Old Jan 28, 2010 | 06:25 AM
  #28  
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JGordon
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From: Golden, CO
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Originally Posted by Tark
I never understood the imperial system. Like how many feet in a mile? What temp does water freeze at? It's all just Radom numbers. To use a decimal system for temp, distance, speed just make more sense to me :dunno:
There are historical reasons for pretty much every Imperial measurement.
1 mile = 1000 strides of a Roman soldier (approximately 5,000 feet), modified as the centuries wore on.
0 degrees fahrenheit = the lowest temperature that Daniel Fahrenheit could make a solution in 1724

But I really wish we would stop lollygagging and finally switch to metric. When I see measurements I often try to convert them to metric in my head just so I'll be prepared.
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