No good reason, just historical inertia and resistance to change. People stick to what they’re familiar with, either the imperial system or to common metric units. Making a “metric ton” similar in size to an “imperial ton” arguably helped make it easier for some people to transition to metric.
Megagram is a perfectly cromulent unit, just like “cromulent” is a perfectly cromulent word, but people still don’t use it very often. That’s just how language works. People use the words they prefer, and those words become common. Maybe if you start describing things in megagrams other people will also start doing it and it will become a common part of the language. Language is organic like that, there isn’t anyone making decisions on its behalf, although some people and organizations try.
The sort of person that insists on calling a ton a megagram is probably going to be the same sort of insufferable Jimmy Neutron arsehole that insists on calling salt “sodium chloride”.
Yes you’re technically correct, but people experience food as salty, no one is going to say “this food is very sodium chloridy!” and it’s the same situation with tons and megagrams
Similarly large volumes of water should be given in kl, Ml, Gl etc. instead of m^3. Which one is bigger 2500000 m^3 or 790000 m^3? Count the zeros if you want and then tell me if using appropriate prefixes would have made it easier to tell the difference.
Well I guess an IBC is a bit of an exception if it really does contain 1 kl, although there are also 0.8 and 1,2 kl containers. If you prefer to think of those in terms of cubic meters, then that’s perfectly fine.
It’s just that when you’re buying a reactor, comparing two ponds or reading about annual and monthly production of different companies you bump into these crazy numbers with mostly zeroes. That’s not convenient at all. Even though it could look cool, you don’t see computer people talking about SSDs in terms of individual bytes. You know, prefixes exist too, so why not use them.
If you used scientific notation or commas (or periods, depending on region) to format those numbers for human consumption, that would also make it easier.
People can picture one ton in their heads, no one can picture one million grams.
You can imagine a ton bag of sand, you can’t imagine one million individual grains of sand that weigh one gram each.
The term “megagram” does make perfect sense, but it doesn’t fit well with the way the people experience the universe around them.
It’s the exact same reason that weight is the only SI unit where the kilogram is the standard rather than the gram. You can imagine holding a kilo in your hands (about 2.2lb if you’re American) and you could easily tell the difference between 1 and two kilos, or 1 and 0.5 of a kilo, but if you hold a gram it feels like nothing, and you probably wouldn’t be able to sense a difference between 1 and two grams etc.
Edit: didn’t think explaining that people like to describe the universe as they experience it rather than being pedants about measuring things to the precise gram would be an unpopular opinion lol
No good reason, just historical inertia and resistance to change. People stick to what they’re familiar with, either the imperial system or to common metric units. Making a “metric ton” similar in size to an “imperial ton” arguably helped make it easier for some people to transition to metric.
Megagram is a perfectly cromulent unit, just like “cromulent” is a perfectly cromulent word, but people still don’t use it very often. That’s just how language works. People use the words they prefer, and those words become common. Maybe if you start describing things in megagrams other people will also start doing it and it will become a common part of the language. Language is organic like that, there isn’t anyone making decisions on its behalf, although some people and organizations try.
The sort of person that insists on calling a ton a megagram is probably going to be the same sort of insufferable Jimmy Neutron arsehole that insists on calling salt “sodium chloride”.
Yes you’re technically correct, but people experience food as salty, no one is going to say “this food is very sodium chloridy!” and it’s the same situation with tons and megagrams
I order a megagram of sodium chloride and you bring me 1.000001 tons?!?! REEEE3EEEEEEEEE!!!
Similarly large volumes of water should be given in kl, Ml, Gl etc. instead of m^3. Which one is bigger 2500000 m^3 or 790000 m^3? Count the zeros if you want and then tell me if using appropriate prefixes would have made it easier to tell the difference.
If you see an IBC of water, do you see 1m³ or a thousand individual liters?
There’s nothing wrong with describing things the way that you experience them. It makes sense to use which ever units express the idea most simply.
Well I guess an IBC is a bit of an exception if it really does contain 1 kl, although there are also 0.8 and 1,2 kl containers. If you prefer to think of those in terms of cubic meters, then that’s perfectly fine.
It’s just that when you’re buying a reactor, comparing two ponds or reading about annual and monthly production of different companies you bump into these crazy numbers with mostly zeroes. That’s not convenient at all. Even though it could look cool, you don’t see computer people talking about SSDs in terms of individual bytes. You know, prefixes exist too, so why not use them.
If you used scientific notation or commas (or periods, depending on region) to format those numbers for human consumption, that would also make it easier.
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I think there is even a metric inch defined as 25mm (for pipe diameters etc)
There is a good reason.
People can picture one ton in their heads, no one can picture one million grams.
You can imagine a ton bag of sand, you can’t imagine one million individual grains of sand that weigh one gram each.
The term “megagram” does make perfect sense, but it doesn’t fit well with the way the people experience the universe around them.
It’s the exact same reason that weight is the only SI unit where the kilogram is the standard rather than the gram. You can imagine holding a kilo in your hands (about 2.2lb if you’re American) and you could easily tell the difference between 1 and two kilos, or 1 and 0.5 of a kilo, but if you hold a gram it feels like nothing, and you probably wouldn’t be able to sense a difference between 1 and two grams etc.
Edit: didn’t think explaining that people like to describe the universe as they experience it rather than being pedants about measuring things to the precise gram would be an unpopular opinion lol