I am ok with switching to metric in everything except temperature. Its just nicer to use than Celsius. Also yes the harder ass hats insult us for using it the more I'm against it because fuck you also I would say a not insignificant number of Americans are becoming more and more disillusioned with Europeans. I can't help but feel like it has something to do with Europeans non-stop insulting Americans. Our people will fight and die for our allys and protect smaller nations from being bullyed by big ones but with out fail people in Europe treat us like Nazis or Fascist. Hell I be an American could be stabed and bleeding out on a street in Europe and Europeans would just ignore them. I know that last statement isn't true, but the problem is it's feeling more and more likely that it would be true.
Hi as an American I loved your videos. I use them to research for a number of things. I couldn't stop laughing, it honestly reminded me of one of the Top Tenz videos were you guys mentioned "American don't like being told what to do especially by there government." I toast you guys some home made Apple Pie, complete with whip cream.
I'm from Canada, where Metric has been the standard since before I started school. I'm 6' 2" tall, about 175 lbs. I used to have a out a 12 mile drive into town for school, at a highway speed limit of 100 km/hr. I feel hot if the temperature is over 26 degrees, and feel sick if my fever hits 100. I like drinking a 1L drink while building a deck out of 8' 2x4s with 3.5" deck screws. I then inflate my bike tires to 45 PSI before going for a 5k ride. Yup...Metric Conversion 100% successful!
I am old enough to remember the conversion in Canada. A decade later, it was against the law to sell milk in quarts but the only way to get a metric bolt was to buy an imported car and take it apart.
As an engineer designing light fixtures in the United States I can tell you we use both systems of measurements, usually within the same products. We talk about components in terms of millimeters, and use inches when designing the outside features, largely because the building industry still uses imperial measurements. We also tend to use the imperial footcandle for unit of light measurement for interior spaces but we use the international metric lux when we talk about exterior spaces. So, we mix and match units of measurements in the same sentence and nobody really blinks an eye.
@@nm2064 yes, indeed. But we can always use the metric lux if that strikes our fancy. 10 lux is close to one footcandle. In the USA, we use both units depending on the application. Indoor applications usually use footcandles, exterior applications usually use lux. How is that for consistency?
try cooking from my grandma's old english christmas pudding recipe and converting to metric... we finally got smart and wrote the metric on the recipe!
@ so their shortcomings are my fault that they can't do what every high schoolers obligated to do to graduate is my fault and I'm supposed to justify their stupidity? LMAO ok good point dude u got me.... Lmao
@@jeromebiggs7846 tbf, doing conversions every time you need to do them introduces more situations where something can go wrong and ruin everything else down the line. if you have to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius every time you do a calculation, it means you get an opportunity to get the conversion wrong every time you do it, which is not a problem if you stick to just a single system of temperature measurement. doing conversions is inherently worse than just using a universal system, even if only marginally. the real problem is managing the adoption of that universal system globally.
The US Army uses a bastardization of both SI and Imperial. Km for landnav, Miles for running and mph for driving, lbs for weight, meters for shooting and artillery, liters for fluids, etc etc
When the NFL switches to a 100 meter field, the Army can finish metric migration. (Nobody wants to estimate distance by the number of soccer fields.) We already have warehouses overflowing with metric sh*t tons, ready to deploy.
Most of my life, I didn't mind using imperial units, then I got to 2nd year thermodynamics and had to deal with crap like (ft^2 * lbf) / (in^3 * lbm) * (BTU) / (lbm * ºR) * (lbm * mol * ºR) / (ft * lbf). That's when I learned imperial units were actually hell. No one should ever have to tape pages together so they can write 600 mm long equations to keep track of unit conversions. Thermodynamics and inch-pounds are like alcohol and fentanyl, a combination that will lead to an untimely death.
Thank you for your incisive comments. Because of those comments it may be that you would be interested in the following viewing/reading - if you are not already aware of them. ua-cam.com/video/1d3gAZ-Te3Y/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/_lshRAPvPZY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/JjBWJbHtYHo/v-deo.html www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf
Problem is, switching between miles and kilometers where the signs currently are placed, they would now be in meaningless incomprehensible increments. The sign that once read EXIT 253 3 MILES would be 4.83 KM.. nobody wants that.
Australia changed all their road signs overnight in 1974. In a lot of cases instead of changing the whole sign, the simply put a sticker over the distances with the new values.
Customer: I would like one pound of pork chops, please. Butcher: Its called kilo, now a days. Customer: Alright, then give me one pound of kilo, please.
A pound would be closer to 7/16 of a kilo of pork chops... Good joke, I just had to fractionalize the metric system to make it feel a little more like home.
Creepmobile Slowly but surely??? Pass around what you’re smoking and don’t bogart that joint The only instance of using metric measurements is when I buy motor oil. A quart is APPROXIMATELY .950 of a liter
@@jacksmith3189 You clearly missed the point of this comment; *inching* toward *metric* was kind of ironic. Simon said it in the video around 21:40 or so.
My dad was working at a gas station in the 70s when they tried moving everybody to metric by selling gas in liters instead of gallons and customers got unreasonably angry thinking they were getting ripped off
Why? I went to Puerto Rico a while back and I didn't realize they sell gas in Litres and I was like "Wow! is gas REALLY that cheap here." My driver was so confused, she was like how cheap is where you are? 1 litre of gas is much cheaper than 1 gallon. I mean, it's also much smaller, but I doubt most Americans would know that, they would just see the cheaper price for one "unit" and be pumped. But, I wasn't there so I would have to take your dad's word for it.
@@adamleviness1039 people didn't know the conversion rate of gallons to liters so they just assumed they were getting screwed. That's really all it was.
Your story reminds me of when we had the energy crisis of the late 1970s and gasoline prices started shooting up above $1 a gallon. The pumps of the day weren't able to handle three-digit prices, so they started selling gas by the liter. "That's interesting," I thought at the time, "after years of talk, we're finally going to make a big, concrete step toward using the metric system." But alas, within a few months, new pumps arrived and we went right back to gallons! 😆
Some British war show that is recent, saw a clip. They were heading across the dessert and stopped, guy got out,went to the leader car. Getting low on petro, bring up the fuel trucks! Guy doesn’t speak, makes claim again. Guy taking a sip from a flask. You brought fuel right?! Long story short, fuel tanks could hold enough for kilometers, except the destination was in miles.
I think this is an idiotic point to make. . . Seriously though. Americans involved in an international space mission and specifing a velocity change in fps ... sheesh!
@@AndrewBlucher Not to mention NASA specifying a Martian weather satellite to measure thrust in Newtons; then not catching when their contractor provided hardware designed for pound-feet. Then failing to claim damages, because of this contractor's failure.
@@AndrewBlucher All aviation specifies altitudes in feet, and rate of climb or rate of descent in feet. Horizontal distances are in metres or kilometres for visibility etc. but navigation is by nautical mile, as it is one minute of latitude, or one minute of angle on a great circle. But overall I see this more as an American problem - they ARE different. The only country I know of where road rage shootings are not even news!
@@vulpes7079 one cubic meter is indeed the volume of a minecraft block, but one meter is also the length of one minecraft block. both are valid measures in that regard.
1 minecraft block meter of length is then parted in 16pixels which sadly kills the metric part of this. They should change the block to have 100pixels for the sake of the metric system alone.
And our road signs are in miles. Beer is served in pints. Shoe sizes are in barleycorns. Most Brits still use feet and inches to measure a person's height. We're a fickle people.
As a tradesman in a metric country, we're always using the imperial system, especially when it comes to pipework, hoses and fittings. NPT and BSP, 1/4", 5/8", 1/2", etc. are the norm, rather than the exception. My toolbox has both metric and imperial tools. So even if the US officially adopt the metric system, if Australia's anything to go by, they'll still be using Imperial sizes in 50years.
@@drakevaliance3536 As a lathe worker we use thousandths of an inch for everything. I might use a 2 meter long steel rod of 1 meter diameter but all cuts are done in thousandths of an inch for tolerances.
@@QuixoteX Apathy leads to self-destruction, ignorance leads to outer aggression. Apathic people tend to not reproduce (mainly cause they're in depression), ignorant ones DO (in masses even) A very important notion - apathic people don't think universe started to exist the day they were born and dies when they do, ignorant ones DO Individuals that are better than the apathic person aren't in danger of showing off their skills (nor practising in front of them), individuals that are in near-existence of an ignorant ones ARE in danger for sure Its simply put too much religious-originating BS lying around that self-destruction is the biggest sin of all (alas, it is NOT true) That being said = apathy's biggest danger and consequence is cutting-out/isolating self from the society, ignorance's biggest danger is = getting into conflict with everyone/everything and still not self-taking a/the blame Here's a simple example = Anatoly Dyatlov (you know the profile from the series) = was he apathic or ignorant ?? (hint = THE second) All you really need to do with apathic people is to not put them on important positions (which is good news since they probably don't even want it anyway nor fight for a one), the solution to ignorant ones is ? = there's none (maybe execution) Now, HOW on Earth is that even a debate at all ?
Biggest problem in the 1970's is they tried to teach it to us as "here is the conversion factor" and tests on it were always converting from imperial to metric and back. If they had just done things in metric, we would have learned what a meter was, rather than how many feet are in a meter.
Agreed! Just work within the system. It's like learning a foreign language. It's too exhausting to have to translate everything all the time, so just start thinking in that language (which is a lot easier than most monoglots would think).
I did grade school in Germany where I learned metric. I can do the conversions in my head most of the time, including between Fahrenheit and Celsius, as long as it doesn't have to be precise. When I was told the restaurant level at the Galata Tower in Istanbul was 60 meters above the ground, I immediately knew that meant 200 feet. Yet I hate metric. Can't help it.
A 'meter' is a device to measure something (Think 'voltmeter', 'ammeter', 'multimeter', 'interferometer'). A 'metre' is the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second.
I am a retired soldier and was stationed and lived in Germany for 10 years of my career and I can use both metric and SAE (Standard American Equivalent) with aplomb. Currently working as a millwright in an iron foundry, I sometimes use metric just to mess with the Apprentices and the production people. I have found that what really messes with them is writing down time in the military 24hr format. "WTH does 2243hrs mean?! Is that some kind of German crap?!" Coming from a guy whose family name is, Schmidt.
I am a Chief, son of a Chief. Ie, my father was a WWII CPO in the Seabees and I am a retired CPO, USNR. In Jr High, I found his 1944 Bluejackets Manual and studied it. From that point on (a bit over half a century), I've been on the 24-hour clock. So wonderfully unambiguous, no messing around with meridians -- midnight is the only problem which nearly affected me. Our company had a few German engineers (BTW, just about everybody else post schedules in 24-hour time, but not the US). One day one of them approached me with a question about his plane ticket. 12:30 PM. Just what time of day is that supposed to be? Similarly, at another company a PC provider would set up the XT clones for our customers and notoriously the system clocks would be off by 12 hours -- they'd set them up in the afternoon but use 12-hour time. My son is a cop and has learned 24-hour time. When he reported the birth of my first grandchild, he reported as being at 2005. I had to translate real time to faux time for all the civilians present. Midnight. On active duty, I was in a 24-hour office. Upon my separation, the office was short-staffed and had to go to 12-hour shifts. The supervising NCO (I started out active duty USAF) wrote the duty roster ambiguously, assigning midnight apparently to the wrong day. At the end of my last 8-hour shift, my relief thought he didn't have to come in until 24 hours later. We got it straightened out and my relief was royally pissed, but there was no way I was going to end my active duty career with no 20-hour shift (which violated Strategic Air Command's regs anyway).
I live in the US, I use the 24 hour clock (even at home, although I translate for the family). But I work supporting computers all around the world, and we use UTC on them, which means in my head I find I adding my timezone offset to know what the time is in UTC - even when I look at a local clock. Who else uses UTC? A few countries in West Africa, the USGS, Antarctia, and the International Space Station. But I'm sure many more companies use it internally (because it makes life SO much easier).
You're currently batting a thousand. Every one of your videos I've watched has been both entertaining and scholarly. A winning combo and greatly appreciated. Thank you.
The imperial system has been used for millennia. This metric shit is new, but that doesn't mean it's better. Plus, and I don't know if it was addressed in this video, the metric system was invented in New York, it's an American system of measurement, yes it was developed by a Frenchman but that Frenchman was in the United States.
@@rivermcratt3683 "The imperial system has been used for millennia. This metric shit is new, but that doesn't mean it's better." Nor does it mean it isn't better. So whether or not it's better is not answered by that... but is it better? That's still a question right? "Plus, and I don't know if it was addressed in this video, the metric system was invented in New York, it's an American system of measurement, yes it was developed by a Frenchman but that Frenchman was in the United States." In the context of this topic, what is your argument here? Individuals are exceptions to rules all the time... America does, in fact, NOT use the Metric system, regardless which individual invented it.... so what's your point? Since you never gave a justification for whether Imperial or Metric is, in fact, more useful, whom invented which is, at this point in your argument, an irrelevant fact. It's not "An American measurement system", it's a system invented by one American... and not used by Americans in general.... so it's NOT an "American measurement system". It's a measurement system of that guy who invented it, and now most of the world outside of America. What makes it "American" beyond that one specific man? Talk about taking undue credit.
Yeah, at work we don't use metric at all. It took some getting used to, as I was used to working on bicycles, which almost exclusively (99.8% I'd guess) use metric for parts, measurements, etc.
Why does anyone care? People can do whatever they want. No one has any right to cram their ideas forcibly on others. Besides,it will cost too much to change now. We're fluent in both. As a nurse,I have to know the metric system. As to my European friends,they are so jealous how fast I can go back and forth between the 2 systems,showing THEM,how stupid they are😂😂😂😂😂
I grew up in Canada, born in 74. I was only ever taught metric in school. Then in high school in the early 90s, I went to work for my uncle in his tool and die shop for a summer and was really confused when I discovered the company used Imperial and all the old machines the shop had that were manufactured in the USA had all of the measurements in Imperial instead of metric. My uncle was surprised that I had never learned about inches, etc., in school and had to teach me about how to measure using them. In the late 90s I worked as an intern for a couple of summers for an Engineering firm that made plastic (High Density Polyethelene) gas tanks for motor vehicles (the HDPE was stronger than steel) and we had international customers. I would make blueprints along with gas tank volume measurements in metric, USA Imperial or British Imperial depending upon which country the blueprints were for. Most of the world wanted metric, but the USA still wanted things to be in USA Imperial units and England wanted things to be in British Imperial. I had to be careful because USA gallons were different than British Gallons, etc.. It was really a mess to deal with the countries and companies that weren't dealing with metric.
I asked my roommate (who is from England) how much a gallon of water weighed and he said 10 pounds. I disagreed and insisted it was 8.34 pounds. Then I thought for a moment and looked up the weight of an Imperial gallon of water online. Sure enough, it's 10 pounds.
First car I had in the late 90's was a '68 skylark that was sold in Canada and stayed here it's entire life, shocked me to see it was in miles. Sure made me learned that 60mph was 100kph when I got pulled over for speeding 🤣
@@unclejoeoakland more the other way around. Why did the USA choose to deliberately deviate away from the English gallon you already had. Your smaller gallon is a major factor with your cars giving bad MPG fuel economy figures. A smaller gallon goes less miles obviously. You also get conned on your beer measures, because this automatically relates to a smaller pint glass.
@@andrewdking that happened after the Revolution. That was also around the time that British English started adding "u" to a lot of words just to fancy it up because of the perception amongst the aristocracy that [court] French was more sophisticated.
Britain: * invents system of measurement * US: * Adopts that system * Britain: * Switches to the metric system and makes fun of the US for using imperial measurements for 250 years * America: "Wait, this was your idea."
actually as Simon noted the Imperial is a different system, pints are larger, gallons are large, tonnes are heaver than tons, and this side of the big water we don't use stones, hundredweigh (cwt - which oddly are 8 stone)or Troy ounce (except in weight of precious metals) Furlong (except in horse racing) as far a I know length is them
As a first generation American who grew up with European parents, I've learned to use and convert both of the systems. This came in handy when i finally moved to Europe. Now when i watch an American technical video for creating something, it's easy for me to translate it into centimeter. Although i'm familiar with the feet, inches and etc , i find that the metric system it's more easy to use. But i will not try to make someone who wants to use the Imperial system to change into the Metric system if he doesn't want. Instead of that i will suggest if he wants to learn both of them. This way i won't fight with him and he might learn something more.
I'm nearing 70 years old and I regularly convert Inches to centimeter and vice versa, miles to kilometers and back, and yards to meters amd tge reverse in my little old brain. And trust me, I am no math genius. The only thing that bugs me and it's insignificant is that I'd rather drive 100 miles than app. 150 km, however, I'd rather drive at 150 kph than 100 mph. You know. Americans like things bigger! That's strictly perception issue. 😊
As a helicopter mechanic/crew chief in the US Army, I would like to point out that the Army is not using the metric system for anything besides weapon range and land navigation. In fact, my issued toolbox (which has hundreds of tools, and roughly is ~$5,000 new) doesn’t have a single metric tool. For any mechanics out there: I think the reason for this is to avoid the cost of lost 10mm sockets lol
Because the signs they're talking about are the large signs over highways, hence the reason it costs $8,000 for steel posts and concrete and $15K in labor. They even talk about programming signs, which you wouldn't need even for an electronic speed limit sign on the side of a highway, but you would for the multi-line signs over your lane you see as you drive under it. If you keep watching they talk about the steel structure that has to span the freeway, the break away poles, and the sign bridge. They're not talking about the small "30 MPH School Zone" signs that can be pounded into the ground. $2000 for a large sign that sits over a highway and tells you "10 miles to NYC" isn't too bad of a price when you think about that size.
Because legal liability in case of a traffic accident. Someone is responsible for proper behavior of the road sign in an accident, and if you get unnecessarily impaled by the sign post, its producer will find itself in a world of shit being sued by your family. For exactly the same reason you pay about 5~10 times the actual production cost for a vehicle. It isn't expensive to manufacture one; developing it in the safest possible way and testing and proving it hundreds of times under various contitions is what makes it that insanely expensive.
Free Market forces. Get some quotes from industry and see how well you do. Don’t forget there is the cost of installation on-site and some signs also require an electricity supply for illumination.
Strangely enough, all the legal cannabis stores in the US sell their products, except live plants, by the gram, or in the case of e-liquids, by the 15 or 30 milliliter bottle.
I needed to measure out a grid on my front lawn. My sketch assumed I'd be making it a rectangle of 12 meters by 6 meters. Turned out that 6 m wide would put one edge past the grass and onto the gravel. Then, I decided to keep the numbers and make them yards. Now it fit nicely, and I could still use whole numbers in my grid. Then I needed to calculate the hypotenuse to confirm that it was 90º at each corner. Pythagorean Theorem gave me a diagonal of 18.87 units. But wait, I could not find 0.87 yards (nor 0.61 feet) on my tape which was marked in meters and feet & inches. I had to convert it to inches, which gave me huge numbers, and then find 483 inches. What a pain. That being said, like many other Canadians I think of my weight as 160 pounds and height as 5' 9". But by now I've lost all sense of Fahrenheit, except for 68-70º as being room temperature, and 100º is pretty hot.
because every single sign will require new posts and brackets to be dug and installed right? better buy some new equipment to install them too, and make sure everyone is well into overtime hours to get it done.
Okay, once the image of the school boy was shown with the caption "I forgot how to speak Kilogram." I totally misread this at first as: I forgot how to speak klingon.
I was born and raised in California. When I was in elementary school, I had to learn both Imperial and Metric. When I got to High School, science class was ALWAYS Metric. It was drilled into us that you do not ever use Imperial measurements in Science.
@@peterpain6625 I am from Oklahoma (arguably an inbred state), and had similar experiences during my public education. SI units in math and science, and Imperial measurements in day to day life.
Canada uses both. Even though we're officially metric, you will most likely have a Canadian tell you their height in feet/inches and their weight in pounds
@@AlaskaErik A lot of more scientifically or engineering minded people don't realize that the reason why the imperial system lasted so long was because it was really good for working men. Even in the UK and other former commonwealth nations, there are many trades that still prefer imperial, but tend to need both.
Canada adopted the metric system April 1, 1975. A year before I graduated. For a while road signs were in both metric and imperial. It was an easy transition although I hated the metric sticker you place over the imperial numbers on your speedometer LOL. I immediately adopted the metric system and found it far easier and more accurate. 3mm is a lot easier to add, subtract or count than 3/32nds. Many older people didn’t change so it’s still good to know both. The construction industry seems to be a hold out for imperial measurements. I think it’s because they don’t want to buy new tape measures.
@@changwanyu4231 It appears this moron doesn't comprehend that _English_ originates in _England!_ English _is_ a second language in the USA, since virtually all of them speak and write it so poorly. Also, don't forget Australia and New Zealand (there are plenty of others).
@@anhedonianepiphany5588 We speak American English, which is a different dialect. But if you want to be really nitpicky, English comes from old Germanic. So German is our first language. I could continue going back, turtles all the way down. But that isn't a very helpful representation of modern language, is it?
Nathan Lang I mean we could go back to proto-indo European but what's the point. I think the inflammatory comment was meant to suggest Americans are simply stupid which is rather disappointing. The reason many Americans don't speak a second language is because they don't need it. US states, while varying in size, are mostly the size of European countries with Alaska being essentially subcontinental. America's neighbor Canada does have some French only speakers, however virtually everyone north does speak English. The states bordering Mexico have a very high number of Spanish as a second language speakers. In all other subjects, America is also at or above global standards. This is clear by the top universities in the world and the largest number of foreign students attending American colleges. If simply commenting on the US falling to the teens or twenties in math and science, it's a misunderstanding of how the US measures its students. Even the mentally retarded are required to take secondary school exams, everyone must attend school until age 16 in most of the country. If every nation included their bottom 20% in the average how would they fair? The education system can definitely be improved but it's hardly broken, and public school is free for those who can't pay through grade 12 - in many places, especially suburban, the public schools perform as well as expensive private schools.
Midnight Tornado The only reason is because English is the international language...there really is no reason to learn another language. I’ve been to Germany, Hungary, China, Brazil, and Indonesia; I’ve never needed anything other than English.
@@herbiehusker1889 UK lbs are different to US lbs, here in the UK we standardised the weight in 1824 because we had been using different weights for the pound. Basically the UK provided ALL the weights and scales for the US and purposely made those weights heavier so we would get more produce per lb when buying from the US and made a lot of money as a result. We also used to use lighter weights while selling to the US so that we could sell less produce for the same amount of money... In 1824 this exploitation of colonies was becoming a problem as it was causing various economies serious problems as the imports were far more expensive than the exports and raising taxes wasn't really possible without further damaging their economies so a law was passed re-standardising the pound accross the British Empire and it has stayed the same ever since, the USA had been independent for 70ish years by this point so used the previous incorrect weights.
Google says 1 Stone = 14 pounds =~ 6.350293 Kg. Always throws me when UK people talk about how many stones they lost on a diet program. Stones must be some ancient Celtic thing.
I was complaining about it being hot at 44 degrees a few years ago on Facebook. I was asked “since when was 44 degrees hot?”. My response was “September 1972”, which was when Australia started only using Celsius for temperature.
@@summitlb123 Eeenope. F is objectively stupid. The other units of measurement in the imperial system are not stupid, they are simply inconvenient. They don't conveniently scale to "drop or add a zero", which makes them inconvenient. F is actually stupid - as in, poorly thought-out as a scale. Here are the reasons. Reason the first, the zero point for the F scale is... The freezing point of a (very specific) brine of salt and water. Do you know how much salt, off the top of your head? Or which salt? I can tell you that the Celsius scale specifies "water", which, to a chemist, means pure water. No strange salts, just, water. Reason the second, the one-hundred point is defined as "the temperature of a healthy human body". Which is stupid for three whole reasons of its own: The first and most important one is that it requires a second reference. Why not use the boiling point of the *same goddamn brine* of *bloody ammonium salts* and water and ice and the tears of an orphan child that you used for your zero point? Nobody knows. Daniel just though it a good idea. Good on you Daniel. I know you are a world-famous scientist and I am not, but I still think that was a very dumb decision. The second reason is that the human body does not have the same temperature on every surface. So. Which orifice are you using to measure the temperature of a healthy human body, Daniel? Inquiring minds need to know - the inquiring minds being the international scientific community at large. The third reason... Is that Daniel got it wrong. If your body temperature is 100F, you are running a fever. Which is probably because humans are inherently variable, and therefore there is no way to define "the" temperature of a healthy human: Daniel ran a little hotter than most people, and he though it perfectly normal. He was probably quite surprised when most people turned out to have "unhealthy" temperatures. Now, Anders, aside from having a much easier-to-write family name, decided to make his scale much simpler (though he did kind of fuck up by reversing the 0 and 100 point, but that was long before the concept of absolute zero, so it behooves us to forgive him). First of all, he used a single source for his measurements. You don't need a strange brine for the zero point and a (possibly) healthy human for the 100 point. Your endpoints are both based on the same source. Second of all, he used distilled water as that single source. No need to faff around with ammonium chloride: you take water, evaporate it, condense it, and you are done. Why Daniel though we should faff around with ammonium chloride (as opposed to any other chloride, or no chlorides at all), I will never know. The upshot is that the Celsius scale is much less arbitrary in its endpoints than the F scale (sorry, I'm not German, I'm not looking it up every time I have to write it), and therefore easier to understand: 0 is freezing cold, 100 is scorching hot. Now, what is "comfortably warm"? Well, the thing is, "comfortably warm" in C is exactly as arbitrary-looking as "comfortably warm" in F. 20° C is 68° F. Maybe you feel better at 70° F, which is approximately 21° C, but the difference is relatively minor. So, really, why is the F scale any more sensible than the C scale? Why it 70 better than 20? After all, neither of them is 50.
I was in Germany in summer a few years ago. I can attest to 44° being hot as hell! They get horrid heat waves that come up from the Sahara. It was as hot in Leipzig as I remembered it being in the Southern Arizona desert where I grew up. It was 106° F, and Germans rarely have air conditioning except in businesses. I'm no longer used to that sort of heat and was miserable.
@@shonaguthrie848 Also not here in Canada. We often are told temperatures in both units, but I personally find Celsius to be much more useful - for normal, and abnormal, outside, and inside, temps. I don't know what "measuring temperature in relation to people" means, so I'm not sure about that one. On the other hand I will tell you my height in feet and inches, and the depth of a new snowfall in feet or inches, and my weight in pounds, as I find those units more intuitive.
I remember a teacher telling us back in the 1960's that I would see road signs first with both units and then only SI units. I've been waiting all my life, but no change. Like you said after university I forgot almost all I ever learned about SI units.
I recently moved to the US. The miles are ok to use, it is mentally easy to change. I also like to buy liquids in gallons. For me the main problem is the temperature, it is really strange to see think 30 is a low temperature but 100 is not dangerous.
Yeah..........Celsius to Fahrenheit is more of mental gymnastics to me too. 212F is boiling of water and 32F is freezing..........or 0C is freezing and 100C is boiling of water. What is in between is what messes my mind up.
@@randyhager2054 It's not so hard! 0F translates to "it's too damn cold, I'm staying inside" while 100F translates to "it's too damn hot, I'm staying inside." You may be forced to go without HVAC outside of that range, but it will be annoying.
@@ZlothZloth I'm American so I grew up with the Fahrenheit. The mental gymnastics is trying to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. I've been to Europe a couple of times and that take some brain power to make it into something I'm more familiar with.
Great video... And your spot on. I use metric all the time.. with tools, working on cars... Tell me you need a 14mm socket..and I have no issues. But at the same time.. if someone says it's.. 48 kilometers away.. .. I don't instinctively know what that distance is.. in my mind. I have to do the conversion.
kens97sto171 One thing I’ve found in research is to simply think in the new unit system. Converting is the death of any attempt to switch. I believe that if magically over night all thermometers, tape measures, speedometers, road signs, bathroom scales, cooking utensils, and gas stations switched to metric Americans would be used to it within a year. I switched my Apple watch’s weather temperature to Celsius the last month. Now I know when to put a hoodie or a coat before walking out the door.
@@TiE23 Agree, but as he said in the video.. why. In daily life it doesn't effect anyone. And in all the things where it's important it's already done. Untill you change the road signs.. something everyone sees every day. People won't change... And they don't really need to.
48 km is about half an hour away at highway speeds. This is because 100 km/hr is roughly equal to 60 mph, and 48 km is almost 50 km. Similarly every 10 km is about 6 minutes of travel at highway speeds. Of course, if you speed then your travel times will be less.
My crochet hook is in mm. I live in the US but I don't use the US numbering system. Mm are less confusing. When I buy yarn I want to know the weight and yards more than anything because that tells me how much yarn I need for the project I'm doing. The label usually has yards and mm listed.
During the Labour Day weekend in 1977, every speed limit sign in Canada was changed from mph to km/h. This was accomplished by applying large stickers to the signs. Over the years, in the course of normal wear and maintenance, all the stickered signs have been replaced.
John Lammers - I was going to dispute the date with you and suggest that it was May 1, 1979 because that was the date I bought my first car and all the signs on the gas stations changed to liters from gallons on that day but I think you're right: speed limit signs changed before the gas station signage did.
Here in NZ, we had conversion stickers for kph speeds in steps of 10 from 10 to 80 that we could apply to the face of our speedos. (80k was the max because we still had a 50mph open road limit at the time)
@@MoltenMetalCasting stickers wear out and eventually they will still have to replace the signs regardless...so one could say, additional cost by having thousands upon thousands of stickers all over the cities xD
@@MoltenMetalCasting because of precisely the human nature part. They don't actually *want* to fix it, so of course they're not going to spend any energy to think of good solutions to do so quickly and cheaply. It's just human nature to resist change and resist being told what to do, so you make it as absolutely as inconvenient as possible, even going so far as to throw out some causal falsehoods and misdirecting information. The only way to get them to change is to get them to *want* to change and truly think the change is the best.
The US Marine Corps have always used metric as far back as they have been an effective fighting force. There is no complaining, no puzzled looks or hesitation. Its metres, klicks(kilometres) and Mike-mikes (millimetres). Artillery grids need to be understood at a glance because of the dynamic nature of war. Add the logistical realities of combat and metric makes these military endeavours much less prone to friendly fire incidents than if they relied on imperial. Never heard an ex-grunt ever whinge about having to learn the metric system.
Unless you were a recon scout sniper at its start where the scope had mils for windage and moa for elevation. Now they all use mil/mil but it hasn't been mil always.
I would beg to differ, the US Marine Corps was quite effective back in WWII and were not using the metric system. In fact, things haven't gone quite so well ever since they adopted the metric system, from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan, the Marines have seen better days. Maybe that's the source of the problem? Go back to the old imperial system and we'll be, once again, conquering new colonies before we know it.
Bonus Fact: The astronauts who went to the moon fuelled their cars by the gallon, but the engineers who sent them there used the metric system. Additional Bonus Fact: We in the UK are like our cousins across the pond in as much as we use both systems of measurement depending on the circumstance. For instance, in the UK we measure a car engine's output in horsepower, but the same engine's capacity in litres. I fill my car with litres of petrol, but drive 20 miles to work where I, a 6-foot tall man build systems measured by the meter. To cope with the stresses of the day, I take medication prescribed in milligrams and the devil's lettuce purchased in eighths of an ounce.
@@sabremarky15 Twelve. That's actually a good one. Both the UK and US commonly use the same standard, but different aspects of it. I don't know my weight in pounds without using a calculator, any more than an American knows their weight in stones, even though they're the same system of measurement. Also, though I weight twelve stones, I am required by law to buy meat by the kilogram. Edit: Additionally, Doctors always use metric, and my height and weight are in my medical records in centimetres and kilograms.
We literally do everything you mentioned except for the petrol/gasoline, which we always measure in gallons. We also check our fuel economy in mpg rather than...km/L?
"Standardization". Remember not that long ago when Ford, GM and Dodge all used similar parts that were interchangeable, rims (for our automobile tires) for example? Have you ever pondered the additional un-necessary cost of "bastardisation" of such automobile parts for example? They all serve the same purpose and work equally as good but none will interchange like they once did. Do you realize the unnecessary cost of non standardization throughout our world today, and how it continues to needlessly add cost? Likely - un calculable.
From my experience as a general contractor, the most annoying use is when it comes to fractions of an inch. Using millimeters allow for more accurate finish carpentry work than fractions of inches.
@@redsev2023 Because it's quicker and easier to work with 30mm than 1 and 3/16" when doing projects that require precise measuring. This is why NASA, the military, etc switched to metric decades ago.
“Change is inevitable, progress is a choice.” We do a lot of home repair work, floors, drywall, electrical & plumbing. Being a bit older I can recall making the change to metric from imperial, once we got used to it we actually found it made our work significantly easier. Naturally the 10 mm socket has evolved to grow legs and walk away from just about every single tool box I’ve witnessed.
Boy you nailed that 10mm socket vanishing act shit,i had to take every 10 mm socket and wrench i own out of their cases & put them in a magnetic bowl,that worked for about 6 weeks .
Cost of replacing road signs? You don't have to replace them. Just compare the number you see on the sign with the number on your speedometer. The problem is not using the same units in your own country, as long as you don't take your US car to another country. Also if you want to place an order for some substance from a foreign supplier. You do it in pounds, the Germans will tell you they can't process it because their invoicing system only accepts kilograms. I mean, the tail won't wag the dog. Wait! Viewed from the tail's perspective, it sees the dog move.
Amazing!! You actually got it right that we use the US Customary System, not the similar but different Imperial system! No one gets that right... Hats off to you sir.
@@stuarthancock571 do you know why they are different? Lol The Gallon had been defined in the British Empire as the Queen Anne's Wine Gallon, but then in 1820 they decided to act all sciencey, and redefined the British Empire official Gallon as 10 pounds of water at 62f, and redefined the Imperial ounce to be a fraction of this new gallon. America had no issues with the our gallon, so we kept it lol
I'll walk 200 metres to the supermarket, where I'll buy 250g of cheese, 4 pints of milk, a litre of ice cream, 4 quarter pounders, and 2 litres of Coke! I'll then drive 2 miles to the hardware store, at 30mph, where I'll pick up a 1" and 4" paint brush, and 5 litres of emulsion to paint my wall. I'll top my fuel tank off at 60 litres, and then work out my MPG! Gotta love the UK's metric system! 🤣🤣🤣
The UK also measures fuel efficiency in distance per volume? That is even more confusing than the imperial system… (And actually conveys less direct meaning, no matter what you grew up with - see e.g. https : // wheels . blogs . nytimes . com / 2008 / 06 / 20 / the-illusion-of-miles-per-gallon / )
@@entropyzero5588 I'm pretty sure the British measure fuel consumption the same way we do in Australia, which is _volume per distance,_ e.g. 7 litres per 100 km. It's no more or less meaningful than your miles per gallon (distance per volume), but far easier to comprehend in everyday terms (i.e. _less_ confusing). Once you lot decide to bury the antiquated, redundant, and impractical, former system of your former British overlords, your world will make a lot more sense.
I probably commented on this years ago lol. We need to just tear off the bandaid and switch. Even if we leave things like speed limit signs out for now, we can definitely switch our temp measurements, length measurements, volume and all, and swap to only metric tools which alone is a crazy savings. The longer we wait the worse it'll be.
Even here in England (the home of imperial units) we use imperial for rough measurements (miles, stones, pints etc) but switch to metric for fine measurements.
But 15/16 of an inch makes you sound more intelligent. Did you see that video from those US chopper guys where they were trying to calculate fractions of an inch and everybody was like uh uh uuuh uuuuuuuh uh uh u h u h
You basically just always have to try clothes on, because sizes don't even align across brands or even different clothes of the same brand Kid sizes in cm (like 146-152 and 158-164) did work fairly well though in being consistent
As a European using the metric system in my daily life, makes USC and Imperial units confusing as hell. Mostly because when someone mentions 'a gallon' and it's fractions gets confusing because I'd need to know if they're speaking English or American. For recipes it's also confusing because English language recipes use volumetric measurements rather than weight, which makes conversion more difficult as density suddenly becomes a factor. As for Nautical units used in aircraft and ships, they do make sense in a different way. 1 nautical mile is close enough to 6000 feet as makes no difference at that scale, which is convenient when you need to quickly estimate a glide slope. This works much less well when using statutory miles of 5280ft. And I also think that it helped USC units that it was effectively the only system of measurement used in the country at the time. Compared to Europe where even within a single (modern day) country units with the same name would be a different measurement. In my own country the term "mile" has had vastly different meanings over the course of history. So when something is X miles away according to a historic text, you'd need to know not only when that text was written, but also where. It might be as short as 5555 metres, or as much as 7404 metres. A mile would be defined as either "an hours walk" or about 5km, or it could be 20000 feet, or 22800 feet, and although I say feet those feet are from different regions and thus are not the same length. Then the metric system came around and people started to refer to a kilometer as a metric mile. Adding yet another meaning to the word. Add to the fact that people couldn't agree on how many "feet" constituted a "mile" and then add in the fact that in the area that today makes up the Benelux, there were more than 30 different kinds of "foot" which each divided up into 10, 11, 12, or 13 "inches" and the system as a whole becomes incredibly unwieldy. Also none of those historical measurements of a "foot" or the accompanying "inch" is the same as what people in modern times refer to as a foot or an inch. Standardising everything to the metric system and the SI makes much more sense in that context. In the US, where there only really ever was a single definition for those units, it makes much less sense to switch over. There already is a standard with a single, clear definition.
This makes me understand your guys confusion and seemingly violent hatred of our prefered system lol god that sounds awful! This also makes more sense why our friends to the north do not hate it as much and even indulge in using both depending on the situation. Also just to clarify, we learn both in school here in the states as well as almost all our stuff says both.
@ Fermitu Poupon : *THANK YOU!* This is what I've been saying for years! Excellent comment....Fermitu Poupon! 😄 (But seriously, you *did* get it 100% right.)
It costs that much because companies know the government has deep pockets. Its pretty hard to bargain when the seller knows you can literally buy another country and still have change to spare
The sad part is the comments section is STILL filled to the brim with people harassing Americans for not using metric. It's almost like they didn't watch the video...or people are assholes and just enjoy antagonizing people.
@@bookmouse2719 It's already happening so clearly it isn't too expensive and apparantely the rest of the world and most scientific and industrial institutions care.
Goldenkitten1 it’s extremely expensive wtf are you talking about. You want to change every road sign, mile marker, exit number, bottling units, advertisement, historical markers, and so on just for some unit of measurement? Science and industry can adapt quickly, but it makes no sense in the public aspect except for snobby puritans.
@@Ceece20 I wasn't talking about the layman, even the video goes into the expenses that would need to change every road sign. I was referencing the fact that the scientific, industrial and architectural industries already use metric. So it's not like America only uses the imperial system like every foreigner seems to believe.
Canada didn't switch signs, they applied stickers to the existing signs to change the "5" to an "8" and adding KP/h. As they needed changed due to wear, they replaced the stickered signs.
I am eminently impressed with this video. I clicked this expecting a 5 minute bit on all the obvious reasons Americans should switch to metric. And when it started out with the "Idiot units" I was sure that's what I was going to get. After all, why would they give such an agressive question publicity otherwise? What I got was the most in depth history and discussion I've seen on the topic, giving a fair shake to those opposed to the switch while pointing out that making it would still be the best choice. Further, you pointed out that the country is, in fact, switching over furtively. And that nearly every international aspect of the country is already metric, from the military to corporations. You also mentioned that we are, in fact, taught metric in our schools. So a thank you for that. Going above and beyond, you gave a nod to the psychological aspects. Even pointing out that they also affected most other countries when the switch was made. And best of all, you chided the original questioner and all those would devolve it into a flame war with childish insults. I've never been opposed to my country switching to metric. But I feel almost obligated to do it out of respect for the civility, empathy, and rationality of this video. There are so many good points to this video that I struggled greatly to list them all without devolving to bullet points.
The fact any international body swapped to metric should be enough really. What the general populace in say Kansas uses has no bearing or relevance to England. That and we have online converters today. A standard is good, but in some areas it just doesn't matter.
If it cost that much to change signs and it's not a feasible investment... lol can you imagine how much it's going to cost ignoring climate change... Perhaps even considering a lot of signs are going to blow away from category 5 hurricanes on a yearly basis.... Which are directly related to rising water temperatures... Those signs then damaging other things when they are flying through the air at 200kph.... Signs could damage other signs even.... we know that we are done for if that happens... We need to act on these "signs" especially if signs cost 75k lol. Ps I may have been to my local metric only w dealer before writing this.
@@TheCynicalOptimist88 I swear, you climate zealots are worse than Jehovah's witnesses. Like chicken little on steroids. THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END..!!! Even when the topic is completely unrelated.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?"
The US is more metric than most think. Much of the industry in the US switched to metric long ago. The engines are all metric, Farm implements. Pharmaceutical, military uses metric, government uses metric, construction equipment, weights and measures on packaging is both standard and metric, jet planes, NASA...the list goes on and on. The government should have mandated a full switch to metric long ago though.
No one ever talks about doing either. The f* are YOU talking about? Most of us don't even recognize the dangers regarding our social security numbers or their use as a common form of identification and its total lack of security.
@@wizardtim8573 I was speaking about the fact that SS will run out by 2035 and there are those that would like to fund it to go beyond that date, just not enough. And there was a time the US talked about going to the metric system, they just didn't follow through.
@@huskydogg7536 Ah hmm. Yeah that I'll have to agree with. It's been a vague discussion but no one seems to actually know the details so~. For metric though, I've never heard of it being seriously discussed as a change. Might be because I'm not quite old enough. I think it was Gen X who had to learn about it because of an upcoming change? Was never part of my school curriculum.
The difference is that changing over to the metric system would actually be possible. There is no will to "fix" SS because there is no way for the numbers to ever work out.
As an American there are only 4 situations in which I use non metric units 1) air temperature 2) travel distances (and other car related things) 3) the hight of people 4) the weight of people. I’m slowly trying to be able to use metric for height and weight of people. But it’s difficult as those around me don’t use them. Also I’m not sure if using meters or centimeters is customary for height
It's... Exactly the same, at least in general parlance. "One meter seventy-five" can be shortened to "one seventy-five", and since it's exactly the same as "one hundred and seventy-five centimeters", which can *also* be shortened to "one seventy-five", there is no difference. Depending on the language, you may or may not want add "meter" after the "one", but even then, you don't really need to. It's like saying you are "five ten", without specifying the unit. You know what the unit is, you don't really have to come out and say it, and "one" for "one hundred" is a perfectly acceptable shorthand when you put it before a two-digit number.
_"I’m slowly trying to be able to use metric for height and weight of people. But it’s difficult as those around me don’t use them."_ And that's the reason the USA has not switched over to the metric system in everyday use. For a measurement system to work, everybody has to use it. It's like a language. And everybody in the U.S. uses Customary units. If you start talking about ordinary things in terms of metric units, nobody's going to understand you. Just as if you started talking in French. So even if I wanted to switch to metric, I couldn't, because everyone else uses Customary. But that's okay, because Customary units work just fine for ordinary everyday measurements. Which is another reason why people in the U.S. don't switch over to the metric system. It's a major change, requiring people to use units they're not familiar with, and there's no practical benefit to doing so. Under those circumstances, it would be shocking if Americans *_did_* switch! But note, of course, that in the fields of science and technology, including medicine, the military, and automotibile manufacturing, we DO use the metric system. So really it just boils down to using whichever system works best for the particular purpose. And there's nothing wrong with that. 😊
Love how you not only answered the question but corrected the person asking it. As much as I agree with his sentiment (precisely for the website/video based reasons you sited), nice that someone is being reasonable and keeping us CU haters in check;)
I just love that pretty much the entire latter third of this video was a big slap at human douchery on the Internet. As a human myself, I, of course, have fallen guilty on many occasions. Doesn't mean that I don't find it funny when it's called out.
Exactly, all of these baseless, what? accusations? In regards to measurements, are false. In fact, most Americans use or are at least exposed to both systems constantly, with many being adept at both. (my own introduction was learning metric in grade school in the 60s)
I've seen this argument before and I don't understand. I'm pretty sure it's either been invented by americans who don't actually know how metric-country-people say their height, or my country is unique in some way. Because it's not like we say "I'm one-hundred-and-eighty-two centimetres tall". That is long and weird. We say "I'm one-eighty-two" for example. Almost as fast as saying "I'm six feet tall".
@@davidwise1302 -Oh, how many Rods to a Hogshead does a modern car like, say, a Toyota Camry get then ?- Nevermind, I decided to give it a try myself. Here's some back-of-the-hand calculations for mile/gallon to rod/hogshead conversion using United States Costumary Units : I used the average fuel economy according to the International Energy Agency (iea.org), which is is 25 mpg (= 9.4L/100km). *Definitions :* Rod = 16.5 feet Furlong = 10 chains Chain = 4 rods Mile = 5280 feet = 8 furlong = 8 * 10 Chains = 8*10*4 rods = 320 rods Hogshead = 63 gallon *Conversion :* Gallon to hogshead : 25mpg * 63 gallon = 1575 Miles/Hogshead Mile to Rods : 1575 miles * 320rod per mile = 504000 rods/hogshead So, your average car will have something in the area of 504k rods per hogshead. In other words, Grandpa's car has REALLY bad fuel economy !! 😁
@@Grumpy_old_Boot That seems to be the right order of magnitude, though I based my calculation to your problem on my own car's mileage of 40 mpg (a Honda Accord Hybrid). I came up with 40 mpg being equivalent to 806,400 rods per hogshead. I have a web page on doing unit conversions -- dwise1.net/trivia/conversions.html . I spent today adding a section on converting units of speed which ends with my answer to your question. Share and enjoy!
@@davidwise1302 Thank you, that is awesome - Cool page too. 😁 Also, someone mentioned somewhere, that the original joke "40 rods to the hogshead" is what the Saturn 5 rocket was having in fuel economy - I don't know if that is true, but it's the sort of joke that the Simpsons would definitely use. 😀
Not only that, but doing physics in metric is just simply so much easier and cleaner. I mean, in order to do physics in the other system you have to make up disgusting things like slugs. EW!!
I'm working as a physicist in Germany and I still have to keep two sets of wrenches and whatnot around bc half the screws are not metric (for some old imported vacuum chambers). I rarely get as annoyed as when I have to find this godforsaken 7/16'' wrench.
As I work in construction I can tell you that I've met kids coming out of high school can't even read a tape measure in fractions let alone figure out what metric is.
Well back in my day we Didn’t have that wussy tape measure BS, those Nancy’s couldn’t even understand how many thumbs between nails, and how many belts between studs........smh
Well, beyond this video demonstrating that that was a reasonable expectation at the time, I guess it also demonstrate that in many aspects, teacher wasn't wrong in his/her prediction... :) Over time, with ever progressing digitalization, and international production and commerce, even the United States (as in Joe and Jane in their everyday life) will adopt the SI system pretty much completely. The majority of the change "from here", will likely just happen as a combination of organic and circumstancial change as the ever increasing exposure and use of SI facilitates people _thinking_ in SI (or both) instead of thinking in imperial and _converting_ in their minds. A more orchestrated and formal change likely being a later "cherry on top": To tip over the last stragglers that might be held back due to aging govt. legislation, regulation or procedure. When we get to that point, the modernization and digitalization of "everything" will likely make doing those final changes much more fiscally affordable. There will be far fewer physical elements needing to be changed or replaced, and those few data systems that haven't done so yet, will mostly already be set up to do both, be set up to do SI and the display of imperial is the actual conversion, or they'll already be prepped and primed for an eventual change. Once most people (are able to) "think in" SI / metric, the rest that straggle, will come rapidly and organically. As an analog to language - once you know and "think" two languages equally well as if native to you - the one becoming your de facto default will be a matter of which one is most practical, universal and intuitive _in use._ In my personal opinion, that will always be SI or systems of similar logic, due to their simplified math and intuitiveness. And who knows - maybe some day in the future, a decimal system for "time" will be "universally" adopted too (in terms of seconds to minutes, hours, days to weeks, months and years). Anything sub second is already decimal based, and everything digital has been decimal based in (coding and use of) measures and time, pretty much since conception. Whenever we see minutes, days, weeks, months and years in the digital world - that isn't native, but rather facilitated by (additional) calculation and conversion. My apologies for the long post - I just find this subject, its human psychology as well as technical and practical aspects, rather interesting.
It took our exchange student all year to learn we measure distance in time! How far to the cabin? 3hrs! How far is Chicago? About 90mins 😂😂, he thought it was so weird!
Yeah although that is actually useful information. Someone telling me that a place is some arbitrary distance of 372km for example doesn't actually convey any useful information about how far it is. Telling me it takes 2 and a half hours to get there actually gives me some useful information.
The normal average american worker doesnt use the metric system when measuring anything including things like measurements, bolts, nuts, screws, even miles. Weight on the other hand is grams mg so forth for small amounts and lbs for anything more
You know, I'd forgotten being taught metric as a kid. But this video reminded me. I remember, as a kid in like 1st or 2nd grade saying something about an object being a few centimeters and being outright mocked by my uncles and grandfather. That was my last usage of metric as a kid I believe.
@Jack Myhre Funny that I was about nine when my Father and Uncle laughed at me for saying I was 160 cm tall. That alone hardened my resolve to use only metric from then on. That was 1957. Later, I received the first Ontario Driving Licence in metric terms. 168 cm and 68 k.
@@Destin5258 Anyone trying to do that is a fool. Think how stupid that is in metric. Oh, you have something that is 3 cm? Give that to me in meters. Sure, you can do it easily but why? Of course, you can *also* easily do it in Imperial. 3 inches is 3/12 of a foot. Given that Imperial by it's very nature is not limited to fractions with the denominator having 10 as a factor. Seems to me that Imperial actually has it easier.
In Alberta in school in the 80's and 90's I learned both imperial and metric. Later working in the oil patch I used both depending on which company I was working for
When I worked in production accounting in Calgary years ago, the petroleum engineers always used imperial, but the provincial government reports required metric units. The engineers always looked at us in accounting like we'd lost our minds when we'd ask for metric measures.
I remember when I found out in school that a meter is longer than a yard, a kilogram weighs more than a pound, a liter is more than a quart, but a kilometer is shorter than a mile. As a kid, that confused the crap out of me. I did, however, like the base 10 simplicity of the metric system, and wished our measurements were metric after I discovered it.
IJH SA It’s because most people don’t understand that the metric system is a base 10 system. If everyone understood it, it would become much more attractive. But it’s also because it takes a ton of money to make the switch and there’s not really reason to have to make the switch
Base 10 systems are nice. But unlike in a base 12 system, you can't evenly divide by 3. Also; if we used a base 12 number system instead of the base 10, multiplying by 12 would have the same effect as multiplying by 10 in a base 10 system
I remember learning Imperial as well as Metric in 3rd Grade when that law was signed to teach kids both....It was actually the teachers bitching to their unions that it was to hard for them to teach both measurements with metric eventually becoming an electively thought thing by following year for Teacher Union Members wanting their extorted salary and Benefits from taxpayers that are never at the negotiations without extra work...or rather "Schools"
Jack Blevins But is it important to have a base that is divisible by three? Fractions are perfectly fine. If you don’t need a lot of precision you could say 1 kg / 3 = 333g which would be of by only 1/3 of a gramm or approximately 0.03%. Should be enough for some baking. And if you have to do some intensive calculations you are already limited to binary.
In Ontario, Canada, when the first metric road signs came out, it was a sticker that simply went over the old number, so if you had a sign that said Maximum 30 to indicate 30MPH they put a 5 over the 3, and added a black bar at the bottom with km/h, total cost per sign, about $10. When new signs were installed for some other reason, such as the old one being damaged, the new sign used the new units. I think now some 40 years later the signs still say km/h on the bottom.
Most Americans can use both as well. Our cars have both MPH and KPH. We buy soda in liters and milk in gallons. We buy our drugs and Rx in grams and our steak in ounces.
Pretty much we do use both systems here in the states. I have worked on cars with both metric and standard fasteners. I load rounds of ammunition using grains and shoot at distances in meters. I even build vape coils based off of 3mm mandrels. We are pretty well savvy with both here.
Ricalloo I personally don’t see the a problem with both standards. Both are easy. The imperial system is a bit more difficult because it isn’t as consistently divisible. As long as you remember that 4 quarts make a gallon and 3 feet makes a yard there is no problem.
I've heard of government waste, but his is ridiculous. Why could Canada replace signs at a fraction of the (adjusted) cost that it would cost Americans? 🤨 Also, Sweden was able to pull off Högertrafikomläggningen, which required changing a hell of a lot more than just some signs. ¬_¬
@@user-vn7ce5ig1z He explained in the video why the cost is so high and how it could be significantly reduced. The problem is no one cares if a sign says mi or Km on it and most people in America right now have REAL issues they are concerned about. It'd be political suicide for any politician to waste significant time on such a stupid topic.
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I am ok with switching to metric in everything except temperature. Its just nicer to use than Celsius. Also yes the harder ass hats insult us for using it the more I'm against it because fuck you also I would say a not insignificant number of Americans are becoming more and more disillusioned with Europeans. I can't help but feel like it has something to do with Europeans non-stop insulting Americans. Our people will fight and die for our allys and protect smaller nations from being bullyed by big ones but with out fail people in Europe treat us like Nazis or Fascist. Hell I be an American could be stabed and bleeding out on a street in Europe and Europeans would just ignore them. I know that last statement isn't true, but the problem is it's feeling more and more likely that it would be true.
you bad bad man, how many peoples google assistant did you trigger with the trigger phrase
Hi as an American I loved your videos. I use them to research for a number of things. I couldn't stop laughing, it honestly reminded me of one of the Top Tenz videos were you guys mentioned "American don't like being told what to do especially by there government." I toast you guys some home made Apple Pie, complete with whip cream.
Today I Found Out ya know what’s convenient about all this, I have a paper due on May 3 on this exact topic.
we use use °of freedom ...
°F
America is embracing the metric system an inch at a time.
*LOL!!!.............................not xD*
You won the internet
Lol I laughed my "feet" off
Too accurate
GET OUT NOW
I'm from Canada, where Metric has been the standard since before I started school. I'm 6' 2" tall, about 175 lbs. I used to have a out a 12 mile drive into town for school, at a highway speed limit of 100 km/hr. I feel hot if the temperature is over 26 degrees, and feel sick if my fever hits 100. I like drinking a 1L drink while building a deck out of 8' 2x4s with 3.5" deck screws. I then inflate my bike tires to 45 PSI before going for a 5k ride.
Yup...Metric Conversion 100% successful!
I am old enough to remember the conversion in Canada. A decade later, it was against the law to sell milk in quarts but the only way to get a metric bolt was to buy an imported car and take it apart.
Over 26? It’s the middle of winter where I live and it’s currently 26 degrees at this moment.
@@terrygrant2300 Our winters easily hit MINUS 26 :) Sometimes as the daily High...
And that’s why if I ever visit Canada it will never be winter.
The fun part is when people mix units to emphasize their point. like if its hot "gosh, it must be 95 out today" but if its cold "ooh, its -8!"
My girlfriend asked me if I had a foot fetish, I said no I use the metric system.
Lol
XD
😂
hahhahahahahahahaha
More of light-nanosecond fetish.
As an engineer designing light fixtures in the United States I can tell you we use both systems of measurements, usually within the same products. We talk about components in terms of millimeters, and use inches when designing the outside features, largely because the building industry still uses imperial measurements. We also tend to use the imperial footcandle for unit of light measurement for interior spaces but we use the international metric lux when we talk about exterior spaces. So, we mix and match units of measurements in the same sentence and nobody really blinks an eye.
Because we are smart and can use a system based in 12 or 10 and like you say, both.
Outside the US no one uses the imperial system whatever the job
Foot-candle for unit of light😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I guess cars still have horsepower
@@nm2064 yes, indeed. But we can always use the metric lux if that strikes our fancy. 10 lux is close to one footcandle. In the USA, we use both units depending on the application. Indoor applications usually use footcandles, exterior applications usually use lux. How is that for consistency?
@@Zerch-gi9qrEngland uses miles
The real reason the U.S. doesn’t fully swap to metric is because if we replaced feet, it would be too difficult to walk.
That has to be the most unfunny thing I've heard all day and my dog was ran over today...
@@the_original_Bilb_Ono r/nocontext
Private Jenkins r/Fortheloveofgodstopusingreddittagsinyoutubeitjustmakesyoulooklikeanidiot
@@mightbedan3590 r/ihavereddit
It was just funny
American: "whats heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?
Britishman: "depends on where you buy them from."
try cooking from my grandma's old english christmas pudding recipe and converting to metric... we finally got smart and wrote the metric on the recipe!
Well if you can do basic math and conversions then it's no problem 🙄
@@jeromebiggs7846 Say that to NASA and the lost spacecraft in 1999 due to errors in conversions...
@ so their shortcomings are my fault that they can't do what every high schoolers obligated to do to graduate is my fault and I'm supposed to justify their stupidity? LMAO ok good point dude u got me.... Lmao
@@jeromebiggs7846 tbf, doing conversions every time you need to do them introduces more situations where something can go wrong and ruin everything else down the line. if you have to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius every time you do a calculation, it means you get an opportunity to get the conversion wrong every time you do it, which is not a problem if you stick to just a single system of temperature measurement. doing conversions is inherently worse than just using a universal system, even if only marginally. the real problem is managing the adoption of that universal system globally.
"America is inching towards metric" 😂😂 I almost missed that pun!
I did thanks for pointing it out
AMERICA WILL NEVER FALL TO COMMUNIST INVASION
@@thisisaname5589 I hope you're right, but what the hell is the relevance here?
As soon as I heard it. I scrolled down. I came here to make this comment, but you are the hero who made it first. :-)
Let's face it, "centimetreing" just doesn't have the same ring to it. :)
The US Army uses a bastardization of both SI and Imperial. Km for landnav, Miles for running and mph for driving, lbs for weight, meters for shooting and artillery, liters for fluids, etc etc
When the NFL switches to a 100 meter field, the Army can finish metric migration. (Nobody wants to estimate distance by the number of soccer fields.)
We already have warehouses overflowing with metric sh*t tons, ready to deploy.
And their sidearm is 9mm.
@@scottcarr3264 and their main arm is 5.56mm
No wonder they keep sending bills for$700 for a hammer to the pentagon, needed a metric system hammer :o
@@brianwright9514 you mean .223 Remington?
Most of my life, I didn't mind using imperial units, then I got to 2nd year thermodynamics and had to deal with crap like (ft^2 * lbf) / (in^3 * lbm) * (BTU) / (lbm * ºR) * (lbm * mol * ºR) / (ft * lbf). That's when I learned imperial units were actually hell. No one should ever have to tape pages together so they can write 600 mm long equations to keep track of unit conversions. Thermodynamics and inch-pounds are like alcohol and fentanyl, a combination that will lead to an untimely death.
Thank you for your incisive comments.
Because of those comments it may be that you would be interested in the following viewing/reading - if you are not already aware of them.
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www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf
English man!!! Are you an Alien
@@justinrogers1807 Could you please explain what you meant by your comment of "English man!!! Are you an Alien" ?
man my thermo teacher at uni was like "we're supposed to teach this in imperial and metric, but like... fuck that shit"
and it never came up again
@@Thesupremeone34 What "never came up again."?
Was it the "Imperial"/US Customary or the SI?
Please Explain?
US: Updating the sign means replacing the sign.
Germany: Updating a sign means putting a reflective* sticker in it.
* retroreflective
Rural Texas: Updating the sign means backing off a couple-hunnert yards and shooting it full of .30-30 holes. 😁
@Hal Davis I'm pretty sure Texans have been doing that ever since some city slicker decided to erect a sign at a crossroads.
This, I found the sign replacement argument rediculous.
Problem is, switching between miles and kilometers where the signs currently are placed, they would now be in meaningless incomprehensible increments. The sign that once read EXIT 253 3 MILES would be 4.83 KM.. nobody wants that.
@@SteelskinDMC Yeah, but you could just approximate to 5. Noone will notice a difference of 200 metres.
Australia changed all their road signs overnight in 1974. In a lot of cases instead of changing the whole sign, the simply put a sticker over the distances with the new values.
Ok, but how did that help with anything? Didn't make things better so only time, money and resources were wasted.
@@DKoldies_CEO_Drew_Scumbag How do you figure that? The exact opposite is true; Australia saved time, money and resources.
@@jennymisteqq5399 Yes. It costs money, time and resources short term but long term you save tons of money, time and resources.
Always easier to spend other people's money.
Not stupid at all but you also have to think about regions with difficult climates.
I love how he both genuinely looks into and answers the question, whilst simultaneously roasting the asker for the backhanded way they asked it.
Customer: I would like one pound of pork chops, please.
Butcher: Its called kilo, now a days.
Customer: Alright, then give me one pound of kilo, please.
John Johansen haha
"I don't want a large Farva, I want a litre of Cola!"
A pound would be closer to 7/16 of a kilo of pork chops...
Good joke, I just had to fractionalize the metric system to make it feel a little more like home.
If you ask a European butcher for a pound of beef, you just get a half kilo. Close enough.
£ 1 or 1 lb?
Here in the us we love the metric system. 9mm is a great example
9mm is nothing. Wait till you lose the 10mm.
Or .45...
They have to adopt it for smaller shit. Maybe make everything tiny LOL
I prefer Caliber designations like .308 and .357. Its a lot more accurate.
@ Calm down man jeez.
"Slowly but surely, America is inching towards metric."
Not everyone noticed what you did there, Simon. I noticed.
I noticed.
I noticed too; was checking the comments to see if anyone else did.
Lol yup well played
Creepmobile
Slowly but surely???
Pass around what you’re smoking and don’t bogart that joint
The only instance of using metric measurements is when I buy motor oil.
A quart is APPROXIMATELY
.950 of a liter
@@jacksmith3189 You clearly missed the point of this comment; *inching* toward *metric* was kind of ironic. Simon said it in the video around 21:40 or so.
Creepmobile I particularly liked how he said it while betraying absolutely nothing in his expression.
My dad was working at a gas station in the 70s when they tried moving everybody to metric by selling gas in liters instead of gallons and customers got unreasonably angry thinking they were getting ripped off
Why? I went to Puerto Rico a while back and I didn't realize they sell gas in Litres and I was like "Wow! is gas REALLY that cheap here." My driver was so confused, she was like how cheap is where you are? 1 litre of gas is much cheaper than 1 gallon. I mean, it's also much smaller, but I doubt most Americans would know that, they would just see the cheaper price for one "unit" and be pumped. But, I wasn't there so I would have to take your dad's word for it.
@@adamleviness1039 people didn't know the conversion rate of gallons to liters so they just assumed they were getting screwed. That's really all it was.
Your story reminds me of when we had the energy crisis of the late 1970s and gasoline prices started shooting up above $1 a gallon. The pumps of the day weren't able to handle three-digit prices, so they started selling gas by the liter. "That's interesting," I thought at the time, "after years of talk, we're finally going to make a big, concrete step toward using the metric system."
But alas, within a few months, new pumps arrived and we went right back to gallons! 😆
Thus the continued use of 'Idiot' units.
Some British war show that is recent, saw a clip. They were heading across the dessert and stopped, guy got out,went to the leader car. Getting low on petro, bring up the fuel trucks! Guy doesn’t speak, makes claim again. Guy taking a sip from a flask. You brought fuel right?! Long story short, fuel tanks could hold enough for kilometers, except the destination was in miles.
Kudos for mentioning the flame war aspect and how that is human, not country specific.
I think this is an idiotic point to make.
.
.
Seriously though. Americans involved in an international space mission and specifing a velocity change in fps ... sheesh!
@@catwaterboy Get an economy as powerful as ours and we will, you Metric douche. ;)
@@AndrewBlucher Not to mention NASA specifying a Martian weather satellite to measure thrust in Newtons; then not catching when their contractor provided hardware designed for pound-feet. Then failing to claim damages, because of this contractor's failure.
Can't boast a big economy if none of it is in your pocket in the form of money and or services. Bottom feeder.
@@AndrewBlucher All aviation specifies altitudes in feet, and rate of climb or rate of descent in feet. Horizontal distances are in metres or kilometres for visibility etc. but navigation is by nautical mile, as it is one minute of latitude, or one minute of angle on a great circle. But overall I see this more as an American problem - they ARE different. The only country I know of where road rage shootings are not even news!
metric system is simple, 1 meter = 1 minecraft block
One gigaflopp is one us opsidasy.
That's one cubic meter
@@vulpes7079 one cubic meter is indeed the volume of a minecraft block, but one meter is also the length of one minecraft block. both are valid measures in that regard.
1 minecraft block meter of length is then parted in 16pixels which sadly kills the metric part of this. They should change the block to have 100pixels for the sake of the metric system alone.
@@Amlaeuxrai oh, that's decipixels. Anyone knows that.
Britain: The US is so dumb, just use the metric system lol
also Britain: Brian weighed in at 7 stone today
every stone has the same weight, you need to wake up sheeple
And our road signs are in miles. Beer is served in pints. Shoe sizes are in barleycorns. Most Brits still use feet and inches to measure a person's height.
We're a fickle people.
LMAO. Good one, this.
7 stone, jesus he needs to eat something
Depending on his age....... I've just answered my own comment 👍
But is that stone like the size of gravel or a big boulder, in other words what does a stone mean?
As a tradesman in a metric country, we're always using the imperial system, especially when it comes to pipework, hoses and fittings. NPT and BSP, 1/4", 5/8", 1/2", etc. are the norm, rather than the exception. My toolbox has both metric and imperial tools. So even if the US officially adopt the metric system, if Australia's anything to go by, they'll still be using Imperial sizes in 50years.
Forever, by that standard. The ISO standard for pipe (tapered) threads is based on BSP.
here as well. Tradesmen use both metric and imperial. Being in America though its mostly Imperial wierdly.
@@drakevaliance3536 As a lathe worker we use thousandths of an inch for everything. I might use a 2 meter long steel rod of 1 meter diameter but all cuts are done in thousandths of an inch for tolerances.
Yeah I think those building trades tend to be why Americans don't change..all our tape measures have inches and rarely metric
@@patrickjorda5523 constantly having to convert from inch to metric while building things is what keeps me from buying a metric tape.
Which is worse, ignorance or apathy?
Don't know, don't care.
Meh.
How's this even a debate to have at all ?
There's nothing worse (nor dangerous) than ignorance for sure..
VArsovski10 mass ignorance or neglect to semi to full serious matters will lead to history repeating itself.
obviously apathy.
@@QuixoteX Apathy leads to self-destruction, ignorance leads to outer aggression.
Apathic people tend to not reproduce (mainly cause they're in depression), ignorant ones DO (in masses even)
A very important notion - apathic people don't think universe started to exist the day they were born and dies when they do, ignorant ones DO
Individuals that are better than the apathic person aren't in danger of showing off their skills (nor practising in front of them), individuals that are in near-existence of an ignorant ones ARE in danger for sure
Its simply put too much religious-originating BS lying around that self-destruction is the biggest sin of all (alas, it is NOT true)
That being said = apathy's biggest danger and consequence is cutting-out/isolating self from the society, ignorance's biggest danger is = getting into conflict with everyone/everything and still not self-taking a/the blame
Here's a simple example = Anatoly Dyatlov (you know the profile from the series) = was he apathic or ignorant ?? (hint = THE second)
All you really need to do with apathic people is to not put them on important positions (which is good news since they probably don't even want it anyway nor fight for a one), the solution to ignorant ones is ? = there's none (maybe execution)
Now, HOW on Earth is that even a debate at all ?
Biggest problem in the 1970's is they tried to teach it to us as "here is the conversion factor" and tests on it were always converting from imperial to metric and back. If they had just done things in metric, we would have learned what a meter was, rather than how many feet are in a meter.
Agreed! Just work within the system. It's like learning a foreign language. It's too exhausting to have to translate everything all the time, so just start thinking in that language (which is a lot easier than most monoglots would think).
I did grade school in Germany where I learned metric. I can do the conversions in my head most of the time, including between Fahrenheit and Celsius, as long as it doesn't have to be precise. When I was told the restaurant level at the Galata Tower in Istanbul was 60 meters above the ground, I immediately knew that meant 200 feet. Yet I hate metric. Can't help it.
A 'meter' is a device to measure something (Think 'voltmeter', 'ammeter', 'multimeter', 'interferometer'). A 'metre' is the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second.
@@Chris-hx3om In Commonwealth English, not universally.
@@Ryan....... 🤦♂English IS Commonwealth. Again, yanks messing with the language because they can't be bother to learn how to spell properly.
I am a retired soldier and was stationed and lived in Germany for 10 years of my career and I can use both metric and SAE (Standard American Equivalent) with aplomb. Currently working as a millwright in an iron foundry, I sometimes use metric just to mess with the Apprentices and the production people.
I have found that what really messes with them is writing down time in the military 24hr format. "WTH does 2243hrs mean?! Is that some kind of German crap?!" Coming from a guy whose family name is, Schmidt.
Having a German name does not necessarily mean having the German intellect... :P
@Harold Potsdamer I'm Belgian...
What made you think I am German/have a German name?
SAE is society of automotive engineers which is a US based standards governing body.
I am a Chief, son of a Chief. Ie, my father was a WWII CPO in the Seabees and I am a retired CPO, USNR. In Jr High, I found his 1944 Bluejackets Manual and studied it. From that point on (a bit over half a century), I've been on the 24-hour clock. So wonderfully unambiguous, no messing around with meridians -- midnight is the only problem which nearly affected me. Our company had a few German engineers (BTW, just about everybody else post schedules in 24-hour time, but not the US). One day one of them approached me with a question about his plane ticket. 12:30 PM. Just what time of day is that supposed to be? Similarly, at another company a PC provider would set up the XT clones for our customers and notoriously the system clocks would be off by 12 hours -- they'd set them up in the afternoon but use 12-hour time.
My son is a cop and has learned 24-hour time. When he reported the birth of my first grandchild, he reported as being at 2005. I had to translate real time to faux time for all the civilians present.
Midnight. On active duty, I was in a 24-hour office. Upon my separation, the office was short-staffed and had to go to 12-hour shifts. The supervising NCO (I started out active duty USAF) wrote the duty roster ambiguously, assigning midnight apparently to the wrong day. At the end of my last 8-hour shift, my relief thought he didn't have to come in until 24 hours later. We got it straightened out and my relief was royally pissed, but there was no way I was going to end my active duty career with no 20-hour shift (which violated Strategic Air Command's regs anyway).
I live in the US, I use the 24 hour clock (even at home, although I translate for the family). But I work supporting computers all around the world, and we use UTC on them, which means in my head I find I adding my timezone offset to know what the time is in UTC - even when I look at a local clock.
Who else uses UTC? A few countries in West Africa, the USGS, Antarctia, and the International Space Station. But I'm sure many more companies use it internally (because it makes life SO much easier).
You're currently batting a thousand. Every one of your videos I've watched has been both entertaining and scholarly. A winning combo and greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks for pointing out that the tendency to resist forced change is not limited to Americans...
It seems most people don't consider this.
Honduras tried Daylight Savings Time, and everyone hated it so much they switched back. Americans who hate DST still have to deal with it
The imperial system has been used for millennia. This metric shit is new, but that doesn't mean it's better.
Plus, and I don't know if it was addressed in this video, the metric system was invented in New York, it's an American system of measurement, yes it was developed by a Frenchman but that Frenchman was in the United States.
@@rivermcratt3683 yeah and the metric system is uniform and easy. Much better than the system we have
@@YaakovEzraAmiChi the imperial system was invented by the ancient Arabs, so I guess that means if you like the metric system you hate Islam.
@@rivermcratt3683 "The imperial system has been used for millennia. This metric shit is new, but that doesn't mean it's better."
Nor does it mean it isn't better. So whether or not it's better is not answered by that... but is it better? That's still a question right?
"Plus, and I don't know if it was addressed in this video, the metric system was invented in New York, it's an American system of measurement, yes it was developed by a Frenchman but that Frenchman was in the United States."
In the context of this topic, what is your argument here? Individuals are exceptions to rules all the time... America does, in fact, NOT use the Metric system, regardless which individual invented it.... so what's your point? Since you never gave a justification for whether Imperial or Metric is, in fact, more useful, whom invented which is, at this point in your argument, an irrelevant fact.
It's not "An American measurement system", it's a system invented by one American... and not used by Americans in general.... so it's NOT an "American measurement system". It's a measurement system of that guy who invented it, and now most of the world outside of America. What makes it "American" beyond that one specific man? Talk about taking undue credit.
As an automotive mechanic, you have to be fluent in both systems to avoid rounding the head off of bolts, or worse.
Yeah, at work we don't use metric at all. It took some getting used to, as I was used to working on bicycles, which almost exclusively (99.8% I'd guess) use metric for parts, measurements, etc.
Wouldn't happen if there was just one
Nurses use metric.
Why does anyone care? People can do whatever they want. No one has any right to cram their ideas forcibly on others. Besides,it will cost too much to change now. We're fluent in both. As a nurse,I have to know the metric system. As to my European friends,they are so jealous how fast I can go back and forth between the 2 systems,showing THEM,how stupid they are😂😂😂😂😂
BC Nation urgh. I hate that we have to learn things like that in Canada. Learning both system sucks at times
I grew up in Canada, born in 74. I was only ever taught metric in school. Then in high school in the early 90s, I went to work for my uncle in his tool and die shop for a summer and was really confused when I discovered the company used
Imperial and all the old machines the shop had that were manufactured in the USA had all of the measurements in Imperial instead of metric. My uncle was surprised that I had never learned about inches, etc., in school and had to teach me about how to measure using them. In the late 90s I worked as an intern for a couple of summers for an Engineering firm that made plastic (High Density Polyethelene) gas tanks for motor vehicles (the HDPE was stronger than steel) and we had international customers. I would make blueprints along with gas tank volume measurements in metric, USA Imperial or British Imperial depending upon which country the blueprints were for. Most of the world wanted metric, but the USA still wanted things to be in USA Imperial units and England wanted things to be in British Imperial. I had to be careful because USA gallons were different than British Gallons, etc.. It was really a mess to deal with the countries and companies that weren't dealing with metric.
I asked my roommate (who is from England) how much a gallon of water weighed and he said 10 pounds. I disagreed and insisted it was 8.34 pounds. Then I thought for a moment and looked up the weight of an Imperial gallon of water online. Sure enough, it's 10 pounds.
First car I had in the late 90's was a '68 skylark that was sold in Canada and stayed here it's entire life, shocked me to see it was in miles. Sure made me learned that 60mph was 100kph when I got pulled over for speeding 🤣
@@MKahn84 yeah but for some reason the British measure a gallon as being five quarters of a gallon.
@@unclejoeoakland more the other way around. Why did the USA choose to deliberately deviate away from the English gallon you already had. Your smaller gallon is a major factor with your cars giving bad MPG fuel economy figures. A smaller gallon goes less miles obviously. You also get conned on your beer measures, because this automatically relates to a smaller pint glass.
@@andrewdking that happened after the Revolution. That was also around the time that British English started adding "u" to a lot of words just to fancy it up because of the perception amongst the aristocracy that [court] French was more sophisticated.
Simon made a lot of US friends with this one. Truly a balanced bit of reporting.
YEA! But now it got me thinking, why as an American do I always prefer to hear our history relayed to me by an Englishman?? 😆
@@MaryamofShomal Sugar makes the medicine go down after all!
As an American I 100% agree. He's one of the few rational and fair British people I see online.
There’s also 3 increasing sizes for quantity:
Plethora, Shitload, and Fuckton.
In the south its mess, ass, and shit ton
Would you say I have a plethora if piñatas?
The metric fuckton is made of 1000 fuckograms, each if which is 1000 millifucks.
The metric fuckton is made of 1000 fuckograms, each of which is 1000 millifucks.
Never forget butt load!
Britain: * invents system of measurement *
US: * Adopts that system *
Britain: * Switches to the metric system and makes fun of the US for using imperial measurements for 250 years *
America: "Wait, this was your idea."
The USA does not use Imperial. We use US Customary measures developed by Thomas Jefferson. The more you know.
actually as Simon noted the Imperial is a different system, pints are larger, gallons are large, tonnes are heaver than tons, and this side of the big water we don't use stones, hundredweigh (cwt - which oddly are 8 stone)or Troy ounce (except in weight of precious metals) Furlong (except in horse racing) as far a I know length is them
Imperial didn't come along until the 1820s.
Literally sat here 🇬🇧 , lmfao 😂😂🤣
...the Brits aren't much better, though, are they?
I've just noticed America is just one tea short of "A me(t)ric A"
Maybe it was chucked out in Boston in 1773.
Not bad, you have this 👍
nah we went right back to sipping that good ol leaf juice
As a first generation American who grew up with European parents, I've learned to use and convert both of the systems. This came in handy when i finally moved to Europe. Now when i watch an American technical video for creating something, it's easy for me to translate it into centimeter. Although i'm familiar with the feet, inches and etc , i find that the metric system it's more easy to use. But i will not try to make someone who wants to use the Imperial system to change into the Metric system if he doesn't want. Instead of that i will suggest if he wants to learn both of them. This way i won't fight with him and he might learn something more.
You sir, a genius!
I'm nearing 70 years old and I regularly convert Inches to centimeter and vice versa, miles to kilometers and back, and yards to meters amd tge reverse in my little old brain. And trust me, I am no math genius. The only thing that bugs me and it's insignificant is that I'd rather drive 100 miles than app. 150 km, however, I'd rather drive at 150 kph than 100 mph. You know. Americans like things bigger! That's strictly perception issue. 😊
As a helicopter mechanic/crew chief in the US Army, I would like to point out that the Army is not using the metric system for anything besides weapon range and land navigation. In fact, my issued toolbox (which has hundreds of tools, and roughly is ~$5,000 new) doesn’t have a single metric tool.
For any mechanics out there: I think the reason for this is to avoid the cost of lost 10mm sockets lol
10mm sockets tend to float away!
@@wcurtin1962 No kidding? my 13mm socket is lost to the aether, but i've got several 1/2 inch sockets in return... somehow
@@davidtee5367 was your 13mm socket 3/8 or 1/2 inch drive?
Haha they were raptured to a better place
Holy shitballs, it's nice to know everyone else loses their bloody 10mm sockets/spanners. Glad I'm not alone!
Why the hell does it cost $2,000 to produce 1 road sign? That's more absurd than Apple's pricing scheme!
Coz government. Duhh
Because companies assume that government can afford it.
Because the signs they're talking about are the large signs over highways, hence the reason it costs $8,000 for steel posts and concrete and $15K in labor. They even talk about programming signs, which you wouldn't need even for an electronic speed limit sign on the side of a highway, but you would for the multi-line signs over your lane you see as you drive under it. If you keep watching they talk about the steel structure that has to span the freeway, the break away poles, and the sign bridge. They're not talking about the small "30 MPH School Zone" signs that can be pounded into the ground. $2000 for a large sign that sits over a highway and tells you "10 miles to NYC" isn't too bad of a price when you think about that size.
Because legal liability in case of a traffic accident. Someone is responsible for proper behavior of the road sign in an accident, and if you get unnecessarily impaled by the sign post, its producer will find itself in a world of shit being sued by your family. For exactly the same reason you pay about 5~10 times the actual production cost for a vehicle. It isn't expensive to manufacture one; developing it in the safest possible way and testing and proving it hundreds of times under various contitions is what makes it that insanely expensive.
Free Market forces. Get some quotes from industry and see how well you do. Don’t forget there is the cost of installation on-site and some signs also require an electricity supply for illumination.
Drug dealers taught me the metric system back in the 80's
These streets be teaching kids measurements, commerce, and law
The 80's, back when Miami Vice ruled....
@@reggiep75 I had to look up 25g. It's not even an ounce!
Odd. Drug dealers taught me the imperial system on the early 2000's in the UK. Only chumps buy drugs in metric weights.
Strangely enough, all the legal cannabis stores in the US sell their products, except live plants, by the gram, or in the case of e-liquids, by the 15 or 30 milliliter bottle.
I needed to measure out a grid on my front lawn. My sketch assumed I'd be making it a rectangle of 12 meters by 6 meters. Turned out that 6 m wide would put one edge past the grass and onto the gravel. Then, I decided to keep the numbers and make them yards. Now it fit nicely, and I could still use whole numbers in my grid. Then I needed to calculate the hypotenuse to confirm that it was 90º at each corner. Pythagorean Theorem gave me a diagonal of 18.87 units. But wait, I could not find 0.87 yards (nor 0.61 feet) on my tape which was marked in meters and feet & inches. I had to convert it to inches, which gave me huge numbers, and then find 483 inches. What a pain.
That being said, like many other Canadians I think of my weight as 160 pounds and height as 5' 9".
But by now I've lost all sense of Fahrenheit, except for 68-70º as being room temperature, and 100º is pretty hot.
As a Life long Washingtonian let me tell you our DOT will find the most expensive way to do anything
In Asotin County our back raods have KM markers.
I'll clean the brush away for $5000
because every single sign will require new posts and brackets to be dug and installed right? better buy some new equipment to install them too, and make sure everyone is well into overtime hours to get it done.
As a lifelong Canadian living near the US border, I believe you.
I'm sure alot of the dollars on that price tag won't have anything to do with putting the sign in the ground
Okay, once the image of the school boy was shown with the caption "I forgot how to speak Kilogram." I totally misread this at first as: I forgot how to speak klingon.
Everyone reads what he/she wants to read. Trekki spotted! ;-)
Q'plaH!
Fox D *pushes up glasses* uhm it’s actually spelled petaQ or P’takh.
Fox D *pushes up glasses* uhm it’s actually spelled petaQ or P’takh.
Ohhh, we can't have that now can we? Learning Klingon is a vital part of every boy's development!
I was born and raised in California. When I was in elementary school, I had to learn both Imperial and Metric. When I got to High School, science class was ALWAYS Metric. It was drilled into us that you do not ever use Imperial measurements in Science.
In California maybe ... I don't think the inbred-states are quite there yet ;)
@@peterpain6625 I am from Oklahoma (arguably an inbred state), and had similar experiences during my public education. SI units in math and science, and Imperial measurements in day to day life.
*puffs pipe* Imperialism and Imperial measure for life!
I'm sorry.
@@mississippirebel1409 which inbred state are you from then?
Canada uses both. Even though we're officially metric, you will most likely have a Canadian tell you their height in feet/inches and their weight in pounds
I understand that feet and inches are still used for lumber and building houses.
@@AlaskaErik Yep, Canadian construction worker here. Build mostly decks and whatnot, all in ft/in
@@AlaskaErik A lot of more scientifically or engineering minded people don't realize that the reason why the imperial system lasted so long was because it was really good for working men. Even in the UK and other former commonwealth nations, there are many trades that still prefer imperial, but tend to need both.
Canada adopted the metric system April 1, 1975. A year before I graduated. For a while road signs were in both metric and imperial. It was an easy transition although I hated the metric sticker you place over the imperial numbers on your speedometer LOL. I immediately adopted the metric system and found it far easier and more accurate. 3mm is a lot easier to add, subtract or count than 3/32nds. Many older people didn’t change so it’s still good to know both. The construction industry seems to be a hold out for imperial measurements. I think it’s because they don’t want to buy new tape measures.
Second language everywhere outside of the US: English
Second language inside the US: Metric
It all balances out in the end.
UK, Ireland, Jamaica: Are we a Joke to you?
@@changwanyu4231 It appears this moron doesn't comprehend that _English_ originates in _England!_ English _is_ a second language in the USA, since virtually all of them speak and write it so poorly. Also, don't forget Australia and New Zealand (there are plenty of others).
@@anhedonianepiphany5588 We speak American English, which is a different dialect.
But if you want to be really nitpicky, English comes from old Germanic. So German is our first language. I could continue going back, turtles all the way down. But that isn't a very helpful representation of modern language, is it?
Nathan Lang I mean we could go back to proto-indo European but what's the point. I think the inflammatory comment was meant to suggest Americans are simply stupid which is rather disappointing. The reason many Americans don't speak a second language is because they don't need it. US states, while varying in size, are mostly the size of European countries with Alaska being essentially subcontinental. America's neighbor Canada does have some French only speakers, however virtually everyone north does speak English. The states bordering Mexico have a very high number of Spanish as a second language speakers. In all other subjects, America is also at or above global standards. This is clear by the top universities in the world and the largest number of foreign students attending American colleges. If simply commenting on the US falling to the teens or twenties in math and science, it's a misunderstanding of how the US measures its students. Even the mentally retarded are required to take secondary school exams, everyone must attend school until age 16 in most of the country. If every nation included their bottom 20% in the average how would they fair? The education system can definitely be improved but it's hardly broken, and public school is free for those who can't pay through grade 12 - in many places, especially suburban, the public schools perform as well as expensive private schools.
Midnight Tornado The only reason is because English is the international language...there really is no reason to learn another language. I’ve been to Germany, Hungary, China, Brazil, and Indonesia; I’ve never needed anything other than English.
Tried using a UK size chart and it asked how many stones I weigh. First thought was, well what size stones are we talking about here? 😆
One Stone (I think) is 14 Pounds, but British Pounds which are different to American Pounds.
@@gerardmontgomery280 British lbs are the same as US lbs. Their gallons are bigger though.
@@herbiehusker1889 UK lbs are different to US lbs, here in the UK we standardised the weight in 1824 because we had been using different weights for the pound. Basically the UK provided ALL the weights and scales for the US and purposely made those weights heavier so we would get more produce per lb when buying from the US and made a lot of money as a result. We also used to use lighter weights while selling to the US so that we could sell less produce for the same amount of money...
In 1824 this exploitation of colonies was becoming a problem as it was causing various economies serious problems as the imports were far more expensive than the exports and raising taxes wasn't really possible without further damaging their economies so a law was passed re-standardising the pound accross the British Empire and it has stayed the same ever since, the USA had been independent for 70ish years by this point so used the previous incorrect weights.
Google says 1 Stone = 14 pounds =~ 6.350293 Kg.
Always throws me when UK people talk about how many stones they lost on a diet program. Stones must be some ancient Celtic thing.
@@gerardmontgomery280 14 Pounds? That sounds more like a Rock to me. Ha Ha!
I was complaining about it being hot at 44 degrees a few years ago on Facebook. I was asked “since when was 44 degrees hot?”. My response was “September 1972”, which was when Australia started only using Celsius for temperature.
Celsius is for measuring the temperature of water.
Fahrenheit is for measuring temperature in relation to people, and the normal outside temps.
@@summitlb123 not here in Australia
@@summitlb123 Eeenope.
F is objectively stupid.
The other units of measurement in the imperial system are not stupid, they are simply inconvenient. They don't conveniently scale to "drop or add a zero", which makes them inconvenient.
F is actually stupid - as in, poorly thought-out as a scale.
Here are the reasons.
Reason the first, the zero point for the F scale is... The freezing point of a (very specific) brine of salt and water. Do you know how much salt, off the top of your head? Or which salt? I can tell you that the Celsius scale specifies "water", which, to a chemist, means pure water. No strange salts, just, water.
Reason the second, the one-hundred point is defined as "the temperature of a healthy human body".
Which is stupid for three whole reasons of its own:
The first and most important one is that it requires a second reference. Why not use the boiling point of the *same goddamn brine* of *bloody ammonium salts* and water and ice and the tears of an orphan child that you used for your zero point?
Nobody knows. Daniel just though it a good idea. Good on you Daniel. I know you are a world-famous scientist and I am not, but I still think that was a very dumb decision.
The second reason is that the human body does not have the same temperature on every surface.
So. Which orifice are you using to measure the temperature of a healthy human body, Daniel? Inquiring minds need to know - the inquiring minds being the international scientific community at large.
The third reason... Is that Daniel got it wrong.
If your body temperature is 100F, you are running a fever.
Which is probably because humans are inherently variable, and therefore there is no way to define "the" temperature of a healthy human: Daniel ran a little hotter than most people, and he though it perfectly normal. He was probably quite surprised when most people turned out to have "unhealthy" temperatures.
Now, Anders, aside from having a much easier-to-write family name, decided to make his scale much simpler (though he did kind of fuck up by reversing the 0 and 100 point, but that was long before the concept of absolute zero, so it behooves us to forgive him).
First of all, he used a single source for his measurements. You don't need a strange brine for the zero point and a (possibly) healthy human for the 100 point. Your endpoints are both based on the same source.
Second of all, he used distilled water as that single source. No need to faff around with ammonium chloride: you take water, evaporate it, condense it, and you are done.
Why Daniel though we should faff around with ammonium chloride (as opposed to any other chloride, or no chlorides at all), I will never know.
The upshot is that the Celsius scale is much less arbitrary in its endpoints than the F scale (sorry, I'm not German, I'm not looking it up every time I have to write it), and therefore easier to understand: 0 is freezing cold, 100 is scorching hot.
Now, what is "comfortably warm"?
Well, the thing is, "comfortably warm" in C is exactly as arbitrary-looking as "comfortably warm" in F. 20° C is 68° F. Maybe you feel better at 70° F, which is approximately 21° C, but the difference is relatively minor.
So, really, why is the F scale any more sensible than the C scale?
Why it 70 better than 20? After all, neither of them is 50.
I was in Germany in summer a few years ago. I can attest to 44° being hot as hell! They get horrid heat waves that come up from the Sahara. It was as hot in Leipzig as I remembered it being in the Southern Arizona desert where I grew up. It was 106° F, and Germans rarely have air conditioning except in businesses. I'm no longer used to that sort of heat and was miserable.
@@shonaguthrie848 Also not here in Canada. We often are told temperatures in both units, but I personally find Celsius to be much more useful - for normal, and abnormal, outside, and inside, temps. I don't know what "measuring temperature in relation to people" means, so I'm not sure about that one. On the other hand I will tell you my height in feet and inches, and the depth of a new snowfall in feet or inches, and my weight in pounds, as I find those units more intuitive.
I remember a teacher telling us back in the 1960's that I would see road signs first with both units and then only SI units. I've been waiting all my life, but no change. Like you said after university I forgot almost all I ever learned about SI units.
Metric road signs were shot full of holes.
@@marcellocolona4980 9mm or 0.45 inches?
I recently moved to the US. The miles are ok to use, it is mentally easy to change. I also like to buy liquids in gallons. For me the main problem is the temperature, it is really strange to see think 30 is a low temperature but 100 is not dangerous.
Yeah..........Celsius to Fahrenheit is more of mental gymnastics to me too. 212F is boiling of water and 32F is freezing..........or 0C is freezing and 100C is boiling of water. What is in between is what messes my mind up.
@@randyhager2054 It's not so hard! 0F translates to "it's too damn cold, I'm staying inside" while 100F translates to "it's too damn hot, I'm staying inside." You may be forced to go without HVAC outside of that range, but it will be annoying.
@@ZlothZloth I'm American so I grew up with the Fahrenheit. The mental gymnastics is trying to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. I've been to Europe a couple of times and that take some brain power to make it into something I'm more familiar with.
@@ZlothZloth The same could be said about Celsius it all depends on your climate, I'm Australian 0C is to cold 50C is to hot.
@@Bnsbeaver That's pretty much the exact same for the central valley of California (0 to 45 typical).
Me buying tools in Europe: "I need a set of metric sockets." Dealer: "Do you want the 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch drive? "
Really? That isn't just here?
@@unclejoeoakland Nope
and don't hope too far! Depending on the vehicle you can have both metric and imperial bolts!
What is a 2X4 in Europe?
@@rong1924 A really thin timber less than 300 years old?
Great video... And your spot on.
I use metric all the time.. with tools, working on cars... Tell me you need a 14mm socket..and I have no issues.
But at the same time.. if someone says it's.. 48 kilometers away.. .. I don't instinctively know what that distance is.. in my mind. I have to do the conversion.
thats about 3.5million 14mm sockets away. also have you lost your 10mm socket yet?
@@zerotheliger
Many times... It's ALWAYS the 10mm. Lolz.
kens97sto171 One thing I’ve found in research is to simply think in the new unit system. Converting is the death of any attempt to switch. I believe that if magically over night all thermometers, tape measures, speedometers, road signs, bathroom scales, cooking utensils, and gas stations switched to metric Americans would be used to it within a year. I switched my Apple watch’s weather temperature to Celsius the last month. Now I know when to put a hoodie or a coat before walking out the door.
@@TiE23
Agree, but as he said in the video.. why.
In daily life it doesn't effect anyone.
And in all the things where it's important it's already done.
Untill you change the road signs.. something everyone sees every day. People won't change... And they don't really need to.
48 km is about half an hour away at highway speeds. This is because 100 km/hr is roughly equal to 60 mph, and 48 km is almost 50 km. Similarly every 10 km is about 6 minutes of travel at highway speeds. Of course, if you speed then your travel times will be less.
My crochet hook is in mm. I live in the US but I don't use the US numbering system. Mm are less confusing. When I buy yarn I want to know the weight and yards more than anything because that tells me how much yarn I need for the project I'm doing. The label usually has yards and mm listed.
During the Labour Day weekend in 1977, every speed limit sign in Canada was changed from mph to km/h. This was accomplished by applying large stickers to the signs. Over the years, in the course of normal wear and maintenance, all the stickered signs have been replaced.
John Lammers - I was going to dispute the date with you and suggest that it was May 1, 1979 because that was the date I bought my first car and all the signs on the gas stations changed to liters from gallons on that day but I think you're right: speed limit signs changed before the gas station signage did.
I was wondering why the issue is the cost of replacing signs when stickers can be used.
Here in NZ, we had conversion stickers for kph speeds in steps of 10 from 10 to 80 that we could apply to the face of our speedos. (80k was the max because we still had a 50mph open road limit at the time)
@@MoltenMetalCasting stickers wear out and eventually they will still have to replace the signs regardless...so one could say, additional cost by having thousands upon thousands of stickers all over the cities xD
@@MoltenMetalCasting because of precisely the human nature part. They don't actually *want* to fix it, so of course they're not going to spend any energy to think of good solutions to do so quickly and cheaply. It's just human nature to resist change and resist being told what to do, so you make it as absolutely as inconvenient as possible, even going so far as to throw out some causal falsehoods and misdirecting information. The only way to get them to change is to get them to *want* to change and truly think the change is the best.
The US Marine Corps have always used metric as far back as they have been an effective fighting force. There is no complaining, no puzzled looks or hesitation. Its metres, klicks(kilometres) and Mike-mikes (millimetres). Artillery grids need to be understood at a glance because of the dynamic nature of war. Add the logistical realities of combat and metric makes these military endeavours much less prone to friendly fire incidents than if they relied on imperial. Never heard an ex-grunt ever whinge about having to learn the metric system.
You meant to write "hasn't always". Metric was ushered into the US Armed Forces due to NATO standardization. So that's circa 1957.
Unless you were a recon scout sniper at its start where the scope had mils for windage and moa for elevation. Now they all use mil/mil but it hasn't been mil always.
I would beg to differ, the US Marine Corps was quite effective back in WWII and were not using the metric system. In fact, things haven't gone quite so well ever since they adopted the metric system, from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan, the Marines have seen better days. Maybe that's the source of the problem? Go back to the old imperial system and we'll be, once again, conquering new colonies before we know it.
@@costakeith9048 wouldn't that apply more to the British? Dump the Metric System and roll out Imperial post-Brexit...
@@TheJeremyHolloway That works too, a tongue in cheek comment often has multiple applications!
Bonus Fact: The astronauts who went to the moon fuelled their cars by the gallon, but the engineers who sent them there used the metric system.
Additional Bonus Fact: We in the UK are like our cousins across the pond in as much as we use both systems of measurement depending on the circumstance. For instance, in the UK we measure a car engine's output in horsepower, but the same engine's capacity in litres. I fill my car with litres of petrol, but drive 20 miles to work where I, a 6-foot tall man build systems measured by the meter. To cope with the stresses of the day, I take medication prescribed in milligrams and the devil's lettuce purchased in eighths of an ounce.
how much do you weigh in stone?
@@sabremarky15 Twelve. That's actually a good one. Both the UK and US commonly use the same standard, but different aspects of it. I don't know my weight in pounds without using a calculator, any more than an American knows their weight in stones, even though they're the same system of measurement. Also, though I weight twelve stones, I am required by law to buy meat by the kilogram.
Edit: Additionally, Doctors always use metric, and my height and weight are in my medical records in centimetres and kilograms.
And the stone for weight
Canada is much the same
We literally do everything you mentioned except for the petrol/gasoline, which we always measure in gallons. We also check our fuel economy in mpg rather than...km/L?
"Standardization". Remember not that long ago when Ford, GM and Dodge all used similar parts that were interchangeable, rims (for our automobile tires) for example? Have you ever pondered the additional un-necessary cost of "bastardisation" of such automobile parts for example? They all serve the same purpose and work equally as good but none will interchange like they once did. Do you realize the unnecessary cost of non standardization throughout our world today, and how it continues to needlessly add cost? Likely - un calculable.
From my experience as a general contractor, the most annoying use is when it comes to fractions of an inch.
Using millimeters allow for more accurate finish carpentry work than fractions of inches.
micrometers vs thous, go.
Could always use decimal inches, but at that point you might as well be using metric.
metric you have one choice 10 with inches you have a fast choice.
@@redsev2023 Because it's quicker and easier to work with 30mm than 1 and 3/16" when doing projects that require precise measuring. This is why NASA, the military, etc switched to metric decades ago.
@@redsev2023 In theory yes, in practice, no.
“Change is inevitable, progress is a choice.”
We do a lot of home repair work, floors, drywall, electrical & plumbing. Being a bit older I can recall making the change to metric from imperial, once we got used to it we actually found it made our work significantly easier. Naturally the 10 mm socket has evolved to grow legs and walk away from just about every single tool box I’ve witnessed.
I've heard it said that only one 10mm socket or wrench was ever stolen. All the rest were just people getting theirs back.
@@pr0xZen 10mm socket or wrench is the left sock in the dryer
@@josephgray2475 Bingo.
Boy you nailed that 10mm socket vanishing act shit,i had to take every 10 mm socket and wrench i own out of their cases & put them in a magnetic bowl,that worked for about 6 weeks .
I just file them a little larger to 11mm and nobody does steal them anymore!
21:43: "Slowly but surely America is inching toward metric..." Well said.
There is irony in the statement.
"Slowly but surely America is microning towards metric..."
Cost of replacing road signs? You don't have to replace them. Just compare the number you see on the sign with the number on your speedometer. The problem is not using the same units in your own country, as long as you don't take your US car to another country. Also if you want to place an order for some substance from a foreign supplier. You do it in pounds, the Germans will tell you they can't process it because their invoicing system only accepts kilograms. I mean, the tail won't wag the dog. Wait! Viewed from the tail's perspective, it sees the dog move.
Amazing!! You actually got it right that we use the US Customary System, not the similar but different Imperial system!
No one gets that right...
Hats off to you sir.
Um...I freaking *live* in the U.S. and didn’t know that.
@@flimsyfox thus why I was surprised that he got it right, because no one seems to know this lol
I'm Australian and yep we've had to learn that US gallons is different than UK gallons
@@stuarthancock571 do you know why they are different? Lol
The Gallon had been defined in the British Empire as the Queen Anne's Wine Gallon, but then in 1820 they decided to act all sciencey, and redefined the British Empire official Gallon as 10 pounds of water at 62f, and redefined the Imperial ounce to be a fraction of this new gallon.
America had no issues with the our gallon, so we kept it lol
I know, but I almost always forget that it's named "US Customary System" so I use the colloquial term "imperial" instead in those cases.
I love the metric system. I'd give it a 10 out of 10.
Aw, imperial's not that bad though. I'd rate it at least nine sixteenths ;-)
@@jkelsh I give it atleast 1-1&1/16ths. That is 27mm out of 28.59mm Or equates to 93.75 out of 100. I'm an idiot imperial user too. lol
@@BensMiniToons How about 3/4" (19mm) or 13/16" (21mm)?
@@AvroBellow 3/4"-19mm = +50 Microns
13/16"-21mm= -363 Microns. lol They are Extremely close. 😁
I prefer it myself if for no other reason than I'm too lazy to keep converting one to the other for various reasons lol
I'll walk 200 metres to the supermarket, where I'll buy 250g of cheese, 4 pints of milk, a litre of ice cream, 4 quarter pounders, and 2 litres of Coke! I'll then drive 2 miles to the hardware store, at 30mph, where I'll pick up a 1" and 4" paint brush, and 5 litres of emulsion to paint my wall. I'll top my fuel tank off at 60 litres, and then work out my MPG! Gotta love the UK's metric system! 🤣🤣🤣
The UK also measures fuel efficiency in distance per volume? That is even more confusing than the imperial system…
(And actually conveys less direct meaning, no matter what you grew up with - see e.g. https : // wheels . blogs . nytimes . com / 2008 / 06 / 20 / the-illusion-of-miles-per-gallon / )
Haha, yes I immediately thought that must be the U.K.! 🇬🇧 hurrah!
And if the temperature drops below 0 Celsius I’ll usually have to top up my tyre pressure to 35psi.
Best part is: you used pounds to buy the 250g of cheese ;)
@@entropyzero5588 I'm pretty sure the British measure fuel consumption the same way we do in Australia, which is _volume per distance,_ e.g. 7 litres per 100 km. It's no more or less meaningful than your miles per gallon (distance per volume), but far easier to comprehend in everyday terms (i.e. _less_ confusing).
Once you lot decide to bury the antiquated, redundant, and impractical, former system of your former British overlords, your world will make a lot more sense.
I probably commented on this years ago lol. We need to just tear off the bandaid and switch. Even if we leave things like speed limit signs out for now, we can definitely switch our temp measurements, length measurements, volume and all, and swap to only metric tools which alone is a crazy savings. The longer we wait the worse it'll be.
Even here in England (the home of imperial units) we use imperial for rough measurements (miles, stones, pints etc) but switch to metric for fine measurements.
But 15/16 of an inch makes you sound more intelligent. Did you see that video from those US chopper guys where they were trying to calculate fractions of an inch and everybody was like uh uh uuuh uuuuuuuh uh uh u h u h
England, where you buy your fuel in metric and measure your speed in Imperial.
@@wakey87 And fuel economy in miles per gallon.
Coz we are smart enough to work it out and we like it.
1701spacecadet at least it’s not miles per liter or kilometers per gallon because that would really be painful
@@samreid6010 hey, we aren't THAT crazy.
Now if we could just fix the international hodgepodge of clothing sizes?
Agree. You have Europe, Asian and American size. A size 1 America is a 3 in England and a size 50 in Asia
No kidding! Shoes sizes piss me off!
@@1madeintheimage
Whatever happened to getting a shoe in our proper width?
@@mvb88 It's more complicated than that. I've found each factory fudges the sizes ever so slightly so at this point they're just vague guidelines.
You basically just always have to try clothes on, because sizes don't even align across brands or even different clothes of the same brand
Kid sizes in cm (like 146-152 and 158-164) did work fairly well though in being consistent
If the US switched from pounds to kilograms, there would be mass confusion.
There would be a prolonged transition period, just like everywhere else did when they changed to metric
@@lizardlegend42 r/whoosh?
@@johnuferbach9166 oh ffs you're right lol 😂. Ok that was actually a good joke Tim Hoppen.
Massive mass confussion
That is a weighty argument.
As a European using the metric system in my daily life, makes USC and Imperial units confusing as hell. Mostly because when someone mentions 'a gallon' and it's fractions gets confusing because I'd need to know if they're speaking English or American. For recipes it's also confusing because English language recipes use volumetric measurements rather than weight, which makes conversion more difficult as density suddenly becomes a factor.
As for Nautical units used in aircraft and ships, they do make sense in a different way. 1 nautical mile is close enough to 6000 feet as makes no difference at that scale, which is convenient when you need to quickly estimate a glide slope. This works much less well when using statutory miles of 5280ft.
And I also think that it helped USC units that it was effectively the only system of measurement used in the country at the time. Compared to Europe where even within a single (modern day) country units with the same name would be a different measurement.
In my own country the term "mile" has had vastly different meanings over the course of history. So when something is X miles away according to a historic text, you'd need to know not only when that text was written, but also where. It might be as short as 5555 metres, or as much as 7404 metres. A mile would be defined as either "an hours walk" or about 5km, or it could be 20000 feet, or 22800 feet, and although I say feet those feet are from different regions and thus are not the same length.
Then the metric system came around and people started to refer to a kilometer as a metric mile. Adding yet another meaning to the word.
Add to the fact that people couldn't agree on how many "feet" constituted a "mile" and then add in the fact that in the area that today makes up the Benelux, there were more than 30 different kinds of "foot" which each divided up into 10, 11, 12, or 13 "inches" and the system as a whole becomes incredibly unwieldy. Also none of those historical measurements of a "foot" or the accompanying "inch" is the same as what people in modern times refer to as a foot or an inch.
Standardising everything to the metric system and the SI makes much more sense in that context. In the US, where there only really ever was a single definition for those units, it makes much less sense to switch over. There already is a standard with a single, clear definition.
This makes me understand your guys confusion and seemingly violent hatred of our prefered system lol god that sounds awful! This also makes more sense why our friends to the north do not hate it as much and even indulge in using both depending on the situation. Also just to clarify, we learn both in school here in the states as well as almost all our stuff says both.
Nobody in the US knows how many feet are in a mile, either. Anyone who says they do is a dirt fucking commie spy.
@ Fermitu Poupon : *THANK YOU!* This is what I've been saying for years!
Excellent comment....Fermitu Poupon! 😄 (But seriously, you *did* get it 100% right.)
“Give him a centimeter and he’ll take a kilometer” doesn’t really have the same ring to it.
Because you grew up with an idiom doesn't mean an archaic measurement system isn't inferior.
Shane G lol I grew up with an idiom, the metric system, and a sense of humor. No need to get salty.
Well... in Spanish we say "Give him a finger and he'll take an arm" there you go
That's why we Europeans say "Give him a hand and he'll take the arm" instead...
In Canada we have the metric system, so up here we would say, " He/she is a greedy fuck", or alternately, "Give him a Timbit, he takes the box."
10:09 8k for two steel tubes and 5k to mow the lawn...
I need to get into ripping off tax payers.
It costs that much because companies know the government has deep pockets. Its pretty hard to bargain when the seller knows you can literally buy another country and still have change to spare
Insurance too. On the property and the people working on the road.
@@walkermott1750 It's not just companies ripping off with lucrative contracts, it's also public worker unions and insurance companies.
It is actually the Unions the US workers are required to be members of. Over half of any infrastructure contract goes to the Union coffers.
@@danielmann6772 i could believe this
By far, the best explanation of this topic I have ever seen.
The sad part is the comments section is STILL filled to the brim with people harassing Americans for not using metric. It's almost like they didn't watch the video...or people are assholes and just enjoy antagonizing people.
@@Goldenkitten1 It's too expensive and who cares.
@@bookmouse2719 It's already happening so clearly it isn't too expensive and apparantely the rest of the world and most scientific and industrial institutions care.
Goldenkitten1 it’s extremely expensive wtf are you talking about. You want to change every road sign, mile marker, exit number, bottling units, advertisement, historical markers, and so on just for some unit of measurement? Science and industry can adapt quickly, but it makes no sense in the public aspect except for snobby puritans.
@@Ceece20 I wasn't talking about the layman, even the video goes into the expenses that would need to change every road sign. I was referencing the fact that the scientific, industrial and architectural industries already use metric. So it's not like America only uses the imperial system like every foreigner seems to believe.
Canada didn't switch signs, they applied stickers to the existing signs to change the "5" to an "8" and adding KP/h. As they needed changed due to wear, they replaced the stickered signs.
I am eminently impressed with this video. I clicked this expecting a 5 minute bit on all the obvious reasons Americans should switch to metric. And when it started out with the "Idiot units" I was sure that's what I was going to get. After all, why would they give such an agressive question publicity otherwise?
What I got was the most in depth history and discussion I've seen on the topic, giving a fair shake to those opposed to the switch while pointing out that making it would still be the best choice. Further, you pointed out that the country is, in fact, switching over furtively. And that nearly every international aspect of the country is already metric, from the military to corporations. You also mentioned that we are, in fact, taught metric in our schools. So a thank you for that. Going above and beyond, you gave a nod to the psychological aspects. Even pointing out that they also affected most other countries when the switch was made. And best of all, you chided the original questioner and all those would devolve it into a flame war with childish insults.
I've never been opposed to my country switching to metric. But I feel almost obligated to do it out of respect for the civility, empathy, and rationality of this video.
There are so many good points to this video that I struggled greatly to list them all without devolving to bullet points.
The fact any international body swapped to metric should be enough really. What the general populace in say Kansas uses has no bearing or relevance to England. That and we have online converters today. A standard is good, but in some areas it just doesn't matter.
I''ll bet you two quarts of gin to your hundredweight of hay the never change over!
I'm glad this video exists now so I can just link it to all the people abroad who always whine about this.
Dude did a great job at presenting the facts, with humour and respect. Earned a sub from me.
@@amak1131 you just validated the closed minded American stereotype.
"Inching towards metric"
I see what you did there.
If it cost that much to change signs and it's not a feasible investment... lol can you imagine how much it's going to cost ignoring climate change...
Perhaps even considering a lot of signs are going to blow away from category 5 hurricanes on a yearly basis.... Which are directly related to rising water temperatures... Those signs then damaging other things when they are flying through the air at 200kph....
Signs could damage other signs even.... we know that we are done for if that happens...
We need to act on these "signs" especially if signs cost 75k lol.
Ps I may have been to my local metric only w dealer before writing this.
It's the humour, this guy is funny =) .
@@TheCynicalOptimist88
I swear, you climate zealots are worse than Jehovah's witnesses. Like chicken little on steroids. THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END..!!! Even when the topic is completely unrelated.
Leto Verheij I wasn’t aware changing measuring systems eliminated climate change. You should tell science
"Idiot Units"
*Loads musket-rifle with 138 grain ball, 80 grains of powder, and Revolutionary intent*
They would rather use 9mm… wait…
Ahh so muskets can't be loaded with grams, only grains? No wonder that US of A never won a war.
@@broderperdurabo never won a war? Son you need to learn history
@@broderperdurabo they did win their civil war tho
@@Akhazmat907 Wich war did US of A win?
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?"
Canada switched to the metric system 50 years ago, but, routinely, both systems are used depending on the context.
Ask a Canadian how tall he is and he'll more than likely state it in inches or feet and inches. Same with weight, he'll state it in pounds.
The US is more metric than most think. Much of the industry in the US switched to metric long ago. The engines are all metric, Farm implements. Pharmaceutical, military uses metric, government uses metric, construction equipment, weights and measures on packaging is both standard and metric, jet planes, NASA...the list goes on and on. The government should have mandated a full switch to metric long ago though.
@@martinschulz9381 that is not the American way it’s about freedom and shillings
@@AlaskaErik This is very true. I've yet to encounter another Canadian that uses kilograms for weight or centimeters for height.
J.J. McCullough, a Canadian You Tuber discusses Metric v Imperial in a good video.
Changing to the metric system (in the US) is like fixing social security, something that people are always talking about but that never happens.
No one ever talks about doing either. The f* are YOU talking about?
Most of us don't even recognize the dangers regarding our social security numbers or their use as a common form of identification and its total lack of security.
@@wizardtim8573 I was speaking about the fact that SS will run out by 2035 and there are those that would like to fund it to go beyond that date, just not enough. And there was a time the US talked about going to the metric system, they just didn't follow through.
@@huskydogg7536 Ah hmm.
Yeah that I'll have to agree with. It's been a vague discussion but no one seems to actually know the details so~.
For metric though, I've never heard of it being seriously discussed as a change. Might be because I'm not quite old enough. I think it was Gen X who had to learn about it because of an upcoming change?
Was never part of my school curriculum.
@@wizardtim8573 Yeah we were told in grade school in the '60s that the US would soon be moving to the metric system, just never happened 😂
The difference is that changing over to the metric system would actually be possible. There is no will to "fix" SS because there is no way for the numbers to ever work out.
We use both. I just bought gasoline in gallons and marijuana in grams.
Yep.
Also I buy my ammo in 9mm 😏
Trippy, that... was the most perfect example of 'Murican Metric I've ever heard.
Though we also use gauge and caliber.
@@trippybruh1592 True. I didn't consider the ammo, but I use both there as well.
High, how are you today
As an American there are only 4 situations in which I use non metric units 1) air temperature 2) travel distances (and other car related things) 3) the hight of people 4) the weight of people. I’m slowly trying to be able to use metric for height and weight of people. But it’s difficult as those around me don’t use them. Also I’m not sure if using meters or centimeters is customary for height
Height is usually measured in cm - 185 cm for instance
It's... Exactly the same, at least in general parlance.
"One meter seventy-five" can be shortened to "one seventy-five", and since it's exactly the same as "one hundred and seventy-five centimeters", which can *also* be shortened to "one seventy-five", there is no difference.
Depending on the language, you may or may not want add "meter" after the "one", but even then, you don't really need to. It's like saying you are "five ten", without specifying the unit.
You know what the unit is, you don't really have to come out and say it, and "one" for "one hundred" is a perfectly acceptable shorthand when you put it before a two-digit number.
In Canada, a metric country, we also generally use lbs and feet for body measurements
@@ChiggaChiggaBruh Not to mention Fahrenheit for cooking. Also weirdly enough, long distances are referred to in hours-to-drive haha
_"I’m slowly trying to be able to use metric for height and weight of people. But it’s difficult as those around me don’t use them."_
And that's the reason the USA has not switched over to the metric system in everyday use. For a measurement system to work, everybody has to use it. It's like a language. And everybody in the U.S. uses Customary units. If you start talking about ordinary things in terms of metric units, nobody's going to understand you. Just as if you started talking in French.
So even if I wanted to switch to metric, I couldn't, because everyone else uses Customary.
But that's okay, because Customary units work just fine for ordinary everyday measurements. Which is another reason why people in the U.S. don't switch over to the metric system. It's a major change, requiring people to use units they're not familiar with, and there's no practical benefit to doing so. Under those circumstances, it would be shocking if Americans *_did_* switch!
But note, of course, that in the fields of science and technology, including medicine, the military, and automotibile manufacturing, we DO use the metric system. So really it just boils down to using whichever system works best for the particular purpose. And there's nothing wrong with that. 😊
Love how you not only answered the question but corrected the person asking it. As much as I agree with his sentiment (precisely for the website/video based reasons you sited), nice that someone is being reasonable and keeping us CU haters in check;)
I just love that pretty much the entire latter third of this video was a big slap at human douchery on the Internet.
As a human myself, I, of course, have fallen guilty on many occasions. Doesn't mean that I don't find it funny when it's called out.
Humans gonna human. ;-) -Daven
I've used both systems my entire life in the US, just depends on what your talking about.
Exactly.
Yes
In my experience inch feet thou and tenths work better than cm mm and microns less of a jump between unit sizes
Exactly, all of these baseless, what? accusations? In regards to measurements, are false. In fact, most Americans use or are at least exposed to both systems constantly, with many being adept at both. (my own introduction was learning metric in grade school in the 60s)
xZotic Blight same, we all have to learn both. I personally think the imperial system is easier though
The U.S won't switch to the metric system because saying, _"I'm 6 foot tall"_ sounds cooler than saying, _"I'm 182 centimeters tall"_
Yes, I’ve noticed that people in countries long on the metric system still give their height in feet, since 6 ft loses something in metrically.
Does it?
@@jceberle2724 That and people can just look at their actual feet for rough size comparison.
@@joeyjojojrshabadoo7462 Not exactly how foot measurements work, but close enough.
I've seen this argument before and I don't understand. I'm pretty sure it's either been invented by americans who don't actually know how metric-country-people say their height, or my country is unique in some way. Because it's not like we say "I'm one-hundred-and-eighty-two centimetres tall". That is long and weird. We say "I'm one-eighty-two" for example. Almost as fast as saying "I'm six feet tall".
This whole video was just a wonderful way to take a swipe at the comments section.
It really was tbh.
For real, if someone insults me you can be perfectly sure that I'm gonna do the exact opposite of what that person wants me to do
I nearly said something very regrettable but I held on to it... *That one is also sexual. Giggedy*
Sometimes I do it... But do it as badly as I can 😈
I MIGHT still do it, but you better believe its the LAST thing I'm gonna do.
...I bet this dumb-ass use the metric system
Well I guess we know how to push your Buttons then :D
The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.
Grandpa Simpson
I've done the math on that. His mileage is 1/504 mpg, which is about 10 and a half feet per gallon. Grandpa Simpson needs to get a new car.
@@davidwise1302
-Oh, how many Rods to a Hogshead does a modern car like, say, a Toyota Camry get then ?-
Nevermind, I decided to give it a try myself.
Here's some back-of-the-hand calculations for mile/gallon to rod/hogshead conversion using United States Costumary Units :
I used the average fuel economy according to the International Energy Agency (iea.org), which is is 25 mpg (= 9.4L/100km).
*Definitions :*
Rod = 16.5 feet
Furlong = 10 chains
Chain = 4 rods
Mile = 5280 feet = 8 furlong = 8 * 10 Chains = 8*10*4 rods = 320 rods
Hogshead = 63 gallon
*Conversion :*
Gallon to hogshead : 25mpg * 63 gallon = 1575 Miles/Hogshead
Mile to Rods : 1575 miles * 320rod per mile = 504000 rods/hogshead
So, your average car will have something in the area of 504k rods per hogshead.
In other words, Grandpa's car has REALLY bad fuel economy !! 😁
@@Grumpy_old_Boot That seems to be the right order of magnitude, though I based my calculation to your problem on my own car's mileage of 40 mpg (a Honda Accord Hybrid). I came up with 40 mpg being equivalent to 806,400 rods per hogshead.
I have a web page on doing unit conversions -- dwise1.net/trivia/conversions.html . I spent today adding a section on converting units of speed which ends with my answer to your question.
Share and enjoy!
@@davidwise1302
Thank you, that is awesome - Cool page too. 😁
Also, someone mentioned somewhere, that the original joke "40 rods to the hogshead" is what the Saturn 5 rocket was having in fuel economy - I don't know if that is true, but it's the sort of joke that the Simpsons would definitely use. 😀
are you an idiot?
The reason the US won't switch is when they come under attack, they can communicate in a system that will confuse their enemies
As an American that works in the engineering world, metric is amazing. Can we please change now? I'm tired having to do the conversions for no reason.
Not only that, but doing physics in metric is just simply so much easier and cleaner. I mean, in order to do physics in the other system you have to make up disgusting things like slugs. EW!!
My advice is to do everything in the correct way (metric) and then convert the results at the end for the unwashed. Nothing else makes any sense.
I'm working as a physicist in Germany and I still have to keep two sets of wrenches and whatnot around bc half the screws are not metric (for some old imported vacuum chambers). I rarely get as annoyed as when I have to find this godforsaken 7/16'' wrench.
@@tobio.5968 7/16'' is my favorite wrench. I use it constantly. Dump metric, you'll be happier.
@@tobio.5968 Count yourself lucky you don't have to worry about Whitworth spanners as well...
As I work in construction I can tell you that I've met kids coming out of high school can't even read a tape measure in fractions let alone figure out what metric is.
Can they tell time on a 24 hour clock?
Well back in my day we Didn’t have that wussy tape measure BS, those Nancy’s couldn’t even understand how many thumbs between nails, and how many belts between studs........smh
"I want a goddamn liter of cola. Liter is French for give me some f*cking cola!" - Rod Farva from Super Troopers
you mean litre🤣🤣
@@georgemalkin6546 Here in America, we use "freedom units" and the correct spelling.
@@JimHalpertFromTheOffice 👍🤣🤣🤣
FWIW: knots are nautical miles per hour, and a nautical mile has an earth-based reference: it's 1/60th of a degree at the equator.
I remember my teacher told us we would soon move to metric system. This was in the 1950’s.
Well, beyond this video demonstrating that that was a reasonable expectation at the time, I guess it also demonstrate that in many aspects, teacher wasn't wrong in his/her prediction... :)
Over time, with ever progressing digitalization, and international production and commerce, even the United States (as in Joe and Jane in their everyday life) will adopt the SI system pretty much completely. The majority of the change "from here", will likely just happen as a combination of organic and circumstancial change as the ever increasing exposure and use of SI facilitates people _thinking_ in SI (or both) instead of thinking in imperial and _converting_ in their minds. A more orchestrated and formal change likely being a later "cherry on top": To tip over the last stragglers that might be held back due to aging govt. legislation, regulation or procedure.
When we get to that point, the modernization and digitalization of "everything" will likely make doing those final changes much more fiscally affordable. There will be far fewer physical elements needing to be changed or replaced, and those few data systems that haven't done so yet, will mostly already be set up to do both, be set up to do SI and the display of imperial is the actual conversion, or they'll already be prepped and primed for an eventual change.
Once most people (are able to) "think in" SI / metric, the rest that straggle, will come rapidly and organically. As an analog to language - once you know and "think" two languages equally well as if native to you - the one becoming your de facto default will be a matter of which one is most practical, universal and intuitive _in use._ In my personal opinion, that will always be SI or systems of similar logic, due to their simplified math and intuitiveness.
And who knows - maybe some day in the future, a decimal system for "time" will be "universally" adopted too (in terms of seconds to minutes, hours, days to weeks, months and years). Anything sub second is already decimal based, and everything digital has been decimal based in (coding and use of) measures and time, pretty much since conception. Whenever we see minutes, days, weeks, months and years in the digital world - that isn't native, but rather facilitated by (additional) calculation and conversion.
My apologies for the long post - I just find this subject, its human psychology as well as technical and practical aspects, rather interesting.
Robert Ewalt 😂😂
Ditto the 80s
"Slowly but surely, America is inching towards metric..."
I see what you did there
Could probably move this post over to that comment, then...
Ah You spotted it too!!
Wait until they learn that in a lot of areas, we measure large distances in time.
It took our exchange student all year to learn we measure distance in time! How far to the cabin? 3hrs! How far is Chicago? About 90mins 😂😂, he thought it was so weird!
Yeah although that is actually useful information. Someone telling me that a place is some arbitrary distance of 372km for example doesn't actually convey any useful information about how far it is. Telling me it takes 2 and a half hours to get there actually gives me some useful information.
@@keyboardmamma or you can just simply divide the distance by your speed and get the needed time...
on the canal a sign saying to water point== 4 hours
like in oz how far to the front gate 3 hours.
@@martophrenia Ah yes i really want to pull out my calculator every time i need to know how far a place is
The normal average american worker doesnt use the metric system when measuring anything including things like measurements, bolts, nuts, screws, even miles. Weight on the other hand is grams mg so forth for small amounts and lbs for anything more
You know, I'd forgotten being taught metric as a kid. But this video reminded me. I remember, as a kid in like 1st or 2nd grade saying something about an object being a few centimeters and being outright mocked by my uncles and grandfather. That was my last usage of metric as a kid I believe.
All of your grandfathers sound like great men. They were trying to set you straight. RIP best generation
@Jack Myhre Funny that I was about nine when my Father and Uncle laughed at me for saying I was 160 cm tall. That alone hardened my resolve to use only metric from then on. That was 1957. Later, I received the first Ontario Driving Licence in metric terms. 168 cm and 68 k.
@@moldycrow7234 try and convert inches to feet, or feet to yards, then you'll see how fucked the imperial system is.
@@Destin5258 Anyone trying to do that is a fool.
Think how stupid that is in metric. Oh, you have something that is 3 cm? Give that to me in meters. Sure, you can do it easily but why?
Of course, you can *also* easily do it in Imperial. 3 inches is 3/12 of a foot. Given that Imperial by it's very nature is not limited to fractions with the denominator having 10 as a factor. Seems to me that Imperial actually has it easier.
As it should be
In Alberta in school in the 80's and 90's I learned both imperial and metric. Later working in the oil patch I used both depending on which company I was working for
When I worked in production accounting in Calgary years ago, the petroleum engineers always used imperial, but the provincial government reports required metric units. The engineers always looked at us in accounting like we'd lost our minds when we'd ask for metric measures.
I remember when I found out in school that a meter is longer than a yard, a kilogram weighs more than a pound, a liter is more than a quart, but a kilometer is shorter than a mile. As a kid, that confused the crap out of me. I did, however, like the base 10 simplicity of the metric system, and wished our measurements were metric after I discovered it.
You never have to calculate when changing to the next bigger unit etc that really why i cant understand why anyone would want to keep the other system
IJH SA It’s because most people don’t understand that the metric system is a base 10 system. If everyone understood it, it would become much more attractive. But it’s also because it takes a ton of money to make the switch and there’s not really reason to have to make the switch
Base 10 systems are nice. But unlike in a base 12 system, you can't evenly divide by 3.
Also; if we used a base 12 number system instead of the base 10, multiplying by 12 would have the same effect as multiplying by 10 in a base 10 system
I remember learning Imperial as well as Metric in 3rd Grade when that law was signed to teach kids both....It was actually the teachers bitching to their unions that it was to hard for them to teach both measurements with metric eventually becoming an electively thought thing by following year for Teacher Union Members wanting their extorted salary and Benefits from taxpayers that are never at the negotiations without extra work...or rather "Schools"
Jack Blevins But is it important to have a base that is divisible by three? Fractions are perfectly fine. If you don’t need a lot of precision you could say 1 kg / 3 = 333g which would be of by only 1/3 of a gramm or approximately 0.03%. Should be enough for some baking. And if you have to do some intensive calculations you are already limited to binary.
In Ontario, Canada, when the first metric road signs came out, it was a sticker that simply went over the old number, so if you had a sign that said Maximum 30 to indicate 30MPH they put a 5 over the 3, and added a black bar at the bottom with km/h, total cost per sign, about $10. When new signs were installed for some other reason, such as the old one being damaged, the new sign used the new units. I think now some 40 years later the signs still say km/h on the bottom.
freezing and boiling water at 0 and 100 degrees C makes more sense than 32 and 212 degrees F
As a Canadian I can use Imperial, U.S., or the metric system. It really doesn't matter.
Most Americans can use both as well. Our cars have both MPH and KPH. We buy soda in liters and milk in gallons. We buy our drugs and Rx in grams and our steak in ounces.
Pretty much we do use both systems here in the states. I have worked on cars with both metric and standard fasteners. I load rounds of ammunition using grains and shoot at distances in meters. I even build vape coils based off of 3mm mandrels. We are pretty well savvy with both here.
As an American, I feel like I wanna whoop your ass...
@@Mortifix I hear ya,..
Ricalloo I personally don’t see the a problem with both standards. Both are easy. The imperial system is a bit more difficult because it isn’t as consistently divisible. As long as you remember that 4 quarts make a gallon and 3 feet makes a yard there is no problem.
At these prices I feel like I need to get into the US road sign industry!
You'd go broke, because the overhead (no pun intended) is quite high. These aren't stop signs or neighborhood street signs.
I've heard of government waste, but his is ridiculous. Why could Canada replace signs at a fraction of the (adjusted) cost that it would cost Americans? 🤨 Also, Sweden was able to pull off Högertrafikomläggningen, which required changing a hell of a lot more than just some signs. ¬_¬
@@user-vn7ce5ig1z He explained in the video why the cost is so high and how it could be significantly reduced. The problem is no one cares if a sign says mi or Km on it and most people in America right now have REAL issues they are concerned about. It'd be political suicide for any politician to waste significant time on such a stupid topic.
@phuc ewe
Another waste of money considering most people just over stay visas.
30 feet*2000 miles.