u/TheJustinMannRLA

▲ 24 r/Metric

Question: Why do we leave out the decimeter?

Hello people who commonly use metric. I have lived my whole life in the United States so I have mostly used the imperial system but also respect and understand the metric system. I also use it in my personal creative writing as it just makes more sense in terms of standardization.

However, something that has always bothered me is: why do we not use the decimeter?

Whenever I see height measured, it is almost always in meters when it comes to buildings, or centimeters when it comes to height of people.

But doesn't using a decimeter when it comes to distances not too long but not too short make more sense?

I feel like it's easier for me to visualize 18.5 decimeters than it is for me to visualize 185 centimeters.

I assume this could also just be because I am used to having the "foot" between an inch and a yard.

So, why isn't it used, or at least, not commonly? I feel like it could be useful for some things, surely.

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u/TheJustinMannRLA — 3 days ago