[dahart]

“These Terms we may use till your Philosophers give us better.”

Yes he had a rationale, the question is why it didn’t change once we knew better; he even called for it.

I mean, I think I know why it didn’t change at any given point - the standard was already in place and it always looks too difficult. But in retrospect, the effort in the 1800s would have been small compared to the effort 100 years later.

Maybe it’s still true that we should change the convention starting now, because the confusion and cost of not changing it in the future will continue to grow?