Originally Posted by UM1991
Hi, another ignorant American here. Can someone nicely and non-condesendingly explain why the metric system is easier than imperial? I really can’t conceptualize how.
1 metre = 10 decimetre = 100 centimetre = 1 000 millimetre = 1 000 000 micrometre = 1 000 000 000 nanometre = 1 000 000 000 000 picometre = …
1 metre = 0.1 decametre = 0.01 hectometre = 0.001 kilometre = 0.000001 megametre = 0.000000001 gigametre = 0.000000000001 terametre…
Metre can be changed with any other unit you wish (such as grams, seconds, volts, amperes, hertz etc.).
Prefixes are always based on exponent of 10 (10^1, 10^2, 10^3, 10^6, 10^9, 10^12, … and 10^-1, 10^-2, 10^-3, 10^-6, 10^-9, 10^-12, …) so it’s far more simple than 1 foot = 12 inches, 1 mile = 1760 yard etc.