Well you could use divisions of a millimetre! Maybe my eight times table just needs revision 
Bruce
We use knots for (low) speed, nautical miles for travel distance, metres and/or km for horizontal visibility and horizontal distance from clouds, feet for height and altitude and vertical distance from clouds, litres for fuel purchase, US gallons for fuel consumption, quarts for oil, lbs and/or kg for weight/mass, hecto-pascals for pressure ……. The list goes on !
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You need to have those divisions on your ruler or tape measure - which you don’t often find.
The thing is, you can only divide 10 by 2, 5 and 1, and once you have divided by 2, you can only divide by 5 or 1. With 16ths you can divide by many numbers - 2, 4, 8 - and each of these can then be divided by 2. The only reason that we use 10 is that we have 10 digits, and use each digit to represent one number (some parts of the world count knuckles, for example). You can count to higher numbers on on the fingers of one hand if you use binary (and much larger if you use the fingers (and thumbs) of both hands, of course.
Of course, the imperial system has many disadvantages - most notably the fact that it uses different numbers of divisions for each measure; 3 feet in a yard, 12 inches in a foot, 14 pounds in a stone, 16 ounces in a pound, 20 stone in a hundredweight etc., which is utter madness.
But I separate metric from decimal - metric is a good idea (though it could have been better), but decimal is an unfortunate accident.
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Given that 1 mm is as near as makes no difference to 1/24 th of an inch, I have found that for most home and garden tasks it’s as good as 1/16 th or 1/32 nd of an inch.
Anything less requires ‘fit and adjust’
Otherwise, just go for ‘thousandths’
Yes, for woodworking mm is OK - but as I say, you have fewer options for dividing into different proportions. But we are, of course, stuck with the decimal system. People on other planets might be more lucky.
RE Brit measurements:
It appears that weather temperature is measured in Fahrenheit when it is warm but Centigrade when cold as witnessed frequently in the Daily Mail ---- so must be correct 
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I have the aircon system in my Audi set to read in Fahrenheit……coz it really annoys the family!
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As good a reason as any !!
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That reminds me of a question we often asked engineering graduates at interview;
“How many 16ths in an inch?”
It was surprising how many blanked simply because the word inch was mentioned. Sometimes the answer meekly appealed to an excuse that their teaching was only metric 
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- I have a very special ruler
Makes my willy 2x bigger.
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It depends on what they are 16th of!
If 16ths of a foot, then 1/3; if 16ths of a mile, then only a small fraction. (TLDC)
If 16ths of a banana, the answer is variable; if 16ths of a piece of string, how long is a piece of string?
If 16ths of an ounce…?
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I’m afraid you’ve not got the job Xanthe 
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I think you should give me the job for being precise and not just relying on assumption…
Assumption is the mother of c*ck-up.
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There is difference between a metal worker and an engineer.
The smallest metric division on an engineers rule is 0.5 mm, which is approx 13 thou.
If the item being measured falls between the 0.5mm divisions it’s said an engineer should be able to estimate it’s position within 5 thou. 
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What actually happens is that the Engineer will give the metal worker his micrometer with, “Be a good chap, and measure this for me, please”.
The metal worker will do the work and report back to the Engineer, who will nod sagely, and respond,
“It’ll be fine!”.
( which, apparently, was one of my wife’s favourite expressions. When she retired, her colleagues presented her with a “Blue Plaque”, which included those immortal words!)
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Wow, this latest round of Best Jokes is the best we’ve had for a while. Real rib-tickling stuff.
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But maybe the candidates were overthinking and thought there was something hidden in the question? Happened to me once; I pondered the very elementary circuit diagram and asked whether it was a trick question.
While a fascinating, and in some respects a refreshing diversion, I think it’s time to get back to “best” jokes. Thanks.
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