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History has gone on long enough with these inefficient numbering systems and measuring systems. The sooner we change, the sooner the hassle of dealing with these confusing systems will be over. We'll all know the weight of the water in our hot tubs, and we can move on to discuss other pressing topics.
Now I know you're all going to groan, but what we need is to re-introduce the measure called *the hand*. Granted, the hand is now 4 inches or something, but my sources say that the hand used to be 3 inches. I believe, be it by evolution or design, that the hand is meant to be the fundamental measure of the English system, which is in base 12.
3 inches divided by 12 gives a quarter inch, which explains this mark on our rulers.
3 inches times 12 gives a yard.
I'm sure 12 yards x 12 is some standard measure. If it isn't, we can make it one.
12 yards x 12 x 12 gives 1728 yards, or 5184 feet, which will be a mile, and the old mile of 5280 feet gets tossed.
3 inches cubed is a pint, and the current pint (3.06 inches cubed) gets tossed.
The weight of a pint of water is a pound.
4 hands are in a foot, and this cubed is a bushel.
12 hands is a yard, and the weight of a cubic yard of water is a ton. The current ton (38 cubic inches of water) gets tossed.
Horsepower- the power needed to lift one ton, three inches(one hand)in one second.
Watt- the power needed to lift one bushel of water three inches in one second.
Now I was tempted to say that we could start out by merely standardizing the english system as outlined above, and that MAYBE this could be something we could accomplish in our lifetime.
But, upon further reflection, I think it's important if we're going to finally perfect our measuring system, that it be easily written. Therefore, I say we take the plunge, and introduce 2 new numerals so we can write 10 and 11 using one digit. If we switch over to base 12, then a foot will not be 12 inches, but written as 10 inches.
A mile will then be written as 1000 yards, or 10000 hands. And humanity will be better for it.