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by legulere 3 days ago
With imperial you have weird fractions instead of decimals. To know that 3/4“ is larger than 1/2“ I have to actively think, decimals come pretty naturally (which was probably different in times before people went to school and learned to do math on paper)
1 comments

To know that 0.32 m is smaller than 43 cm I have to actively think, but I'm guessing you don't. I've never had to think about 3/4 vs 1/2. Even 5/16ths vs 1/4 is intuitive for me.
When we use fractions for measurements, the denominator is virtually always a power of two. The only one I can think of that isn't is a fifth of alcohol, which is really just its own unit at this point.
An inch is 1/36 yd or 1/12 ft or 6 pica or 72 pt. There is no power of two whatsoever in this.