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Americans React to Is the Metric System Actually Better?
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- Published on Apr 18, 2026
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In this video, we react to Is The Metric System Actually Better? - and for Lindsay, it’s her very first time learning anything about it. While most of the world uses metric every day, we grew up with pounds, miles, and ounces… so seeing how metric works side by side was honestly eye-opening.
From kilograms and grams to kilometers and litres, it’s clear most people think metric is easier - and we can’t help but wonder why the US never fully switched.
Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed our metric system reaction, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe - and tell us your favorite measurement system!
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can you multiply and divide by ten? congratulations. now you know Metric
Yeah, so far you can imagine what the unit represent physically or virtually speaking, knowing how to multiply and divide by 10 is the main idea ;-)
But you still have to remember that 1 liter of water weights 1 kilogramme ^^
That would be beyond most Americans
@xrayban2 And what's hard with that ? 1 kg = 1 liter, 500gr = 500ml.
Compared to this pointless system that does weight and volume differently :
500 g ≈ 17.64 oz (weight)
500 mL ≈ 16.91 fl oz (volume)
when even more fascinating is when you learn 1mL of water weights 1g and occupies 1cubic centimeter of volume and it takes 1 calorie to raise this amount of water 1 degree Celcius.
The fact that you didn't know how many feet were in a mile despite using the imperial system all your life, is a good example of why the metric system is superior.
Except when it comes to time. Even the metric loving Europeans still use 24 hours for a day and 60 seconds for a minute
@BigAlCapwn Lol, time has nothing to do with either, metric or imperial
@BigAlCapwn 24 hours system is much better😂
That was rather surprising. It clearly shows how unuseful imperial is.
@BigAlCapwn Time is based on natural (or better universal) cycles. Like planet orbit time and such. You simply cant turn that aside and make 1000 seconds an hour or something. We would have done this a long time ago if we could :)
No more excuses, you can literally learn metric within 15 minutes.
Learning it, no problem, but applying it in replacement of the imperial system is another matter.
@christinemarchitello4481 Starting with temperature would be an easy start if the will existed and the concept of the liter is known so that would come second and so on. Piece by piece it can be done.
@PerSvensson-pf3rm : well Fahrenheit is metric system of measurement :D
@jianyuloh20 : Well I'm from Finland :D
@jianyuloh20 Technically, Farenheit and Celsius are as good as each other. One could easily define a rescaling of Kelvin that is just Farenheit minus a constant.
As a scientist if I had to use the Imperial system I would probably spend most of my days sobbing over a calculator
It's even worse than you think. American Standard uses the same terms as British Imperial, but some measures are different. For example, an Imperial gallon is 4.54 litres while an American gallon is 3.78 litres.
Ha ha. Yes. I started using Metric in 1972. My first year working after finishing a Technical Education at School. At that time, there were a 'rash' of Conversion Calculators being gifted to Clients like Consulting Engineers and Contractors in the HVAC Industry. 😊
I have had to use CAD files generated in the US - they are a nightmare. Try fitting an American design file to a British topo survey...
"In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade-which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities."
I once Applied for a job.. but all their work was in impractical measurements.. so i asked them.. "is everything in impractical Units?'' if Yes.. i'm Sorry.. i'm not the guy you're looking for.. i thank you for this opportunity, but No Thanks.. bye !.. i shook their hands, and walked out.. i'm not gonna waste my time with that..
Water freezes at 0°C and boils at 100°C, 1 liter of it weighs 1 kilogram and takes the volume of 1000³ centimeters. It's just that simple and useful.
And the energy needed to raise 1 gram of water (1 cm³) by 1°C is exactly 1 calorie - the metric system's elegant connections just keep going!
1l is 10cm3 ! A cube of 10cm side length
@jorgegus Kalorie is not metric unit
1cm³ = 1ml = 0,001l
@jeffreifferslu1000 cm³
Europeans: Hey, we have invented the metric system. It's very helpful. You should use it
Americans: Adult deer are as tall as a bicycle. They weigh as much as 800 hamburgers.
LMAOOO
i can't stand it when i hear something is x amount of football fields long or wide, or it can fill x amount of olympic swimming pools, like wtf does that even mean.
Populist politicians hate science because science is based on the laws of the univers which they have no power over and cannot be corrupted
A lot of science is easily corruptable. Biology or psychology can't be easily reduced to math, so you can't really check it, and experiments are usually illegal to do.
So you can bribe a Metre but not a Yard. Got it, damn you just can't trust Yards & Inches.
They can try! Some folk in the 3rd Reich really liked "Horbiger's World Ice Theory" on ideological grounds. Had they won, that might be taught in schools... could make a space program a little difficult...
@ObIitus the use of it can be. but not the science itself. the molecules in your body dont care what you believe in and what they will do, still occur regardless.
Populist? Try totalitarian... (Being a "populist" is being democratic, obey the will of the people.)
I remember a video I saw of someone talking to Texas residents about the metric system, he was speaking with a guy who ran a gun shop who said that no one in Texas would ever use metric and behind him was a shelf full of 9mm bullets.
You still have 9mm Parabellum in Texas?
Good on you. No [insert expletive here] chance of getting around these parts.
They probably use metric for certain ammo is because the country that created use the metric system
Someone told me Americans use metric in school all the time -- when selling drugs and shooting each other.
@nac5901its used for science lessons but not really taught tnless u get high up in that field. madness
It’s everywhere and they’re too stupid to know it. Computers and tech, sports ( no one does 100 yard dash anymore), and so on.
For the US to change to the metric system they first need to admit that their system of measurement is inferior to the one the rest of the world uses.
You don´t need any other reason to understand why it will never happen. the US being inferior in anything? Impossible!
Is Imperial Britain...
USA is already metric "behind the scenes" because it is used to define imperial.
it is not that.. i think the real reason is how hard to educate american people.. they dont know the world. they think the world is whole big united states, and some of the countries are their states.. i mean if you ask them 'tell me 5 nations from europe' they will struggle and some of them would even say 'ok.. china'
My experience is that they just dont wanna learn the new way or even admit its needed.. People are this way, if you find more accurate and precise measurement way, you might probably have problems to change the rest of the countries in europe too.. People are defient about change.
But americans are less cooperative towards education systems being changed. i mean current generation probably wont even try to learn.. but they gotta implement to the newer generations.
Most of America is still stuck in the 1950s….when they were something great …..but they haven’t evolved with the rest of the world
USA #1 SuperPower when youre number 1 you make the rules
The opposition to the metric system in the US is a reflex of the US bubble complex
It goes against the brainwashing that USA always does everything better than anywhere else.
Who is going to pay for it? It would take decades and cost tens of billions.
@vallejomach6721 seppos signed up in 1875 to the metric system, they have had a long time to move on, but as usual, seppos are slow learners. the last of the countries on the planet that still use imperial. and yeah, we get it seppo.. " if it aint murican, it aint shit ".
@vallejomach6721 Anyways, using imperial system cost you so much per year already that you can't even comprehend it
@vallejomach6721 Instead, as it is now, it constantly costs money to convert stuff, or you lose money because you can't sell your stuff abroad. Or you have to make two versions, imperial for the home market, metric for international. Or as it said, it costs because you make conversion errors. And since the imperial is such a mess, it costs you to even convert within your own system. Add to that all those fields in the US that already uses metric, science, medical, military, and a big part of engineering. All the people working there have to learn metric at their job instead of having it as kids.
All those things add up, you would make a net gain pretty soon after a full conversion to metric.
20:35 Coming from the Imperial system to the metric system is like Homer Simpson learning there are better ways to make orange juice than pressing half an orange against your eyes.
There isn't much to learn either, just buy measuring tools in metric :P
I switched to the metric system in my shop. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use it. The biggest problem was actually finding proper metric tooling in North America. The biggest ongoing hurdle to completely ditching imperial is the fact that you still have to buy things like lumber here in imperial units.
Well, a 2 by 4 is not 2 by 4 inches anyways, so you were converting before you switched.
Due to circumstances and common usage in Mexico, the metric system is king, although out of necessity both systems coexist in several areas, especially mechanics, tools, and conversion, there is no major problem.
I’m from Chile, metric is standard since 1848 but lumber and fixations are sold in inches, we fill our tires in PSI, and use letter and legal size for paper.
I suppose early machinery was imported either from the UK or the US and we never bothered to change it over 😂
in NewZealand we aer metric and everyone knows what 2x4 lumber is there is rough sawn dressed etc and it works
Can't you buy tools in both? That's how it works in Australia
math teacher in the us: "how many feet have 37 miles?" - kids checking how many feet a mile has and entering 37 x 5280 into the calculator...
math teacher in the rest of the world: "how many meters have 37 kilometers?" - kids instantly "37000!"
Just add three zeros. Easier than long multiplication!
Are you german?
not 37000! that's a factorial
@KPoWasTakensurely 37000. 1 km is 1000m, so 37 km are 37000m.
Also, "kilo" = 1000 is found throughout the different units... kilometer, kilogram... centi as 1/100 in centimeter, centigram, centiliter
If your daughter wants to be a sportswoman, she'll be competing in metres.
Or if she wants to be a scientist or a doctor or a vet… (or, heaven forbid, sell ammunition or drugs…)
I say teach her because more knowledge is never a bad thing.
@ffotograffyddunless it’s weed, which still uses imperial measurements in small amounts (quarter, ounce, pound etc, but contrasting this you can also buy it by the gram 😂 it’s a very British way of thinking really!)
I’m glad to see that you also spelt it right👍 metres as a posed to meters
@mareky1234 yeah! 'metre', 'centre' and 'theatre' sound french AF 👍
Unless she plays for example the sort of football which is carried in hands and very seldom kicked by a foot
3:45 "I never thought about the fact that it originated in Britain" .. really? a British colonies, founded by order of the King of Britain, that speaks English (the language of England), somehow have a British measuring system? yeah, who would have guessed 😅
It's really fascinating how Americans think that the US is something that appeared in seconds, right away as an independent and unique country
The best I've heard so far was an American guy who stated in all seriousness - that England stole/copied their language
I heard a Texas board of education member, when denying Spanish language funding say "English was good enough for Jesus so it's good enough for Mexicans".
The vid is floating around utube.
We have to be a lil soft to the US. They are such a young country 😉
They also have had a president who famously claimed that “the problem with the French is they have no word for Entrepreneur”.
With that level of ignorance at the top, nothing should surprise people.
@greggary7217😂😂😂
Yooooo how did u get the thumbs up emoji? Teach me
In the UK we use a mixture of metric and imperial in order to achieve maximum confusion.
You got your gas in liters and the distance in miles, right ?
The miles are pretty doable.
It's the rest. Nope
Miles tend to be ok as any maths is done in metric miles are ok but everything else is dumb .
Litres are done because it was done as a way to convince people they're getting a better price
The same in my country. When we go buy timbers, we specify inches for section size, meter for the length, and cu.ft. when estimating the volume.
@pureluck8882 Nope. Petrol is a liquid, not a gas 😋
Do you weigh people in stones? Or is that just a joke
For me the superpower of the metric system is the relationship between different measurements. The new definitions are making that somewhat wrong now but we can safely assume that roughly 1 litter of water is 1kg and fits a in 10x10x10 cm cube. A 1x1x1m cube of water is 1000 litters, so it is 1000kg witch is 1 metric ton. It is brilliant.
Dimensional control is super easy in the metric system.
Using my German superpower - we have a word for it - "Klugscheißen": using the metric system frees the room for the following nugget of knowledge: your statement of course is only true, if certain assumptions regarding temperature (4°C) and pressure (~1013 hPa) are met, as the density of water changes depending on temperature and pressure. But of course for all practical purposes your statement leads to a "fair enough" kind of educated guess.
All newer definitions in the metric system fit inside the error bars of the old ones.
@PawelBorodanI mean what you did sounded more like klugscheissen than the OPs commenr.
@LaroacIt takes lifelong practice to be an effective “Klugscheißer“ 😅
🇸🇪 here.
We changed to metric 150 years ago.
I have never heard anyone wanting the old system back.
One of the most cool things about using metric ( we began moving over to metric in the 1960's in the UK), is that 1 gramme of water is one c.c. of water (cubic centimetre) and also one millilitre. Which also means of course that one litre of water, weighs 1 kilogramme.
And 1 cubic meter weighs one ton (at X°C at 1 atmosphere of pressure)
While still very useful for rough (depending on scenario) measurements but it's not defined that way anymore. (It was too inaccurate and susceptible to outside influence like temp.)
@dzzope Yes, but unless you are an engineer or a scientist it's the rough measurements that matter. For instance, I know that olive oil is lighter than water, but I also know that 1 liter of olive oil plus the bottle is 1 kg+, so is I am shopping I can decide to put the oil in the trolley instead of in the bag.
@alicetwain 100%
The problem in the UK is that we never switched over completely, or properly. We sell petrol in liters and our road signs are in miles. There's lots of examples.
I m getting better at using metric for weight and height. But was taught in metric. I work in engineering and when people start talking a thousand of an inch etc it sends me into a full melt down, how do you even work such a system!?
1 thou is 25.4µm. Just as 1 inch is 25.4mm. Working in thou is the only place where point shifting works like metric.
For torque wrenches I find imperial less confusing than metric as some use newton metres but some use kg metres.
I’m from the generation that learned about weights and measures in both systems metric and imperial. In general I still think in miles and feet/ inches but I use both for measuring in smaller dimensions so 3/8 of an inch is . 375thousands of an inch or 8 millimetres in metric, or for taking rough measurements in the field so to speak , the thickness of my little finger. When I’m looking at weights I usually use metric measurements for cooking purposes but imperial for measuring the weight of a person and as for things like a bag of sand or cement, if it’s sealed it will have the weight printed on the bag that it is sold in, but if it has been sold unmeasured to me (coming from my working field of my first job being an assistant in a DIY store filling loose bags with a shovel, a bag is 6 to 8 shovels full depending on how damp the sand is but for practical use I would say that such a bag would be near enough a hundred weight and written down that would be 1 Cwt. Later in my life I became an apprentice engineer which was instrumental in me switching my main measurement system to metric although I frequently would be given a drawing of a component with all the dimensions in imperial and I would be put to work on a machines that had the measurements marked in thousands of an inch but in a workshop that was in the middle of installing new equipment that was marked on the controls in metric. Is it any wonder that I get very confused from time to time. I used to automatically try to convert the drawings from one system to the other and then see what set of instruments I had to work with.
@andrewcoates6641yes ive worked with your sort 😊 an impressive breed that's for sure😊 flipping hundred weight thought that was a wind up first time i heard that😂
@Phiyedoughfor those of us young enough to have been taught in metric only I can do newton meters or kg per square cm (though for a wrench acceleration is not really a thing so I don’t think newtons should really be applied here).
Regardless, when I see pound per sq inch, I reach for my phone and have to trust google to convert it for me. Got no idea.
Australians have converted everything to metric (unlike the UK), but weirdly even the very young know their height in feet and inches but know nothing else about the imperial system. There is a weird hold it has on our society for individuals height only.
I'm 72 and American and I've known the metric system is better all my life.
I believe you are the only american Who does.Congrstulations!
US: Gallon - quart, pint, cup, 2/3 cup, 1/3 cup, table spoon, tea spoon, etc...
World: 1 litre - 1000 millilitres
The problem is that all of those US measures have only their own measures as a common denominator. A US pint has no simple relation to an imperial gallon
A US cup is 1/2 a pint, as is an imperial cup.
A metric cup is 250ml, an imperial pint is 568ml, a US pint is 473ml.
So not only do we have imperial vs metric, we have US vs imperial vs metric.
A guide to Poland: Tea spoon is 5ml, table spoon is 15, cup is 250, small beer is 300, soda can is 330, a most common beer can is 500, small water bottle is 500, a big one is 1500. And we also have 700ml bottle, that's vodka.
I think you should keep Imperial and build a big ol' high fence around America to keep the world safe from whatever it is that keeps you the way you are.
😂
Build the wall, just all around the place.
A fence 7 feet and 3,5 inches and 3/18 and 3 thousands high. Or just 218 cm.
Trump already started his fence during his first term, along the Mexican boarder. I wonder how much he has completed, and what that has cost.
@dougbrowning82but but but,the mexicans was gonna pay for it the orange Jesus said 😂😂
In Engineering we always use the Metric for all our calculations and measurements 😊
Also in science and military and so on.
Something also worth noting is that in English a meter is a measuring device (thermometer, odometer, barometer, voltmeter, etc), the unit of measurement for distance and height is the metre.
If only people could remember that when trying to pronounce 'kilometre'...
Well said it annoys me when they put the wrong meter.
In fairness, it wouldn't do to make things too easy in one fell sweep. It's important to do these things in stages, to drag out the feeling of accomplishment.
@IvorH Meter and Metre are pronounced the same. In my neck of the woods. Adelaide(lived in Melbourne for 23 years)
@jamesperrett1887 It's a question of pronunciation of 'kilometre', not 'metre/meter'. It seems to be becoming a trend to pronounce it as if it were 'kilometer'.. i.e. something that measures kilos.
"A sink hole, the size of 6 washing machines appeared in the road". From an American news article.😆
My daughter (now 12) already learned unit conversions back in 3rd grade - from millimeters up to kilometers.
What really helped her was a simple table. For example, if you put 1 km, kids can instantly see:
1 km = 1000 m = 10,000 dm = 100,000 cm = 1,000,000 mm
That way, they quickly understand how the units relate to each other.
I remember each column had a unit in it, just plug in the number and voila.
When i grew up we had the meter as 1 in the table
0,001 k[x] = 0,01 h[x] = 0,1 dc[x] = 1 meter/liter/gram/byte = 10 d[x] = 100 c[x] = 1000 m[x]
0:30 part of a day!? I'm American and we used the metric system in school basically every day. If you had to do any science class you've used the metric system.
What might blow your mind. Is 1000 mls in a litre of water, a 1000 grams in a Kilo and 1ml is also 1 gram.
It’s really useful. I have a set of kitchen scales. Often a recipe will include something like 15 mls of water. Instead of getting a small measuring cup, just use the scales. 15 mls of water weighs 15 grams
I've got a kitchen scale that can display both g and ml -- but not at the same time, and there's no obvious way to switch between them (there's only one button on the thing! I've tried short-presses, long-presses, sliding my finger sideways, etc.), and it keeps getting switched to ml by accident. I don't even know what that's supposed to mean: if you assume whatever you're weighing has the same density as water, they're the same thing so why even have ml? Doesn't make sense to display a volume measure, and I don't entirely trust that it isn't using some non-unity conversion factor.
@simonrobbins8357 Funny part is it's measuring weight not volume, but then given in a unit of mass. It's a weird (if somewhat understandable) blindspot of everyday use of the metric system. Yes, being on the surface of the earth is a pretty decent assumption to make, I still find it weird that we use weight and mass so interchangeably when there are already perfectly distinct units for weight (N) and mass (g).
@simonrobbins8357 Most kitchen weigh scales measure force (mass x gravitation). But for cooking you should use mass. In this the regard the good old beam balance is better. It really measures mass. Works correctly on Earth and Moon.
@simonrobbins8357 Weighing out 15 ml of water on a good scale is usually way more precise than measuring it with a household measuring cup that you got at the dollar store 😉
@klaus2t703 Most of us don't cook much on the moon or weigh boiling water.
What I want to know is where the American "cup" measurement fits into the imperial system! Watch a Brit trying to follow an American recipe that calls for a cup of this, and half a cup of that, and you'll see confusion at its finest! Which cup are we using exactly, the bone china teacup? The Sports Direct mug? You tell us! 😆
Then there's the "stick", as in "add a stick of butter". How on God's green earth is anyone outside the US supposed to know how much a stick of butter weighs, no one else sells butter by the "stick"!!
You have to remember people went to the (what was to become the US) in app 1500 so they took their customs with them. There were no standard weights and measures back then even in the UK. Therefore a lot were local area/county measurements . Over time the US or america went its own way and I would assume variations of those measurements were adopted although still called Imperial. No doubt this was also influenced by european immigrants as well.
I just avoid American recipes as it is bad practice to use volume measurements, weights will always give more consistent results.
Irish here - it does make it annoying for a recipe - a cup of flour is not the same as a cup of sugar or a cup of water etc, so each time it is mentioned, each individual substance has to be converted to grams/ml. It is doable, but again it is just averaging out what the best guess for that weight it - if the sugar is slightly finer then it will be very different than a sugar with larger crystals, could be off by 5 or 10% in either direction. Same goes for tablespoons etc, and that is where you could end up putting half or twice the amount of baking power or etc into a recipe than is needed, a simple "5g" or something makes it so much easier.
We did use both here in ireland in my childhood, and still use some imperial measurements, but it is more just in conversation rather than anything important, but it means most rulers or measuring tapes and scales come with both measurements on them - until cups come into the equasion lol.
For example i might say im 6 foot tall and 13 stone, but if im going to the doctor and they check, they will be using cm and kilograms. I might give someone directions and say "it is about 5 miles down that road" but all road signs are in kilometers, as well as their car saying km/h. I'd call a 5L bottle of water a gallon even though it is 1.3 gallons. or a pint of milk which is actually 500ml. In normal conversation, it isnt needed to be so specific.
American cup is 250ml work down from there. 133grams for a "stick" of butter. Someone bought me an American cookbook. Not difficult to use that system. But not as easy or accurate as metric.
@tivvy-xf4kz And of course they aren't aware of the outside world to change.
americans get to witness the metric system in schools ! it begins with the 9mm ! and later with grams
The story of the plane than ran out of fuel, the "Gimli glider", is actually a phenomenal one. The company had just made the switch to metric, and hadn't trained their staff properly on the new system, so even the initial mistake by the pilots can be excused given the circumstances. But everything after that was such a display of masterful airmanship! The whole crew, cockpit and cabin alike, were incredibly skilled and professional. And the captain in particular, who was the one who glided the aircraft to safety, was an absolute vistuoso in his craft. Pure artistry in the air! Channels like Mentour Pilot and Mayday - Air Disaster have both made really good and detailed videos on that incident. And since in this case everyone survived, you can even watch it without fear of ruining your day 😊
The confusion was further complicated by unreliable fuel guages. Engineers were having to dip the tanks to check the fuel quantity.
Mars Climate Orbiter became the Mars Pole crash. 330 million dollar lost because Lockheed Martin does not adhere to international standards internally, but converts everything upon delivery. In this case, unfortunately, not everything was converted.
Thank you for the channel recommendations!
The crazy thing about this story is that it has been used as a training scenario ever since, and virtually every time, the pilot crashed in the simulation. The original pilot, had actually spent years flying gliders, so he knew what he was doing, also helped by the fact that one of the passengers was actually an engineer that knew that model of aircraft inside out and backwards, so could answer pretty much every question the pilot had!
Australians converted from imperial to metric many years ago, it wasn't hard, but it would be too hard for Americans
As a German, I worked in 2014 in the US at a woodworking shop. It belonged to the brother of my ex-girlfriend at the time. I remember explaining my employer the metric system because he was curious. Afterwards, he decided to do test runs and ordered metric tools for production. The end result was quite positive. What stuck with me was instead of using decimal numbers, they used fractions. I mean, 2.56meters makes more sense than 64/25 meters. Jesus. It's crazy how often Americans dont notice the absurdity of using fractions for measurement.
to be fair we use fractions to. a milligram is basically 1/1000 of a gram. it's just much better to use the decimal system than 16/32/12/3 etc.
the imperial system is like using a grape to meassure weight.
14:32 what do you mean its easier, you've used imperial your entire life and still didn't know how many feet in a mile, one breif example of metric and you know, 1000, 1000, 1000.
In the US if you are doing science you will be using the metric system or S.I. Units. The trouble is if you need something made, people can be pretty stubbon about only using British Imperial units, so if you have precise measurements in metric you will need to get them converted.
Take the Uk approach, we still use miles or our traffic signs and meters for short distances, we still use feet and inches for calculating a person's height and many still use stone for weight. In the UK we have a proper mix of imperial and metric but if you are doing science oe engineering we use the metric system which removes all confusion.
Schizophrenia
Doing science in the US. Blasphemy! 😅
"12 inches to a foot. 3 feets to a yard. How many yards to a mile you say? Nobody knows. Ok so, how many feet to a yard?... 5280, of course... It's a simple number that everyone will remember"
- George Washington maybe
The thing about the U. S. Customary System (the system used in the U. S. and is slightly different than the Imperial System) is that each measure was originally stand alone and weren't intended to be used together. If you wanted to measure something you chose a measure and used it. In fact, it was the unification of measures that resulted in the mile being 5,280 feet.
Originally the mile was 1,000 paces. A pace was 5 feet (the distance covered by one foot when marching) so a mile was 5,000 feet. Then the mile was made compatible with another measure, the Furlong. Since a Furlong was 660 feet, the mile was extended to 5,280 feet to make it equal to 8 Furlongs. It is likely that it was the same with the other measures, adjusting them so they fit together.
Miracle the Canadian airliner landed safely, skilled piloted tried to land the aircraft safely when the exact circumstances were recreated in a simulator and failed to land safely.
The captain was a skilled glider pilot with many hours as gliding as a hobby. It was also fortunate they ran out near a disused airfield that had been turned into a drag strip. Lots of luck involved that day, but yes oth pilots did an amazing job getting down with only a few minor injuries.
Metric is also used in electronics. Volts, amps, watts, resistance are all metric measurements.
Only the distance between IC pins is 2.54 mm, i.e. 1/10 inch.
The Russians used 2.5mm, so their ICs didn't fit into the 2.54mm dimension.
10:10 - this is the "Gimli Glider" and you should definitely look it up because it is an _incredible_ story.
In the 70's we were taught both ways at school, & it's why I dodge back & forth between the two when using measurements.
Same here the first 4 years of school imperial then for the next 3 both then from comprehensive metric 🤦🤯😱
70s schooling here with a similar experience - seem to remember it was, in general, cm, feet, metres & miles 😂. Perhaps we were heavily affected by being taught by Imperial teachers who struggled to adjust!
I also remember most recipes being imperial in my childhood (probably a lot of older recipe books still around) and, of course, we all bought a quarter of cola cubes/pineapple chunks/pear drops etc - I don't know when those went to grams, but it was after I stopped regularly buying them (I think that was an EU directive that came about much later, as I seem to remember there being a pushback about fruit & veg no longer being sold by the lb in the early 2000s)
In the UK, the internet says we switched from °F to °C around 1970 when the Met Office started using it, but that's not my experience. I can only remember weather forecasts in °F throughout the 70s and possibly into the 80s. In the late 80s, I had the °C to °F formula memorised so the forecast made some sense to me (°C x9/5 +32). I do now have a better feel for what sort of day the °C reading should present me with but, in the back of my head, I'm still thinking "yay! 21°C - that's about 70°F, so it's going to be a warm day" or debating whether the temperature's tipping over the 100°F milestone (a Kilometrestone is much less impressive!!)
It's good that you know both!
I got caught in the conversion to metric in middle school. I use inches and feet for measuring small distances but kilometers for measuring large distances because I learned to drive after the conversion.
My measuring tapes have both and I use whichever system is most convenient. For example, wood is nominally in Imperial units so I use feet and inches, unless I need to do some calculations, in which case I switch to metric.
Same here, but usually have to look up how many feet there are in a mile but never have to look up how many metres there are in a kilometre. And I know there are 1000 kg in a tonne, but have no idea how many pounds there are in a ton (and is that short or long tons?).
In the construction trades in Canada we use both. Boiling water at 100 and freezing it at 0 is so intuitive.
You keep saying it would be harder for you because you didn't learn it as a child. As Canadian in my 60s, who had to learn both systems, you are wrong. If you start using metric, it just makes sense. 100 degrees is boiling, 0 degrees is freezing. You don't need to bend your mind to understand it. All of the measurements in the metric system as intuitive, and make so much more sense.
American stubbornness is why you don't use metric, the arrogant attitude that you're the best country in the world which actually is far from true
Imperial might work OKbfor crudely constructing wooden buildings.. some things are good enough to an Inch, others to 1/16th.
An inch is the minimum required precision to cobble something together.
They were leading technology and science for decades... still has great universities...
@herrbonk3635 Yea, when every mind from every country in the world comes to yours, you can pretend it was all you all along.
The NASA example that the video has is perfect.
Americans claiming they went to the moon because they don't use metric, but in reality the scientists that make such things possible do use it primarily, on top of a lot of them not even being American themselves.
And universities have become so infested with ideologues, you might even have an advantage in life if you actually avoid them at this point.
@ilias856 Yes, I fully agree on both points. But USA still has plenty of great minds, and was the technological and scientific leader for a very long time. Pretty tired of snobbish and arrogant europeans calling them generally "stupid" (and worse things than that...).
It boils down to one simple thing. They didn't invent it. Its a foreign concept which is a no-no to American adoption.
It was also offered to the world for free so it can't be monetized. America would require you to licence it and pay fees!
metric is like the most intuitiv measurment system imaginable
The yapping stops at 2:58
I think if you don't want to hear the yapping, maybe the video they reacted to, rather than a video on a reaction channel, is better suited for you 🤔
Being an older Australian I lived through our conversion from imperial to metric, including a few million road distance signs being changed. I am equally proficient in both now, but for many years I thought in miles and stones.
I too remember the change back in the 60s/70s (I was at High school in Sydney). Very confusing.
Likewise, although I was young enough (born in early 70s) to only be vaguely aware that many signs still displayed miles. I grew up with a mix thanks to my parents, and to this day the one thing I still do better with imperial is the height of a person in feet. Strangely any other height or length I work more smoothly in metric.
Same. If someone asks my height, I probably respond in feet/inches if they are older than me but metric if they are younger.
@AndrewWhite-ey2ep Relatable, I had to use imperial units when speaking to my grandmother.
@williamdom3814 Confusing for a moment, but possible. Metric makes so much more sense, and so much easier to break things down (or up)
As someone who's used metric my entire life I think that there is an aspect of switching to metric that not many people think about.
If you are using a system of measurement numerically, to get accurate numbers metric is way easier, even for people who didn't learn it growing up. But if you're using the unit to get an idea of how far a distance is, or how tall someone is or anything measurement that you think about daily, those switches are very difficult.
That's what people mean when they say it's hard to learn and they're right. I would argue that it's worthwhile, and you make the change slowly over a generation.
The system we us in America is actually "U.S. Customary Measures." They are based on, and in most ways the same as Imperial units, so we continue to use that word.
Here's my favorite example of how wacky the Imperial system is. You've probably heard the old trick question, "Which is heavier, an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold?" You naturally want to think the gold is heavier, but quickly realize that it's an ounce of each, therefore the same, right? I'd argue that an ounce of gold is heavier. Ordinary substances like feathers are measured in Averdupois ounces, which are 28.35 grams, while precious metals, like gold, are measured in Troy ounces, which are 31.1 grams. So an ounce of gold is heavier than an ounce of feathers. With that in mind, which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? This time the feathers weigh more, because an Averdupois pound is 16 ounces, but a Troy pound is only 12 ounces.
Someone once asked me what was heavier, 1 kilogram of steel or 1 kilogram of feathers. I said, “Drop both on your foot, then you'll know...”😁
I think you have it backwards and an ounce of feathers is heavier than an ounce of gold.
@stephenolan5539 Nah, you didn't get the joke...
@Steeler-wg5zo
But it is not a joke that an ounce of feathers is heavier than an ounce of gold.
It's a fact.
@stephenolan5539 yep, and the pope is catholic...
1:32 when people from the United States, Liberia, or Myanmar work internationally, most of the time their counterparts do the conversion from metric to imperial for them - not the other way round
Because the other end can’t fully grasp the conversion. I have the suspicion that they feel it’s better to do the conversion themselves because mistakes can be costly. With other countries it’s clockwork because everyone is on the same page. With somebody who is different, you have to put in extra attention.
when we changed from inches to metric it happened over night and the best way to change is to don't use inches changed to metric just use metric measures not inches
The beauty of the metric system being based on physics is , even when whe somehow lose al technology and current knowledge, we can rebuild and relearn it from zero, because the physics will always be the same
Funny fact. Americans are using metric when it comes to ammunition
Also the monetary system is metric i.e. 100 cents = $1
Yes, the .223 Remington is very metric.
Only sometimes ... bizarrely enough 9mm = exactly .357 inches.... And yet .32 and .38 are also 9mm rounds .
@SaintKimbo metric is for physical units only. The fact that there are 100 cents in a dollar does not suddenly make it metric
@HeartOfTheTempest
Well, the term 'cents', comes from the Latin word for 100 (centum), as does the first part of 'centimetre'.
So, there's a definite connection.
Lesson learned: always check the units! I bought a kitten bed on Amazon without noticing the dimensions were in inches. It turns out I actually bought a bed for a tiger
We are stuck using both sytems here in Canada due to the US backing out of converting, though we primarily use metric. Things like oven temp are still Fahrenheit, land or property areas are still in acres, plumbing pipes are still imperial eg: 1-1/2" ABS.
Yes, it's strange, but You have a good excuse: US. But in Hungary, we're using (nowadays) SI, but for example, in special areas - as you mentioned - plumbing stuff we're still using cols. Or in cars: horsepower (yes, with a Watt value besides). Another interesting thing is, my friend told me, at railway the diesel trains are measured with HP, but the electricities only Watts :D
I still use both systems. I used to get confused at school because when I started school we were only taught imperial but by the time I left school we were only taught metric, as the change happened in the 70's.
Barry - we've been metric for over 50 years. I'm 78 and I've been measuring in metric and thinking in metric since then. I can't understand why people still use ancient stones and pounds when they measure their own weight, instead of simple kilograms.
Me too…….also up to 10 years old I used pre-decimal currency
Yea, only in the English speaking world. In the civilized world, we adopted it much earlier. Even for my great-grandmother (born in 1903), the Imperial system was something that was long gone, and only the generation of her grandparents knew and was taught at school.
I went to school in Australia, during Primary School we were taught in Imperial measurements although the currency conversion to dollars happened a few years into Primary School. The year I went to High School was the year the conversion took place, so for the first year or so we were mainly learning about the conversion factors as Australia changed from Imperial to metric. For most of my working life as a tradesman I would measure in metric units but estimate without a measuring instrument or tool in Imperial units and then maybe convert that to metric. Sometimes if I had to compare something I measured to something else that I knew the size of I would mentally convert the measurements to imperial to gauge the comparative size difference, as I understood the benefits of the metric system but my mind seemed to mainly store size comparisons in imperial.
i really like that your takeaway is "yeah, we should learn this".
its not hard to learn, since almost every conversion is x10 or /10 but getting a feel for how much it is will take a while
We use both in Britain, it depends on what is being discussed.
Less and less, though. Even market stalls sell in metric now, when it comes to fruit and vegetables!
...and how old you are.
@vallejomach6721Sixty-seven.
@gamingtonight1526 actualy more and more - due to the influence of GPS for example
@vallejomach6721 eg a 16 y/o will quote their height in ft/in
When I was at junior school in London, the Imperial system was still the standard. Note, I say the Imperial system and not the US system, as the US has smaller pints and lighter tons than the true Imperial measures. When I began senior school (aged 13) in S Africa, it was Metric. It truly isn't difficult to make the transition. Having both systems, as you do today in the US, is costly and complicated.
A USA and a UK fluid ounce are different as well, Uk fl oz = 28.41 mililiters, USA fl oz = 29.57 mililiters. However as you say, the pints have different amounts of fluid ounces in them, UK pint = 20 fl oz, USA pint = 16 fl oz. And so on through the fluid measuring system.
Unfortunately, there is also a tiny difference between a UK and USA ounce (oz) and pound (lb), which can be relevant in a baking recipe or an experiment. So it is important to know where the measurements comes from. Americans also do not use stone as a measurement of weight as we do in the UK imperial system 14 lb = 1 stone.
This is why the metric system is best when comunicating with those outside your own circle and especially when accuracy is important.
50 years from now, history will say the US switch to metric began with the "Washington's Dream" SNL sketch.
Hey guys, if you want to learn the metric system you could start with a chart of the conversion table or different imperial and metric comparisons.
I have a small magnet on my fridge for cooking, when I come across an American recipe I can refer to the little chart and find the UK imperial or metric equivalant.
Although do double check the chart details with other sources before you buy, I have slightly different measurements on 2 different charts eg 1 US pint = 2 cups =16 fl oz =470ml (or 473 ml on another chart which is correct) Note: a UK pint is 20 fl oz = 568 ml. other measurements are also different between imperial and USA measurments.
You use it more than you think in US. Neil deGrasse Tyson did a good video on it
He also did a very good update of Carl Sagan's 1980s series "Cosmos".
I joined the CAF pretty much right out of high school. A few guys from the American Military University (or equivalent thereof, I can't remember off the top of my head what it was called, JROC or something like that) would spend a few weeks with us when I was posted in Ontario. We were close enough to the border that the vast majority of them opted to drive their personal vehicles up, but almost none of them knew anything about the metric system, let alone that Canada used it. They'd cross the border, get on the highway, see a speed limit of 110 km/h and just shrug their shoulders and start going 110 miles/hour. Suffice to say, the cops in that area weren't particularly fond of American tourists.
Fun fact: there is a commonly used "metric pound" (at least in Germany, it's called: Pfund) and it's simply 1/2 kilograms (0.5 kg).
With an American pound being 0.452kg it's close enough to replace it if you want to keep using the word in everyday things like cooking 🤓
Same applies to Mainland China. There's the old weight standard called the cattie, which divides into 16 taels, and 12 taels is very close to a pound. The modern cattie in use now is also 0.5kg.
I use both systems, and when you come to the UK, you will find both are used.
Weird.
I don't measure things daily, but I whenever I have to can quickly do it off the top of my head
Just to complicate things, we Brits still use miles when driving, and pints for milk and beer (but litres for petrol). However, Centigrade (Celsius) for temperatures makes some sense. The point at which water freezes is zero, while at 100C water starts to boil. zero Fahrenheit is where a particular mix of brine freezes, and 100 is the blood temperature of a certain French cow. The inch was based on the length from the tip of the thumb to the first joint, the foot was the length of a human foot, and the yard was from the tip of an outstretched arm to the nose (or sometimes 3 feet). These, of course, varied from person to person until king Henry 1 decreed the standard yard was from the tip of his outstretched arm to his nose.
For clarification, water boils at 100C at sea level, where the atmospheric pressure is one atmosphere. This temperature decreases at higher altitudes due to lower atmospheric pressure. This is why boiling water on top of Mt. Everest would not be as hot as that at sea level, making for a very unsatisfactory cup of tea!
Yeah, that's why it's hard to cook pasta correctly during a ski trip in Val d'Isere or Tignes. 😂
I use km when driving and everything else that requires measuring longer distances (the mile is a VERY weird unit and doesn't divide very nicely into any subdivisions e.g. 1760 yards. Really?). I grew up using metres (with or without prefixes) in school, so why not use them in adult life as well? Also, 100 km/h sounds better than 60 mi/h.
@KyrilPG Pasta is easy to cook under any conditions or units of measure because the correct unit is "al dente" - just remove a bit from time to time and bite it 😁That's how I know it's ready anyway.
And before anybody starts piling on me, I'm only half serious.
@Russ_Keith It takes much longer at high altitude like in Tignes over 2000 meters above sea level.
It feels like it's boiling for 15 minutes and still not cooked.
Especially with ski mittens 😂
Happened at the chemical plant my dad worked at for many years. An American company designed one part of the plamt and a German firm designed the other part. Both were working to the same total production tonnage, but were using different definitions of the Ton/Tonne.
This is way too common, unfortunately. It's insane how much money and resources have been lost due to this kind of awkward and ludicrous mistakes.
In Australia 2 different firms did the railway from Sydney to Perth... Different unit gauges and a complicated carriage transfer system at Alice springs (I think)... Where the lines meet .
There will never be a video like this about the Imperial system, because the only argument for it is :"I like it better."
I drive a 2015 Dodge Challenger in the UK. Every nut and bolt on the car is metric, including the threads. The badges on the side say 6.4L, the engine is referred to as both 6.4 L and 392 cu in in various places. I think the US actually uses a mixture of metric and imperial, similar to older generations in the UK. Main difference for our older generations is that shops have to display weights and measurements in metric by law, so they've had to get used to that. Also we were gradually weaned on to Celcius from Fahrenheit but by now everyone knows 28C is a hot day and 0C is a cold one.
Fuel used to be sold in pounds per gallon and is now pounds per litre, but it has gone up in price so much over that timeframe that the numbers became meaningless anyway.
Younger generations here have swapped over to metric more as they tend to think of their height in metres & weight in Kg, but they still have some awareness of imperial due to the speed limits and road signs using miles.
I'm 51, so I grew up through the change.
I think of height of people in feet
Weight of people in Stones
Distances down the road in Miles/Yards
Weight of things other than people in Kg or metric ton
Height/length of things other than people in Feet or metres
Height/length of short things in inches/fractions of inch/thou or cm, m, mm etc
Weight of small things in gram/Kg
Speed in mph or kph
Fuel economy in mpg
Temperature in Celcius.
And my 1971 Volvo 142 could almost be stripped to parts using a ½" tool, in the car industri is has switched in the last 50 years! In Europe we measure fuel economy in liters per 100km.
I live in France, and the only place I've ever seen imperial units used for, is screens.
Somehow, they're always expressed in inches, with a cm conversion below it.
Screens and wheels diameters 😁
we forgot naval measurements are still in use all over the world (naval mile, knot, etc.)
When I was at school in the 60's there were 3 little rhymes
"A meter measure 3feet 3 it's longer than a yard you see"
"2and a quarter pounds of Jam weighs a kilogram."
And " a liter of water is a pint and 3 quarters"
Hope they help😊
That's not how we, in the U.K, spell litre.
US uses English simplified with different spelling, not English
US Liter, English Litre
US Caliber, English Calibre
US aluminum, English Aluminium (US continue to use the original name, later changed in the UK to be more similar to other periodic table elements, and both are valid)
US army uses Klicks Kilometers, Freedom units
@firstlast-hj2sb It's not the original name and Americans didn't "continue" to use it; they adopted it later on. Humphrey Davy originally called it alumium, and a few years later changed to prefer aluminum, but other scientists were already calling it aluminium by that time, and that became the common name even in America; but Noah Webster only used the i-less form in his dictionary so as the word came into more common use around the turn of the 20th century Americans started spelling it that way. The American Chemical Society adopted the spelling in 1925 and now Americans all spell it without the i.
Many AmE spelling variants of words actually happen to be more archaic or older versions, whereas BrE has shifted its ortography along the years more. The internationally spoken varieties', and especially E2L preference tends to lean on the international forms of certain words, but the division is far from being simple. I know that I tend to choose the AmE spellings over the BrE ones, but that's because I write [both fiction and non-fiction] in a context where a large part of the characters, or the subject topics, are American - or thrn, my source and reference articles are that. Those forms also appear closer to the pronunciation than the BrE ones, at least from my first language's point of view. Then again, the variety and historical nuances of the English vocabulary and ortography are part of the charm - but require dedication and effort to master well, for both first and second language speakers. The spelling varies based on the language of origin... but that isn't the only criterion by far, and it isn't really that simple, even here.
The primary defence against the changeover is the lack of familiarity and the cost. Please note that nobody started out with the metric system, every country that adopted it had to change and had to pay for new signs, labels, etc. It is a gradual process, starting out with having dual measurements side-by-side and having it entrenched in the school system so new generations have it firmly locked in rather than the old system. As for the cost, it is easily made back for companies by making exports a great deal easier as selling stuff to the same standard as everyone else is a lot cheaper than either having to make a special 'export-only' version or just giving up on trade completely because of the hassle.
The cost is largely overstated, as the new system can and must be implemented slowly. The example I always use is road signs, which usually are renovated around every 10-15 years. Over the course of the 10-15 years since implementation you keep renovating the signs at the usual rate, but you put in signs with both miles and kilometers (you go from "New York 100 miles" to "New York 100 miles/160 km"), so people gradually familiarise with the new measurements. After 15 or 20 years, when all signs have been updated according to the usual turn over (so no added costs), you can start renovate them with the metric only measures ("New York 100 miles/160 km" --> "New York 160 km") by now the die hards either have grown used to the new system or have died, and you didn't have to spend a penny more than you would for the physiological renovation of the signs.
to be fair, the only thing that changed when the EU directive enforced all measurements in metric was that our pints of milk started to be labelled 568ml. Regular milk (and beer etc) is still sold in pints, we just had to include the volume in ml. We didn't change the standard imperial bottle (or glass) size.
Italy started out with metric right at its get go.
bs. seppos signed up to the metric system, in 1875.. was that not enough time to convert? appears it wasnt, but the world knows seppos are slow learners, so no surprise there.
The cost of said change in most countries happened when widespread school wasnt in place and when Pannels signs etc did not exist in the massive scale it does now. So it was as bad around the 18th century.
Not using the metric system even after an explanation is like hitting a nail with a wooden spoon after someone offers you a hammer.
Metric system was invented by french during the French revolution.
The purpose was the unification of the differents mesurments systems in the country which make a true mess in regional exchanges.
The International Office of Mesures is in France at Sevres (close to Paris).
The metric system is on base 10 which is more rationnal.
However Sea and Air navigation still use Nautical Mille for distance, feet for altitude and knots for speed everywhere in the world (exept in Russia) due to the very simple calculation for navigation
60 Nautical Milles = 1° of arc on the Earth sphere
1° = 60mn = 3600s (like hours)
1 knot = 1 NM/h
Metric system as an invention and concept is British first as well.
This fact was lost to time for a while, and the French did claim to have invented. But the truth was rediscovered, a British guy wrote a well published book where he included a detailed overview of a new standardised International decimal measuring system. It was everything we understand as the Metric system in detail - how it would work, why it's better, and suggestions for the standards it could use. This was before anyone in France had thought about it. And the book would have been available in France. And I'm sure it's a coincidence that the first standards they considered were the ones in the book.
In France the official guidance is now not to claim they invented it the same way they used to. Only that they named the system now in use, and used such a system first which is both true to be fair they did.
@wyterabitt2149of course !
Everyone knows that British invented everything on Earth 🤣
Yes John Wilkins suggest to use a portion (1/10,000,000) of the distance between North Pôle to Ecuador as global mesurment system in 1668.
He did a suggestion but he didn’t invented the « metric system »
French scientists used his suggestion but they calculated, named and installed the system not only for length but also for weight and volume. The entire metric system based on decimal for fractions.
French still claim the metric invention
@joelcalmet5710No, French didn't unsent it. They used a preexisting idea that they took that was now out, and used it first, named it, and decided in the final standards.
They accept this and have done for some time, and we are talking about the French here pmsl
I can give the French props for exactly what they did, doing it first and finalising it. If you are too upset to accept it, fair enough live your life how you want.
@wyterabitt2149Wtf are you yapping?... Stop spreading bullshit like that
@wyterabitt2149 Right... and Wakanda invented everything before the British, too.
Wilkins had a vague idea in 1668. The French *built* a real system in the 1790s: full decimal structure, coherent units, physical standards in Sèvres, legal enforcement, international diffusion.
That's like saying someone drawing a flying machine in 1660 "invented aviation", and the Wright brothers just "used the idea". Stop rewriting history because you're salty that France actually implemented it.
And no - the French haven't "stopped claiming it". Quite the opposite. We love reminding everyone still using imperial leftovers that it's called the *_International_* System - and it was born in Paris. The whole world even uses *_OUR_* French abbreviation, "SI" for "Système International" - not "ISU" for "International System of Units".
And we enjoy rubbing that fact especially hard in the faces of our best enemies across the Channel.
One of the Problems we had when we went metric was the measurements? Something simple like putting new flooring in a house All houses were built to imperial measurements so when we went metric you either had to not have enough flooring or so much left over
That happened to me ended doubling had enough for 2 floors lol
Try living in a 300 year old cottage... It was built in 'that stone fits'... Imperial / metric, whatever, both come up with annoyingly specific numbers.. lol
With a German engineer in charge, the Saturn V rocket was designed using the metric system, which was then converted to imperial for the manufacturing.
The US did actually start transitioning to metric in 1975, and there is 1 interstate (I-19 in Arizona) that has all of its distances signposted in metric. I don't recall why that effort was halted though.
Yes, the metric system was legally adopted in 1975 by the USA yet it was some how kept as voluntary use. Why?
I admit to still thinking in imperial myself for some things such as my height and weight, but use metric for anything else.
@barbara184 Yeah, I was born in the 90's and still use imperial for height and most distances. I have switched to metric for weight though, and use metric for pretty much everything else aside from things that are just imperial by design, like vehicle speeds
Political incentive, I think.
@barbara184 Sounds a bit like saying folk can drive on either the right or left side of the road "It's voluntary!"
@Draiscor Imagine a metric scale on your speedometer and your vehicle speed is metric by design...
The complete adoption of the metric system has been held back so far by out of touch old men in the UK who don't see anything wrong with the way they've always done things and Americans who are the victims of their own brainwashing.
Lol if pounds, ounces and the English language were good enough for Jesus, they good enough for you...
@rahowherox1177 Ah yes, Jesus... born in Bethlehem, preaching in Galilee, crucified in Jerusalem... and clearly speaking English, wearing sandals from Walmart, and hauling 12 disciples in a Ford F-150 while quoting the King James Bible - a text written 1600 years after his death, in a language that didn't even exist yet.
In reality, Jesus most certainly spoke:
- Aramaic (everyday spoken language in Judea),
- Hebrew (for scripture and synagogue),
- and probably Greek (wider lingua franca) or Latin (Roman administration)
As for units of measurement? The Bible mentions cubits, ephahs, baths, talents, handbreadths, furlongs, stadia, log, shekels, and drachmas. Not a single inch, pound, gallon, or ounce in sight. Or meter, kilogram or liter, to be fair.
So unless you think Jesus preached with an Imperial ruler in one hand and a King James Bible in the other, maybe - just maybe - rethink the fantasy.
As long as you remember that 10 cents = 1 dime, 10 dimes = 1 Dollar, you have grasped the concept of the metric system.
Of course it is, that's why the entire world uses it. Just try using it and after a week or two it'll make sense and you'll understand it fine. Like weight and certainly temperatures. Give the 24hr clock a try too. It'll open up the whole world for you.
Maybe adjust the temp on your car or phone to display celcius and/or the 24h clock. You'll quickly learn to use both metric and USCS.
Switching to a new system is like swtiching currency. Many European countries switched from their own currency to Euro. The generation that does the switch will still think in the olde currenc for a while. The next generation never does.
It may be an effort for YOU to switch to the metric system ... but it is no effort, only benefit for the next generation.
So if you keep the system you just make it difficult for your children. ... and to some extent exclude them from the rest of the world. (That´s what currently happens)
---
But if you think this is just pointing to others, I have to disagree. As a German I also vote for adjusting the wording of numbers, and to adjust the date format (from most significant to least significant) and to adjust our (water) pipe dimensions (which is still in inches).
All because it makes sense. Yes, I´m a technician ;-)
@klaus2t703 The Euro is a different story. Many people, like me, remembered the prices in our own currency not because the Euro was more difficult to calculate, but to compare the new Euro prices with old currency prices, in order to find out if you're being ripped off or not. Both the Euro and the old currencies (and the US$!) were calculated in metric.
@fredwillemse No, it´s the same. When you need to change form one measure to the other (independent of currency or length) your brain still thinks in the old measure. It´s not the math, it´s what you are used to.
In the UK we have not really adopted the metric system we have a strange hybrid system that really makes no logical sense but we all just understand.
For example the fuel we put in our cars is sold by the litre a metric measurement but if you go to a car dealership to buy a car they won't tell you how many kilometres the car will do to a litre of fuel they will tell you how many miles it does to the gallon.
If you buy cans or bottles of beer the measurement on the can or bottle will be in millilitres but if you buy a draught beer from the pump it will come in pints.
If you ask someone how tall they are they will respond in feet and inches not metres.
Milk and beer are about preserving tradition. Miles instead of Kilometers is due to the cost of changing all the road signs and speedometers.
@grahamgresty8383 Cool so pray tell why produce is no longer sold by the pound if preserving tradition is so important, why a special carve out for beer and milk?
Truth is there is no real logical rhyme or reason for it.
As for road signs you surely don't believe they haven't changed the system in 60 years because of cost do you?
My niece had a baby boy on Monday. We all spoke about how much he weighed in pounds and ounces even though he would’ve been weighed in kilograms at the hospital.
8lbs 5oz if you are interested!
No, we very much do NOT use a mixture of both.
Just using imperial units for fuel, road distance, beer and milk is NOT _using_ the imperial system.
Think of it this way:
There are no units on road signs. Just magnitude. Because it's only ever miles, for timing and comparison purposes.
You could pick any unit, this could make one up, and as long as it's only on road signs it's irrelevant.
Using a system of units in mathematics is _using_ the system. Science and engineering.
And we just don't.
_Nobody_ does.
@matthewhopkins666 Exactly that. I was around when we changed. Every and I mean every sign with a distance on it would need to change It wouldn't be just a case of slapping km stickers on them On the motorways all the mile markers woud need to be moved (little blue posts at the edges. All the count down signs to slip roads, The handy informative ones in miles/yards etc would have to be changed. Any road markings with a distance on it would have to be changed. If you didn't physically change them they would convert to some fraction of metric.
To change to the metric system would take a person very little time; to change from metric to the imperial system would be insane
Im an old guy from England (57) and i still prefer to say miles instead of kilometers, stones and pounds instead of kilograms
Don't worry, we've had metric since 1872 in Germany and my parents still use pounds for butter and other produce (they're in their eighties, but still ...)
I’m Canadian, about your age. I use kilometers for distance and speed. Yet use pounds. Feet & inches for height. I kinda switch back and forth for other things, comes in handy speaking to American tourists 😂
I use both e.g., Imperial for my height, Metric for my weight.
really interesting. So do I. (for height) I remember going to the doctors and when he asked my weight, I gave it to him in imperial - he laughed and said "lets convert that to kg for you"
A cube of water with side lengths of 10 cm has a volume of 1 liter, weighs 1 kg, freezes at 0 °C, and boils at 100 °C.
And a cube with a 100cm/1 meter side is 1000 liters or 1 cubic meter or a metric ton!
100C at sea level!
When weighing certain things here in the UK we use Grams, Ounces and Kilos.
17:30 ... India changed to metric btw 1958 and 1962; 436mio ppl at the time 🥸
Just FYI American Customary Units are not the old British Imperial System. Also the units in either are not wholly British; various countries/towns across Europe were using these too, some date back to the romans (like the inch, foot, ounce, and pound). It was the French and Napolean who brought us metric (and may go some way to explaining why it took so long for the Brits to finally adopt it).
Many think that the French invented the metric system, but Englishman Bishop John Wilkins invented it over 120 years earlier. Wilkins' system was almost identical to the SI (le Système International d'unités) we use today, apart from the units' names.
Wilkins' system was one of the first practical systems that avoided defining units in terms of prototypes. Although the metric system we use today is of French origin, the British made great contributions to it.
If the completely unique measurement, using the same or similar names as other European places isn't then British. Then America changing the units a bit and keeping the name doesn't make it American and different either.
Also by not the same, you mean except for area and length which is identical, and weight that is almost identical?
Brits could have adopted a metric system concept long before the French when they invented it first. But you don't change a successful empires entire system like that, that is madness.
It took so long because doing so was objectively stupid to consider at the time. By the time it was possible, other issues also made such a widespread change not worth focusing. The change wasnt done much later than what is the first point it made sense and wasn't silly to focus on.
Americans facing the metric system like a strange new food sound like the British facing the decimalisation of their currency in 1971:
“Why should we change a system proven by time that divides a pound into 20 shillings, and a guinea into 21, each being divided into 12 pennies, making 240 pennies in a pound, and confuse everyone by replacing it with 100 New Pennies? We’ll have to keep converting everything in base10 back to either base12 or base20, or a mix of both, to work out what the prices are.”
The American fear of change again. Just like roundabouts. We (brits) generally cannot make sense of the U.S. still using ancient imperial measurements but I believe it's fear of change. That's how imperial became freedum units.
To be fair, it would cost a fortune to change and lead to dangerous mistakes for the first 5 (?) years.
The cost will be enormous. From changing road signs, retooling factories, relabeling consumer goods, and updating technical documentation. There would be a lot of confusion - it would be like telling a whole country to drive on the other side of the road. Wouldn't you fear that?
@KlausSN Do it the UK way, first we required all imperial numbers to include the metric equivalent, we then started removing the imperial numbers and required all prices to be vs metric units, eventually the imperial units die out as it's more work for the shops to run both. Leave the speed limits etc, they are really just numbers so who cares.
The biggest issue for the US may be things like Building Standards which are all written down and known by the house builders of the US.
I'm not sure about cars in the US, they might be a headache, I assume US cars are not using metric measurements/bolts etc. But I would also assume that anything from outside the US would use metric throughout, I think this used to be a problem in the UK but I think they have all been metric throughout for a long time now, probably since we joined the EU.
@KlausSNSweden managed to switch over to the other side literally overnight with the minimum of accidents
@gordon861 I'm pretty certain that the US car industry is close to 100% metric today. They started changing already in the seventies, impossible to work on a global market without using metric.
Given the USA's current move towards a medieval concept of civilization I don't think it really matters whether the US adopts the metric system. Going forward I would reason that the importance of the USA in science, technology, engineering and maths will decrease as they move away from logic. Sorry!
Moving away? They are moving BACK to it. They now have a president who knows that a woman can't have a penis. Logic is COMING BACK.
Metric is like money 1 penny = 1 cm. 100 pennies is a dollar, 100 cm is a meter.
When it comes to what system is superior, find the answer to this question:
what is the definition of an inch today?
It used to be the lenght of 3 barley grains in a row - but that's not very accurate is it?
So today it's defined as 0.0254 METERS.
The imperial system nowadays is just the metric system with extra steps
The British didn't really invent the Imperial system of measurements. The system had developed from the times of the Celts, the Romans and the Anglo Saxons, the British just standardised it to ensure that others people were generally working, for example the same lengths. The Americans are still operating an even older set of Imperial measurements, dating back to the time of Queen Anne, which is why some standards are different, such as the US gallon being smaller that the old UK gallon. The UK went metric in 1965
After watching the complete video:
For sure, you can't change from 1 day to the next.
Begin with nearby things: in supermarket weight is shown in imperial and metric pounds. 2 imperial pounds are some percent less than 1 kilogram.
A quarter gallon is lil more than a liter.
1 meter is lil less than a yard.
If we watch Superbowl, we take yard as meter.
I was born in the 70's in the UK. I remember going to the shop and asking for a "quarter of cola bottles" for example (They were about 30p!) - and that's the only recollection I have of using imperial as such. Pretty much every here is metric. We use grams, millimetres etc. We buy milk and fuel by the litre. The funny thing is, there were some old school politicians who insisted we still buy beer by the pint, and use miles per hour. It's stupid.
I talk to my mum and she says internally, she still converts metric units in her head to imperial units. Whereas we have 2 generations now that use metric. They know what 1kg of strawberries look like, or 2 litres of orange juice, but wouldn't have a clue if you asked them to pour 20 fluid ounces of coke into a glass.
The sooner we get rid of miles per hour the better, (and I'm saying that as an oldie!) - though I might still be persuaded to hold onto the pint for beer!
What's that like 50 quid for a quarter of cola bottles now? :p
@streaky81 lol I have no idea - I'm scared to look!
I grew up with imperial measurements and Fahrenheit. Got used to imperial weights in food shopping, but I still have to convert to imperial measurements in my head, for some things, as I can't visualise measurements in centimetres. For example, if I am digging a hole for a new plant I have to think in inches for the depth of the hole (10 cm = 4 inches). When it comes to weighing ingredients for cooking, I have scales which has both imperial and metric, which is useful when making recipes from older books, so no mental arithmetic needed! I also weigh myself in stones and pounds on my bathroom scales, and use imperial if I need to take body measurements. I also have a thermometer on my wall to check the temperature, which shows both Fahrenheit and Centigrade, but I do always refer to temperatures in Centigrade.