Talk:Standard units
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I feel that standardized unit calculations is an important 'background' topic when discussing any scientific or engineering topic. That is, it is important for all participators to be thinking in the same units, or at least on the same order of magnitude, for comprehension. Normally this is done in the background; when one describes a persons height as "five-nine" then this, at least in the United States, would automatically be taken as meaning "five feet, nine inches" without those units being explicitly stated. On the other hand, if this was said where the English system is unknown (which is what, everywhere but here?) then a listener would be unable to interpret this statement, a height of "five-nine" is non-sensical in the SI system; the only logical interpretation is "fifty-nine centimeters," which is drastically different from the actual height.
This is only a minor example of why proper unit conversions are important. As a person who has gone through many classes where the professors loved to give data in 10 types of units from 3 different systems, I have seen first-hand why double checking for proper units is important in scientific fields. Personally, I think the United States should convert to SI, but I also realize that this transition would be difficult at best; so much infrastructure is based on our old system.
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