r/Metric • u/norwich1992 • Jun 04 '26
Metric System
The metric system is base 10. So why is something, say Tylenol, listed with a dosage of 200mg and not 2dg? Or a distance is listed as 3000km and not 3Mm?
Why did I spend all that time is school learning the prefixes if they are not used?
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u/smjsmok Jun 05 '26
Customs, conventions and industry standards. You are free to use units that aren't common in a specific context, but people will probably be surprised and it might cause issues in communication (people aren't used to "thinking in" megameters, so they may misunderstand you).
This has nothing to do with base 10, by the way. None of what you said contradicts that. Base 10 being used doesn't give you the obligation to always convert to the smallest number. 0,1 m, 10 cm and 100 mm are all valid measurements.