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The relationship isn't linear, it's logerithmic, just as the us volumetric measures are.

There are more steps in the power-of-two measures, but hardly anything unreasonable.

The real usability of the metric system, which I think you're getting at is that those prefixes are reĆ¼sable between all units, whereas in the us customary system it's no holds barred and everything outside the volumetric is arbitrary.

That said, with length, it is nice having units that break apart evenly at 2, 3, 4, and 6; but I don't think that's quite enough to redeem it.




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