When I started school, my kindergarten teacher (kindergarten here is a compulsory part of the K-12 system for 4.5-5.5 year olds) explained she needed to teach us a new system and wasn't so confident about doing so. Centimetres were used because they were the closest thing to inches that was practical. I was fortunate to learn both systems side by side.
(1) 12 hours came up because of sundials. And years are just the way it is.... the Earth's rotation is not a perfect number of days.
(2) Indeed, how about "natural logarithms" and other constants in physics, chemistry and math?
(3) Between meter and centimeter? Heck.... it's called DECIMETER. It's exactly 1.0E+11 pm.
(4) Oh, yes... it got worse. Like my '76 Alfa Alfetta GT. The importer added stuff like the AC and other.. and then the factory and the importer threw away all the domentation and bill of materials... and, get this, they used different parts on different production runs. Getting the window crank replaced in my car took a full month as we had to go through three different versions to find on that fit!
My son is a plant mechanic for the State dealership (here) for a US manufacturer of heavy machinery. They make the whole machine except for the engines, which range from Cummins and Caterpillar to Kubota, installed at the US factory. The engine fasteners are metric and the rest are imperial, even on new, current, machines. Mind you, it's not surprising given that when our guys visit the US head office many of the factory workers still chew tobacco...
Drinking helps....
British people like to make fun of Americans for not using the metric system.
But I’ve never heard of a single British person walking into a pub and ordering a half liter of beer.
