Today in History: Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician Anders Celsius was born on this day in 1701. Anders Celsius greatest contribution to mankind was the Centigrade temperature scale which was later renamed Celsius in his honor. To this day there are only 3 countries in the world that do not this metric way of measuring temperature: Burma, Liberia and the United States.
I understand the wisdom behind metric system...but I still prefer the old imperial system. Telling me that someone is 177.8 centimeters tall means nothing to me, but 5 feet 10 inches tells me everything I need to know. I understand 190 pounds better than I would 86.1826 kilograms, and 60 miles an hour tells me I am driving one mile per minute. Metric time never caught on, so we still use a day measurement of 24 hours instead of the 10 hours a metric time system would demand.
And the Proclaimers song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" just doesn't sound the same when converted to metric.
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