Everything else aside, can someone explain to me the obsession with fractions (w/out common denominators, even!) in the imperial system?
I love metric, but I have no problem using the imperial system for my work - however, the fact that all objects made for the imperial system are built on fractions makes it impossible to work with. There is no 0.1" there's only 1/8. There is no 0.15", there's only 5/32. etc.
Given the bottom is almost always a power of two (2, 4, 16, 32, and 64 at the most) the conversion isn't hard but there is a definite cognitive overhead to comparing 1/8" vs 5/32" whereas comparing .125" to .15" is an order of magnitude simpler.
Fractional measures are useful when you often have to sub-divide a thing, but you are right in that they make the problem of comparing two things more difficult.
But with that in mind the answer to your question is that when the scales were first devised in the first place that it was apparently more important to be able to evenly split things up easily without grade-school arithmetic than it was to be able to compare a 3/32" socket to a 1/8".
The stupid answer is that it's easier to add 1/2 and 1/4 than it is 32/64 and 16/64. Keep in mind this is the kind of measurement system that might evolve in the time before most people had a formal education.
I love metric, but I have no problem using the imperial system for my work - however, the fact that all objects made for the imperial system are built on fractions makes it impossible to work with. There is no 0.1" there's only 1/8. There is no 0.15", there's only 5/32. etc.
Given the bottom is almost always a power of two (2, 4, 16, 32, and 64 at the most) the conversion isn't hard but there is a definite cognitive overhead to comparing 1/8" vs 5/32" whereas comparing .125" to .15" is an order of magnitude simpler.