Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/329

Rh which dimension is stated to differ appreciably from meridian to meridian, owing to irregularity of form.

Another objection often made to the metric system is the loss of binary subdivision. In the system of binary subdivision we have halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds and sixty-fourths, etc. It is contended that in decimal division these subdivisions become awkward beyond halves; viz., 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625, 0.03125, 0.015625, etc. This is, no doubt, a weak point in the decimal system generally. If the base of our notation were 12, or 16, instead of 10, the objection would be made more remote. But it is useless at this epoch to discuss an international change of arithmetical notation. There does not seem to be the least prospect of such a change, nor the least hope of its being made in the near future. Moreover, the same objection applies to our decimal currency, and is scarcely felt in that direction. Brokers reckon in the binary scale to one eighth, but are said not to employ sixteenths. An inch is often subdivided to sixteenths, but thirty-seconds are seldom used, sixty-fourths very rarely, and yet smaller binary subdivisions are almost unknown. In fact, where fine micrometer measurements are made in inch measure, they are nearly always in decimals of an inch, and not in binary subdivisions. In metric countries, the decimal subdivisions do not seem to constitute a noticeable hardship.

Most persons grant that the metric system is superior for practical as well as scientific purposes to the British system, but dread the cost of a change or transition. There can be no doubt that the question of expense of transition is a serious one. In fact, if the only alternatives were the immediate compulsory adoption of the metric system on the one hand, to the extent of throwing away every existing measure and standard, or never adopting the metric system, on the other hand, it is probable that the latter alternative would be necessary; for the trouble, vexation, expense and litigation to be expected from immediate change would be terrible to contemplate. Fortunately, no such alternatives are presented. We have the history of almost all the continental nations of Europe to guide us in estimating the degree of difficulty which would be expected in effecting the change.

In France, the native land of the metric system, and the first country officially to adopt it, the change was made very slowly. During the first half of the nineteenth century France stood almost alone in this reform. Moreover, the initiation of the reform in 1795 took place in the year III. of the French Republic, and was doubtless greatly aided by the general upheaval of long established customs and traditions in France about that time. If it had not been for the French Revolution, so terrible in many of its aspects, the metric system might never have become a practical reality.