unit of weight in the metric system—the gram—
is more precise than your basic unit of weight in
the imperial system—the ounce. This means that
measuring small amounts on a scale is more
accurate.- It’s easier to work out percentages. Say you
have a sausage recipe that calls for 1.5 percent
salt by weight and 2 pounds of meat. (I picked a
nice round number to make it even easier.) How
much salt should you add? The math ain’t easy,
is it? Even when you do arrive at the right
answer—0.48 ounce—how are you supposed to
measure a strange number like that? With the
base-10 metric system, figuring out percentages
is essentially built in. Got 100 grams of meat?
That’s 1.5 grams of salt. 1,000 grams of meat?
15 grams of salt. 200 grams of meat? 3 grams of
salt. See how easy that is? - It makes scaling a snap. Sometimes you might
feel like making a huge batch of bread dough or
a small batch of sausage. With the imperial
system and its 16 ounces to a pound, it’s not easy
to scale even a basic recipe up or down. With the
metric system, all of your units can be scaled up
and down with ease. Doubled, halved, tripled, no
matter what, they consist of the base-10 math
that we’re used to working with.
EXPERIMENT: