Metric Ton of Bullshit

I don't normally do political posts, so I won't do one here. Unless we're talking about the politics of people being assholes about the English system of measurement vs. the Metric system. Then this is SUPER political, but also you need to take a step back and look up what exactly "politics" means.

Anyway, I was reading the Handy Physics Answer Book the other day and I came across an interesting little blurb about how the length of a meter is determined. It went a little something like this (emphasis is mine and I cut out the boring non-point-making bullshit):

"The meter was originally defined as the distance between two lines on a bar of platinum-iridium

alloy, 1/10,000,000th the distance from the North Pole to the equator. However, the bar was deemed inaccurate because it would expand and contract depending on it's temperature.

In 1960, scientists determined that light would be a better method of measuring a meter...the meter was defined as the distance of 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of reddish-orange light emitted by the krypton-86 isotope...changed again in 1983 as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458th of a second."

So here's my problem. Much is made about the fact that 1 foot is a measurement originally based off of the length of the king's actual foot. And people will go on to say that it's dumb that there are 5280 feet in a mile. They say it's nonsense. "Why not measure things in finger lengths or the distance of squirrel taint?" Here's my problem with that: eat my shit. 

If you want to go on about how the metric system is easier to use because it's powers of ten, then fine. You keep being a lazy dill hole and use your powers of ten. (Although some argue that powers of 12 are better) I'm not going to argue with that. Not that it matters because rare is the occasion when someone says "How far is it to ______? Oh, 30 miles? How many feet is that?"

But that's not the argument people default to. The argument is usually "What an arbitrary system of measurement! It doesn't make any sense." Yeah, there's nothing arbitrary about the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458th of a second. Or the wavelength from reddish-orange light emitted by Superman-86 isotope (red light! his weakness!). So get off your high horse, metric system aficionados.

And don't come at me with "At least the length of a meter is based in science, blah blah blah." That's bullshit and you know it, dick holster. I say a man's foot is scientific too.

And do NOT get me started on the kilogram...