize on something when standards were still fluid enough that it might have worked. If they had not done that the SI system as we know it today would not have existed and I think that science owes a lot of its progress to standardization.