• XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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