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SI (Metric) would be more useful?
…on the world of Twelvetoes (remember the old Schoolhouse Rock / Multiplication Rock song?), who had six fingers on each hand, and so invented base-12 numbers. The only reason 10 is used as the base for decimal place value numeration and thus SI is because we have five fingers on each hand, ten in all.

If we used 12 as the base, it would mean that we could exactly express common, useful fractions that cannot be exactly expressed in decimal and thus in SI, such as one-third of a unit. In decimal, it&rquo;s 0.333… ad infinitum. In base-12 (duodecimal), it would simply be 0.4. Exactly.

Inches to feet is duodecimal. There are twelve inches to the foot, and that makes measuring third-of-feet measurements exact: if someone is 5'4", he’s exactly 5 + 1/3' (5⅓' for those using Unicode-capable OSes) tall. Try doing that in meters. Exactly. With no roundoff error.

12 has prime factors of 2, 3, 4, and 6. 10 only has prime factors of 2 and 5, and just about the only reason 5 is important for anything is precisely because it’s ½ of 10. If we had used base 12 all along, dividing by 5 would have no more common use than dividing by, say, 7. 6 would be the new 5. A nickel would be 6¢ and a dime 12¢. And so on.

This is one of the main reasons for the resistance to SI — the lack of an exact way to specify thirds of common measurements such as length (feet) and weight (Troy oz. to the Troy lb.).
Posted by: Joel R   Posted on: 04/02/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Today it's April 2nd not first!  Linux Geek | 04/02/07
Very nice that they'll do the DRM-free music  Boot_Agnostic | 04/02/07
Movie studios still want DRM...  Anton Philidor | 04/02/07
bit rate  rosanlo | 04/02/07
In defense of mp3.  Anton Philidor | 04/02/07
Solely?  Yagotta B. Kidding | 04/02/07
If the world used inches, feet, miles...  Anton Philidor | 04/02/07
Take your pills, you're off topic here  mlindl | 04/02/07
SI (Metric) would be more useful?  Joel R | 04/02/07
Been Told  voska | 04/02/07
DVD audio (or audio tracks on DVD video) is NOT compressed.  Joel R | 04/02/07
On DRM  voska | 04/02/07
and thank god for those "clever individuals"!  Castanet | 04/02/07
DRM please RIP  dmennie | 04/02/07
iTunes is AAC  Stuka | 04/02/07
EMI mentioned DRM-free videos  Resuna | 04/02/07
Hm...  John L. Ries | 04/02/07
True enough  voska | 04/02/07
Yes  Len Rooney | 04/02/07
Not just AAC/MP4  bell0q | 04/02/07
Great price on dog droppings  Yagotta B. Kidding | 04/02/07
Not all the content on iTunes is dog droppings  labarker | 04/02/07
Even easier  WarmasterHorus | 04/02/07
How About An Apology David...  IAHawkeye | 04/02/07
eh  WarmasterHorus | 04/02/07
What did Apple do here?  voska | 04/03/07
Personally, I think it's Apple who wanted DRM free  CobraA1 | 04/03/07
MP3 is evil  WarmasterHorus | 04/02/07
You do your post an injustice  voska | 04/02/07
Are you insane?  Kaniki | 04/02/07
In (Somewhat) Defense of WMA  KWierso | 04/02/07
AAC is licensed by the same people who do MP3  Joel R | 04/02/07
AAC is licensed by the same people who do MP3  Joel R | 04/02/07
Lossless???  robbyx | 04/02/07
Agree+  bell0q | 04/02/07
why a proprietary scheme  Tyler_Durden | 04/02/07
This is going to hurt eMusic  Resuna | 04/02/07
E-music still has the edge  voska | 04/02/07
If Apple "allows"?  bell0q | 04/02/07
Bass ackwards  Yagotta B. Kidding | 04/02/07
eMusic has other challenges  eric.pederson@... | 04/02/07
Golden  ethman42 | 04/02/07
Part II for Jobs  TripleII | 04/02/07
Microsoft on diskless PCs  misceng | 04/02/07
It's about time  wolfsouls | 04/02/07
Eternal vigilance is NOT the price of freedom!  Sleveless | 04/02/07
Dude  WarmasterHorus | 04/02/07
Bashers absent  dolph0291 | 04/02/07
Well  Badgered | 04/02/07
On the other hand...  -Kestrel- | 04/02/07
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Why incite the behavior  Boot_Agnostic | 04/04/07
Smart detail  Yagotta B. Kidding | 04/02/07
And...  People | 04/02/07
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I would agree.  gotitright | 04/02/07
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This I will buy  buzzl | 04/02/07
will Zune and Rhapsody do the same?  mlindl | 04/02/07
No lawsuits???  A.Sinic | 04/03/07
RIAA mandated DRM for Apple...  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
A FANCY WAY OF RAISING THE PRICE  BALTHOR | 04/02/07
Are you from another planet?  BitTwiddler | 04/03/07
YOu speak before you know  ivanotter | 04/02/07
Ivan is right; 128Kb/s is nothing like CD quality  labarker | 04/02/07
The honest guys  mames1701 | 04/02/07
Answer for Job  Gate crasher | 04/02/07
Buyer beware: IT'S A RIPOFF!!!  DeepFreeze3 | 04/02/07
Please note...  systemx | 04/02/07
Did I miss something?  doylewat@... | 04/02/07
You're right  robbyx | 04/02/07
Exactly like the cost of leaded vs unleaded gas  Ole Man | 04/02/07
On Gas  voska | 04/03/07
Interesting.  doylewat@... | 04/03/07
What?  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
Thier thinking no mine  voska | 04/03/07
Clueless  robbyx | 04/02/07
Headphones  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
Headphones  voska | 04/03/07
Internal studies showed the opposite  CobraA1 | 04/03/07
Great news! (NT)  P. Douglas | 04/02/07
So What, Vista will DRM it anyway  moparfan | 04/02/07
Vista and iTunes  Mr_Dave | 04/02/07
My iPod syncs fine with iTunes on Vista. I've had zero troubles. (nt)  CobraA1 | 04/03/07
Wow!  fondy | 04/02/07
Caveat Emptor  A.Sinic | 04/03/07
Now this IS interesting.  doylewat@... | 04/03/07
New software required for that, maybe  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
DRM-free music  brike@... | 04/02/07
Another con  whoozhe@... | 04/02/07
1 step forward, two steps back  Tyler_Durden | 04/02/07
steps.  merc2dogs` | 04/02/07
$10?  Tigertank | 04/02/07
Depends where you buy  voska | 04/03/07
Still, extra's have to be added ...  bortraws | 04/02/07
Finally someone did the Digitally Right thing ...  GregTK | 04/03/07
As if anyone this board  mrjonno | 04/03/07
I don't steal music  mlabs | 04/03/07
Then you are in a tiny minority  mrjonno | 04/03/07
integrity  mlabs | 04/03/07
It's all perception  voska | 04/03/07
Actually you are wrong  voska | 04/03/07
Possibly  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
Depends on what you mean by worse....  Laff | 04/03/07
Let me qualify  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
Well it still gets complicated...  Laff | 04/03/07
50-50 is chaos  voska | 04/03/07
Maybe, but look at...  Spoon Jabber | 04/03/07
YES! Because that's exactly what I do.  Zogg | 04/03/07
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Yeah, but only 50% of the time (NT) wink  Spoon Jabber | 04/04/07
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Noted improvement in Quality  Paco20 | 04/03/07
clarification...  Paco20 | 04/03/07
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Re:Why VBR?  Paco20 | 04/03/07

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