Nerd Nite #5: Metric System Lecture

The Metric Maven himself regails us with why the metric system is better (by a thousand) and why we should adopt it. Check out Denver.NerdNite.com for more nerdy videos.

[@tiago58]

Let me add the following: if a country already use the SI units, it doesn't matter at all which prefix we use. We go to school to learn how to do things the right way. In school I learnt how to measure things in millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, etc. The prefix problem simply does not exist. It's typically a worry of people that are not accustomed to meters and such.

[@wimschoenmakers5463]

And the huge amount of waste at every build, or people dying because of wrong amount of medicine is just collateral damage? 🤔 Yeah, everyone in the world is crazy but not me !! 🤣

[@Kuutti_original]

​@@wimschoenmakers5463 what the fuck are you on about?

[@peterwhitey4992]

@@wimschoenmakers5463 - There is no such huge amount of waste caused by using cm.

[@patrickcardon1643]

peta, kilo, deci, centi, milli, micro, nano, pico ... are just words to describe powers of 10 (going up or down), so yes it's more logical to use mm everywhere where possible, but if not, it is STILL in no way as complicated as counting in stones, feet, fingers or ears as you're supposed to know the meaning of those words - they are synonyms in a way and do not require maths or conversion to calculate totals 😁 ... metric is scientific, anything else is just plain medieval!

[@jimm3205]

in ammerican skools i learn too meajure things in bannana and fotball feelds

[@ConnieIsMijnNaam]

This guy claims to be a fan of the metric system but his obsession with millimeters shows he does not really understand what it is about. The convenience of the metric system is that you can use mm cm m or km depending on your work. A carpenter who has to work very precise uses millimeters. But the distance of a swimming track in sports is measured in meters. The distance between two cities is in kilometers. Using only millimeters would disregard the very core of the metric system, that is, that everything is devided in tenths.

[@Booruvcheek]

Frankly, it feels as if he's trying to start a civil war within the metric system, between millimeters and centimeters, both derivative units. What a bunch of nonsense.

[@federicosbetta1368]

I think it's tipical of people that were not used to the metric system as children, we see different units as just scaling the same base unit and saying 1.3cm or 13mm is the same thing I would not even think about the conversion, but those that were thought the imperial system as children see units in function of a purpouse, so for them the first instinct is thinking what unit to use and then measure.

[@scottgraham4392]

Glad that I was born in the 70’s so I can and regularly do work in both measures depending on how long something is. My grandfather taught me the man stuff using imperial and school taught me metric

[@natrixnatrix]

No the, by far, biggest convenience of the metric system is that everyone uses the same unit with the same names. So when you fill up the tank of your car you do not have to wonder if the prices are for american or canadian gallons. The second biggest convenience is that all complex units are derived from relationships of other units are done so without adding unnecessary constants. So you do not have to wonder what the conversion between a cube feet and a gallon is. A liter is simply a cube decimeter, just as a newton of force is the force it takes to accelerate 1kg of mass with 1m/s per second, i e 1N = 1(m*kg/s*s). Essentially if you ever wonder how to calculate something you can just write out the full unit and then treat it like simple algebra. If your end result is multiple of the unit you want then that is your answer. Then, at a distant third, comes the fact that many of the units have different versions that are based on powers of ten. But in some cases, like for example construction, it's not always beneficial because a lot of people are lazy and will not write the unit they are using on a schematic. Or you make a mistake because you are quickly comparing several drawings and one was in cm where all the others were in mm. The very core of the metric system is to avoid such problems.

[@valentinbilla9619]

​@@natrixnatrix I'm not sure about your first point... I'm not american but I can guess that without further indication if you are in the US you are paying in US-Gallon and vice-versa with canadian-gallon. Hopefully, I want to believe that Americans aren't that much of a lost cause. Maybe you are mistaking metric with International System of Units, creating 7 base units to rule 'em all, most of them aren't metric (second, ampere, kelvin, mole and candela). However yes creating coherency, is great because conversion constants unsatisfaying and completely annoying however you can see it as a simple consequence of scientists being lazy (in a good way), newton see a m*kg/s² and think "ooh, fuck it I don't have enough ink for that, let's put a N here" (of course i don't happend so easily because people need to be wiling to use the unit however I think you get the general idea) As of your last point, I couldn't disagree more basicaly, standadisation is simply awesome, as a metric and SI user, I don't think of mm, cm, km, etc as unit, I see them as prefix + unit, m is my only savior; p,n,µ,m,c,d,∅,D,h,k,M,G,T... are simply powers of ten that help me scale it, and they can be used for ANYTHING !! (I think the only exception might be g (gram) where i only see it in use for prefix less than k, also interestingly enough kg is the SI unit not g) Like MΩ, nF, µs and others. I think it is the main advantage of metric and more generally units made by sane people againt the diabolically absurd imperial. Want to do conversion, yeah easy peazy just look at the power of ten you can turn off your brain, throw you calculator on the wall and still be able to convert.

[@erwinmulder1338]

As a metric using European, I don't get the whole cm bashing. The actual unit is an meter. a centi-meter is 100th of the meter, one milli-meter is 1000th of a meter. The beauty of the metric system is that conversion is just moving the decimal point by one place instead of using difficult fractions. Hence I don't subscribe to your Australian millimeter fundamentalist friend.

[@m1k1a1]

I think the speaker is correct. There is less chance for errors when everything uses the same unit. And if I had to choose one unit only, I'd take the millimeter. Especially for technical drawings. Now, if I'm doing something where an error causes no real harm, like fixing a shelf to a wall in my garage, then it doesn't matter if I use centimeters or millimeters.

[@Tuning3434]

For a layman it doesn't really matter, but for anything a bit more technical it is ALWAYS mm.

[@markusbjorklund5920]

Yeah, the speaker is insisting to not use prefix "centi" but he is happily using another prefix that is "milli".

@@m1k1a1 No, it doesn't matter. Both your ant the speaker's brain can handle 2.4 cm just as easy as 24 mm and they are just as precise as they are the same thing. Both centi and milli are prefixes - the unit is "meter" and then you can slap whatever prefix you want in front of it and it will still be as precise. You could do your technical drawings in kilometer as while it is more cumbersome, it is just as precise to use 0.000024 km as 24 mm. There are lots and lots of issues with the imperial system, but having rulers with both cm and mm on them is utterly irrelevant so his nerdiness has gotten lost in meaingless details.

[@syllom]

It's easier to transition to metric if US ever decides to do it, as Australia did it. Just one unit , mm , everywhere.Once generations will pass and newer ones will be metric since day 1 they can deal with the decimal far easier.

[@Booruvcheek]

As someone who was born in old USSR (which was as metric as they come), and lived all his life in a metric country, I can tell you that centimeters are perfectly fine! A centimeter to a meter is like a cent to a dollar, that's it! Also, there are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, so conversions are super easy, got a value in cm? Add one zero to the left of it, and you've got millimeters. Or the other way around - got a value in millimeters? Just divide by 10 (shift your decimal point one notch to the left)! ALL the rulers and tape measures I have seen and used in my life were marked in centimeters and meters (if they're long enough). THIS IS NOT PROBLEM WHATSOEVER! Grr...

[@allangibson2408]

Russia wasn’t metric until 1922…

[@chiprock804]

@@allangibson2408 Well maybe he was born after 1922.

[@Booruvcheek]

@@allangibson2408 I'm slightly younger. Also, not from Russia :)

[@gamanzhiydanil]

@@allangibson2408 USSR doesn't mean just Russia

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

I'm from croatia, born in yugoslavia, yes we do use the metric system, but every ruler or type measure be it tailor's tape or builder's tape has the metric system on one side and imperial on the other one, centimeters and milimeters on one side and inches on the other one. The thing is we in europe did and still do use inches everyday for bore, tyres, pipes and mostly everything of circular crosseciton, aa well as electronic screens since home computers became a thing we shifted to inches, but for the pipes and such we had the metric sinonimes but almost exclusively used inches, we did mostly, at least here in central europe called them, unofficially in trade occupations that is, by their german name "zoll" but it was just a german for an inch, why tho, because the piping is closely tied with shipping and shipbuilding, with steam so the nomenklature, standards and measurements were taken from england as they were, even today in a hardware store i'll ask for 1/2 or 3/4 col-a (zoll) pipe and not 12,5 mil. pipe, or 16" tyre at the vulcaniser shop, there are other examples with pressures or energy and so on where we don't adhere to metrics ar all unless some scientific calculations but use the measurements that specialty is most used to.

[@user-ir8er1bh4q]

I dont understand the cm and m bashing. Here in Germany all technical drawings are in mm, but we use cm as our ruler base because we like it to keep our numbers small, because smaller numbers can be read faster and we like it to be efficient.

[@squattingheads]

because someone could forget a decimal symbol or smudge it. So falling back to mm is the safest way to be sure everything works out in such cases

[@denzzlinga]

@@squattingheads where smaller numbers than 1 cm are required, mm are used. But on construction sites for example, cm is good enough. So there is no need for decimal points.

[@nathanmays7926]

@@denzzlinga I'm not sure about that. The difference between 995 mm and 1004mm will produce something that's out-of-square detectable by human eye. You can't get round to the nearest cm and expect to have a reliable construction. The tolerance stack up alone could be a deal breaker.

[@daedalron]

@@denzzlinga It depends on the type of construction. For most construction work, millimeter is the most used unit. But what truly matters is using the same "unit" for the whole blueprint. Never mix cm and mm on the same blueprint, that's what would be confusing.

[@dilbert0815]

​@@nathanmays7926 Thats not the point, No one in metric world 'rounds' to mm or cm or m, they just use the dezimal fractions they need. The funny thing is, in germany a foldable ruler for carpenters is still called in laymans terms a 'Zollstock', zoll means 'inch', and they use mm ticks but cm labels, simply as more tha 3 digits are rather poor to print easy readable.The official name is 'Gliedermassstab', which is simply very hard to grasp mentally. And by the way, at a local butcher its still usual to order 1/2 pund (pfund in german) instead of 250g. So there is a laymany term for an aproximation of the imperial pound in metric as well. Another fact: in physics it's best to keep anything at SI units, so mm would be wrong, it should have been 10^(-3)m instead. The reason is simple: SI units are derived in a cleaver system that derived units are generated by itself once you use the meter m not the prefixed mm.

[@IgorRockt]

I always find it funny when people from the USA defend their imperial system by saying things like "We got to the Moon, so Imperial is better!" - without realizing that NASA used the metric system on all their computers - and actually only built in some conversation routines for the gauges for the astronauts to show Imperial units, simply because they (the astronauts) were more used to the Imperial units. So the metric system brought you on the Moon, but your pilots needed to have everything translated to feet and inch (and gallons), because they were not used to the system the scientists used since Wernherr von Braun... :-D :-D Oh, and if you don't want to embarrass yourself by showing everybody that you are really uneducated, you should really look this up before shouting "LIAR!" - there is quite a lot of information about exactly this available online - from NASA themselves. ;-)

[@IgorRockt]

Actually, the computer would have dealt with it - but the guys at Lockheed Martin used Imperial units without telling anybody... :-O And it's quite funny and telling that in the US media, the incident was called a "metric mishap", even though it was actually an "Imperial mishap", since everything which was working with metrics (and everything in NASA is metrics) was working just fine, only Lockheed Martin didn't read the memo that in space, everything is metric... :-P

[@heymonkey65]

Stefan Giesen Don't use emoticons when you are making an argument--it makes you look like a 15 year old girl and be taken less seriously. Seriously, don't when arguing.

[@IgorRockt]

Cole Philip: To say it with The Dude: "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man." I already use emoticons since the BBS times over 30 years ago - and have never ran into any problems with using them because "people did not take me seriously" (but actually some people ran into problems themselves because they had that strange opinion and didn't take me seriously - which is just fine with me. I quite like it when people underestimate me. :-P ).

[@s0012823]

That really happened, I thought it was really out this world dumb....

[@waltking9141]

I think it's funny that people like you foreigners where you more about what we use in the United States then your own f****** country we got this you know why we don't use the pathetic metric systemor for that matter the pathetic Celsius for temperature measurement it's called being the world's only superpower that's why we don't use the metric or the Celsius systems because we don't have too and I think it's worked out pretty good considering we landed a man on the moon we dominate technology social media entertainment sports have the world's most powerful best train and best equip military and by far the world's largest economy hell yeah USA!!USA🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@tiago58]

Very good speech to teach US people. In Brasil we use millimeters, centimeters, meters and nobody gets confused, it's only a matter of shifting the decimal separator (in Latin America and Europe it's the comma). All rulers used for school of office work are in centimeters and no one gets confused about this, the smaller divisions are millimeters and everybody knows that. I assume that US citizens using an old and obsolete measuring system is just a question of national pride, no other explanation occurs to me.

[@GuilhermeSilva-rp2it]

Mas o cara comeu muita mosca com essa obsessão do milímetro na Austrália. Normalmente se usa o milímetro pra desenho técnico, quando é compatível não só com a escala, mas com o nível exigência dimensional - precisão. Assim, desenhos de produto são cotados em mm. Sempre. Sou do ramo. Creio que até na indústria automobilística se use o mm pra dimensionar uma carroceria. Se for o cm, vai ter que usar a casa decimal. Porque a exigência dimensional no caso de um carro é da casa do mm. Embora no ramo mecânico, devido à precisão e necessidade de ajustes e encaixes, praticamente todo desenho apresente casa decimal, além da indicação de tolerâncias de fabricação, na casa de até centésimos de milímetro. Não sei o padrão pra construção civil e arquitetura. Apesar que fiz um curso de projeto dado pelo pessoal da Petrobrás, que envolve escala da dimensão de uma planta industrial, e se usa mm - é uma cacetada de zeros. É o padrão pro negócio, e não se discute. É assim no mundo, o software, inglês, tem esse default. Acredito que os americanos não mudem pra seguir o mundo por várias questões: preguiça, acomodação, econômica (alteração de padrões e normas, adaptação de equipamentos, ferramentas, calibres, o diabo), e acima de tudo, orgulho, por serem a maior potência econômica e não quererem dar o braço a torcer admitindo que usam um sistema pouco lógico e anacrônico. Eu li uma biografia do John Lennon, e o cara tinha uma obsessão com isso, ele lamentava muito o fato de a Inglaterra ter mudado o sistema monetário de fracionário pra decimal. Uma paranóia. Os caras são fanboys do negócio, assim como tem gente que é fanboy de Apple, e outros, de Harley Davidson. Eu tava vendo um outro canal sobre isso, e é uma doideira, muitos caras acham que tem que mudar, mas muitos outros acham absurdo, quase uma lesa pátria mudar para o métrico. Parece doentio o negócio. No sistema internacional, ainda temos a facilidade da associação entre medida linear e volume, quando um decímetro cúbico pesa 1kg, no caso de água, que tem peso específico de 1. Até no formato do papel, cuja folha A0 mede 1m², a A1 mede meio metro quadrado, e assim sucessivamente, e a proporção entre largura e altura é sempre de raiz de 2, ou seja, 1,414. Uma questão lógica, simples e racional. essa questão do estabelecimento da dosagem para remédios deve ser um negócio sério, e grande indutor de erros. E a onça, libra, galão, quarto de galão, barril? Aquilo não dá. Assim, hoje os americanos estão junto com as potências Libéria e Mianmar, nesse quesito. Embora no Canada, em construção civil, se usam polegadas, por causa do vizinho de baixo. A gente aqui usa, e tá super acostumado, com as rodas de carro e de bicicleta aro 13, 26, e as telas de TV de 42 e 50 polegadas, mas ali no calor do projeto e na execução do mesmo, complica, sim.

[@Funkestech]

The coolest part about metric is that lenght, volume, mass, temperature and even time correlate. 1 liter of water = 1 cubic decimeter = 1 kilogram, also that same water will freeze at 0 degrees celcius and will boil at 100 degrees at sea level. Also: 1 hertz = 1 cycle per second 1 newton = force needed to accelerate 1 kilogram at the rate of 1 meter per second squared 1 joule = energy required to lift 100 grams by 1 meter 1 watt = 1 joule per second 1 ampere = 1 coulomb of charge per second 1 coulomb = charge transported by a constant current of 1 ampere in 1 second 1 volt = potential difference between two parallel, infinite planes spaced 1 meter apart that create an electric field of 1 newton per coulomb 1 pascal = 1 newton per square meter 1 bequerel = 1 inverse second

[@neddyladdy]

xipo Do I ? wow, t lest that is one thing I understand.

[@itsfun3]

Funke Motor "1 Joule = energy required to lift 100 grams by 1 meter" not exactly since gravitation on earth is around 9,81 m/s^2, its more like the energy 1 kilogram has when it travels with 1 m/s (E=mv^2).

[@josgeerink9434]

Yes but the water one completely true and why kilo gram instead of gram kilo=1000

[@MyTubeSVp]

The only thing that bothers me in our metric system are the time divisions : 60-60-24-365. It would have been more elegant if these had been decimal as well ...

[@AndersJackson]

@@MyTubeSVp We don't usually approve of 10 days weeks. ;-)

[@BigJuris]

The centimeter rulers are just faster to read? You do not need to be confused by centimeters. Just add 0 and you have your desired milimiters. Omg so simple and some people are still confused by it.

[@jawstrock2215]

then just have that 0 stamped on the ruler if it's easier XD

[@BigJuris]

@@jawstrock2215 probably I did not explained that well. I ment it is easier to read 7 or 18 on the ruler in centimeters and everybody knows ot os 70 and 180 in mm so I am not sure why someone wants the 0s on the ruler

[@MattLitkeRacing]

You want millimeters because you will use them for most things. Building a cabinet? They are based on a 32mm system. Common bolt sizes are 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, etc. Only one of them is a centimeter. And it’s not called a 1 centimeter bolt. People aren’t looking for their 1 centimeter socket they want a 10mm. In machining they use millimeters and microns even in the USA

[@JustyMe]

@@MattLitkeRacing cm is what's often used in day to day life. You estimate something to be 5 cm. You say you are 170 cm or 1,70 m tall. And if you want to be precise you can use a comma: 1,5 cm which is equal to 15 mm. It's not a big deal really, because it's so easy to convert.

[@sorencyrano1413]

Yes, it is very, very simple. But you have to account for the dumbest guy on the construction site.

[@martinpohl2383]

this feels like watching a self-help group learning about dividing and multiplying by ten

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

More like a non-technical crowd explaining to engineers that it's okay to use the cm because they too can learn to multiply by ten

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

The Australian construction industry is banned from using the cm for a reason -- the decimal point is easily lost when you print out a technical diagram and photocopy it twice, and the additional conversion factors of 10 and 100 alongside 1000 increases human error significantly. Finally when somebody makes a mistake about the unit of a number, a 1000x error is usually easier to catch in a sanity check than a 10x error.

[@gulars2000]

Oh god he's missing the point of using the unit as an indication of accuracy required. nobody who are used to SI gets confused by the prefixes. 165,5 cm indicates to me a different precision required than 1655 mm.

[@user-yb4mv7pz1n]

165,5 cm and 1655mm indicate the same precision. There is no point in noting digits beyound your accuracy. 165cm and 1650mm indicate a diffrent precision. This can also be done without centimeters 1,65m or if you measured more precise 1,650m or 1650mm.

[@gulars2000]

@@user-yb4mv7pz1n For being so nitcpicky, im bewildered as to how you managed to cassuallyu ignore the "indicates TO ME" part. if spoken it woud be 165 and 1/2 cm. vs. 1655mm.

[@archstanton8126]

@@user-yb4mv7pz1n Yes this! A lack of understanding of signifigant digits is all too common.

[@martinlyhagen6166]

most people would round it off to 1,7 meter...

[@paulh.9526]

Actually, I genuinely a difference. Someone tells me 165.5 cm, I'll be happy eyeballing the middle of 165 and 166 cm if I don't have sufficiently precise measuring tools. With 1655mm, I'll measure it to the mm or not do it at all.

[@guypradel8874]

I don't know for Italians but French don't write things like 1.30.7 it just doesn't make sense. We don't even use dots but comas for decimal so 1,307m is 130,7cm an 1307mm. This whole centimetre vs millimetre rant is ridiculous. All the units are useful in the metric system. It's a base 10 system. Not a base 100 system.

[@srkyzmaj]

1.000.000,33 . signifies thousands , denotes a decimal comma I very rarely met this when the money involved Some calculators show results in this way. 1 000 000.33 instead of a comma, use a space The point is to see more about thousands, millions, billions, or if you need to turn smaller sizes into larger metric sizes. This is very rarely used in Europe, but each country has its own rules But I never seen 1.30.7 or something like that

[@tstcikhthyss]

No, it's not ridiculous. Millimetres conform to the pattern of prefixes being multiples of 1000, but centi-, deci-, deca-, and hecto- do not. That's 4 prefixes that don't need to be taught to children, and 4 conversion factors that don't need to be memorized. The pattern of 1000 also conforms to counting large numbers: nano- (billionth), micro- (millionth), milli (thousandth), kilo- (thousand), mega- (million), giga- (billion), etc. It saves decades off of a country's transition to the metric system.

[@alexjohnward]

@@tstcikhthyss sometimes more than decades, Kodak had a monopoly on some standards, and switched to metric in 1904, the film division banned the cm and the transition took a year, the paper division did not, and photo paper is still sold in a mix of cm, mm, and inches, and fractions of inches, over 100 years later!!!

[@GeryDivry]

As an architect I NEVER see that kind of notation in france , it is pure invention. We use meters or cm with one dot for decimal

[@stefanmaier1853]

@@tstcikhthyss You realise that they might be taught but they are also used on a day by day basis so people know what they are and use them accordingly. Many are cultural norms that may differ from area to area. iE in Germany people order their meat in grams and pounds (0,5 Kilograms). In Austria people order their meat in decagrams or dekkas or fractions of kilos (quarter of a kilo, half a kilo). Almost every trade has it's way to use the system. The tiniest, milli parts are hardly ever used or put behind the decimal point - except for tech applications where you often find millimeters. But every day life is the world of centis, wheter it is a centimeter to measure wheter the new couch will fit your living room or you order a shot of whiskey at a bar, you will get 2cl and never 20ml.

[@suelynch]

Imperial units is why the expression "Measure 3 times, cut once. Then get a new piece and do it again" came from. In actual fact centimetres are used for measuring the height of a human being. I have never heard a news report where the description of a persons height is given in millimetres. It is announced as 183 centimetres tall, or 1.8 metres tall.

[@denzzlinga]

Or "1 meter 80" or "one-eighty" in germany.

[@andersholt4653]

"I have now cut this piece of wood three times and it's still too short".

[@george.ogilvie]

14:40 “Get rid of the prefix cluster around unity” says the man who for the past 14 minutes had been banging on about how great millimetres are, clearly not realising the “milli” is a prefix.

[@davidladjani108]

I'm French and I never ever saw this two decimal points thing !

[@DanuProductions]

Don't you use commas anyway? I mean instead of decimals or is it only with money?

[@davidladjani108]

Irelandball Productions I'm not sure what you mean. To be clear, money or not, we use commas to separate units from decimals, and dots or spaces to separate units from thousands, thousands from millions, etc. I know it's the other way around in the US at least. But in this case numbers would be grouped 3 by 3 only. The guy seams to be referring to some industrial habit that I never heard of, like this 1.30.7 would mean 1m, 30cm and 7mm. That doesn't seem very French to me.

[@DanuProductions]

David Ladjani it's just when I went to France the stuff was always like 3,99€ and in Ireland it would be like €3.99, so I just assumed that everything was a comma instead of a dot. My mistake

[@AndersJackson]

I think it is divided between anglosaxon countries and rest of europe. Like the use of long or short numbers. One billion are actually 10¹² in most european countries, except US and UK (and Ireland?), where it is 10⁹.

[@max_208]

David Ladjani c'est vrai, j'avoue et en plus tout le monde mesure en centimètres... Personne utilise les mm... Et tu est d'accord avec moi, c'est les français qui ont concrétisés le système métrique en le créant...

[@tyrionas]

Which is funny is that I am a french engineer, and I have never ever seen the double decimal point he is talking about...

[@Mrui]

It might be some breaking new information he found from a text from 1891.

[@irasthewarrior]

Well, they're muricans. They have to complicate things in order to be different than the rest of the world :)) Edit: Now I begin to understand the failed american education system.

[@camembertdalembert6323]

yes this is the typical american who think he is cultivated because he knows jut a little bit more than the average american who knows nothing.

[@martinlyhagen6166]

slide reads "EARLY ADOPTERS of the metric..." so it was used around 1800.

[@will5948]

Have you seen deci-meters? I've definitely come across those in French reports/calculations

[@Koshzor]

Cm are used for the same reason we use km/h instead of m/s or mm/s - its the matter of convenience. We don't use such precision in most occasions.

[@mark-ivovanooijen9900]

People that are not using the metric system cannot be taken seriously

[@denelson83]

Which is practically almost every American.

[@noelmasson]

What a ridiculous comment to make. What about musicians? Try being a musician in ANY country without being able to halve, and halve again, and halve again. That's the way the brain "naturally" works. Fractions are the human brains built in system. Decimals....not so much.

[@Tinker1950]

@@noelmasson utter piffle

[@hund4440]

@@noelmasson metric doesnt mean decimal

[@FAB1150]

@@noelmasson i can assure you my brain doesn't function in 31/32"

[@FAB1150]

Oh, that just doesn't make sense lol. cm is exactly why the metric system is so cool. Complex? Move the decimal. We never only used mm, and they're unnecessary. Only using mm and meters is such... An imperial way of doing it. "HoW tHe HeLl Do YoU rEaD 2.325m?" It's 232cm. 2325mm. Easy. And as every science teacher told us, use the measure that most makes sense. You'll never measure a room by the millimeter, you don't need the precision. It's 3.26m, not 3259mm. Easier to read, and without any weird false precision. And if you absolutely need it... add a number. 3.259m. that way you have a better understanding of the scale, as it's way easier to imagine 2 units of a meter instead of 2138 units of... anything. And metric rulers aren't "dual scale"... Again, it's not imperial, it's the same measuring system. 20.5cm? Same as 205mm, but it gives you a better idea of how big the thing you're measuring is. It's not like converting feet to inches. Are you scared of the decimal when you divide by two? Don't be, *it's not imperial.* Remove the decimal, divide by 2, put the decimal back. 23.4cm/2? 11.7cm, easy. The same as doing 234mm/2. And no, you'll never see 3.25.9. why? Because it's useless! It's not imperial, one decimal tells you everything you need to know. Want to add millimeters to 3.25m? Add a number. 3.259m. which coincidentally is the same thing as 3259mm, but better.

[@denelson83]

23.25 m is 2325 cm.

[@FAB1150]

@@denelson83 yeah lol, typo

[@TurnInfinity]

Exactly, use the unit which is most applicable, as long as it is stated clearly. That's the way it is taught here in the Netherlands: translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&u=wiki.bk.tudelft.nl/bk-wiki/Bouwtechnisch_Tekenen:_Tekentechnieken%23Gebruik_eenheden "The unit used does not have to be behind each size, as long as it is clearly stated on the drawing. For example, above the identification strip can be written: - all sizes in mm - all measurements in mm, unless stated otherwise" And more over it teaches to only use the accuracy in the drawing which is expected to be used. If something is not to be made to the milimeter, than don't communicate it as milimeters: "Accuracy The number of digits after the decimal point in decimal measures implies the desired dimensional accuracy. For instance: 1.0 m: one measure accurate to dm 1.70 m: one size accurate to cm 1,770 m: a measurement accurate to mm If this accuracy is not intended, it is best to omit the superfluous zeros. A measure can also be approximated by placing 'approx.' before the number."

[@denzzlinga]

@@TurnInfinity same in germany. Of course technical drawings are always in millimeters, as it is defined by DIN standards, but for "everyday use" every unit is possible. Just use the one that is most convenient and doesen´t produce too long numbers. I don´t get why americans use pounds so much too. In ridiculous high numbers. No one in europe would say a truck for example is weighting 36000 KG, but rather just 36 tons. But the americans use 80000 pounds all the time.

[@rotciv003]

yeah, this guys arguments are also realy weird. he wants a everything to be milimeters because het likes it nog having a decimal point... like there is nothing smaller than a millimeter, what about micro and nanometers?

[@Spidouz]

9:27 This guy doesn’t even understand Metric System. Centimeters are part of the Metric system, and so does Deci-meters, or Deca-meters, or kilo-meters. The base is the meter, and then you have prefix to indicate the scale: micro, milli, centi, deci, deca, kilo, etc… all on a base 10. That’s the whole power of Metric System, you can quickly change scale by adding/removing a 0. Conforming to use a specific scale for a specific job and avoid confusion is only for practical reasons. But we could build a house using meters, centimeters just as well as millimeters. Your 2,400mm distance could be 240cm, or 24dm, or 2.4m, or 0.24dam… or even 2,400,000µm

[@daedalron]

Yes, but the unit used can also have a meaning. For example, if you say 2.4 meter, it implies the degree of precision required is not that big, compared to if you wrote it 2 400 000 µm.

[@seta-san2149]

He knows it. He doesn't care. He just prefers to use measures so small you never need a decimal place.

[@a2falcone]

He does understand that. His issue with centimetres is that every other metric prefixes are base 1000. Centi and hecto are the exceptions. That's his problem, though. I, think it's useful to have an additional prefix for units closer to the base unit, since we make measurements with that precision very often.

[@daedalron]

@@a2falcone If he wanted to remove centigrams, I don't think anyone would really mind. But removing the centi- prefix in its entirety is just dumb. Centimeters is one of the most, if not THE most, used "unit" to measure objects in everyday life. Centiliters is also used pretty often.

[@Spidouz]

@@daedalron centimeter is the street inch version in metric system; meaning it’s a measure you can easily guesstimate for every day purpose, just like you can use a long step for a meter to guesstimate some measurements.

[@Mic_Glow]

Hello, I'm from the mostly metric part of the world (water and automotive parts in inches) and I agree mm scale is great... for technical drawings and applications where your margin of error can't be bigger than roughly 1mm (which is for example diameter of your cutting tool and it would be very hard or impossible to get better accuracy by "eye" anyway). For everyday use and/or applications where the margin of error can be bigger we use meters and centimeters. No one is gonna say "I need 1500mm of rope", they will say "1.5 meters". The "dual" (or rather triple- m, cm, mm) scale measuring tape is great because you can see on the fly the rough number and if you really need cm/mm precision you look at the tape closer and look at the smaller numbers/ mm divisions. For engineering you need micrometers anyway so mm scale isn't for everything. And yes, there are "half cup", "big pot", "teaspoon" etc. units in cooking. Only in cooking. Medicine will have an included little cup with a ml scale on it.

[@rolfbause9523]

I had the feeling that this guy was whining way too long about the "everything should be in millimeters and god forbid, nothing should ever be in centimeters" - when the most important thing should be to bring the overall concept across and why it's so much easier - then you will also understand that 10mm are a 1cm. but he just jumped over that slide in a second. - the average american actually understands the concept of the cent quite well I think: there are 100 cents in a dollar, there are 100 centimeters in a meter? so, what the hell is the problem?

[@tstcikhthyss]

It leads to having to teach kids 4 unnecessary prefixes (centi-, deci-, deca-, and hecto-) for no benefit. Sticking to powers of 1000 means that you only have to teach one conversion factor and that they map directly to large counting words used already: millionth (micro-), thousandth (milli-), thousand (kilo-), million (mega-), etc. It also means if you're making thousands of measurements a day, you don't have to spend the effort (however small) thousands of times sliding and slithering the decimal point.

[@Booruvcheek]

​@@tstcikhthyss I remember using decimeters in class, once or twice, when I was in the first grade. That's it. Never used of heard about them since. Can't recall a single time deci- or deca- or hecto- used in real life. Maybe hectares, but they're only used in agriculture. In fact, centimeter is the only real-life use of centi-. Centimeter is just a convenient unit that fills the gap between meters and millimeters. No one I ever met had any problems with it existing, so I am shocked to be honest.

[@sachableicher4370]

I'm french and never have I used or seen that 1.30.7 measurement.

[@Lorre982]

i m italian and i also never see a double decimal inbmy life, i say that ibm 1,69 m tall or 169cm, is the same. a mm ruler not existig, it is a decimal systent not a tousend or houndred

[@vHindenburg]

The engineer in millimeters , the carpenter in centimeters and the mason has to stick to the plot - German proverb

[@dadoVRC]

Tolerances in mechanical coupling are in microns. For example, a 20H7 hole is -0/+21, so the hole is minimum 20.000mm and maximum 20.021mm I'm used to work on a lathe in precision mechanical factory, that is my everyday routine by over 20years.

[@vHindenburg]

@@dadoVRC I am a lathe maschineist myself, in Germany its called mikrometer, the tool to measure at this range is also called Mikrometer µm aka 1/1.000.000m

[@hpekristiansen]

How can this man be so much against centi - it is just another SI prefix? He likes the liter - it is a cubic deci meter.

[@tstcikhthyss]

Because it wastes unnecessary time when teaching children and causes much confusion. Remembering that 1000 is the only factor you'll need is far, _far_ more useful and easier to teach. Using 1000 also conforms to large number words we use already micro- (millionth), milli- (thousandth), kilo- (thousand), mega- (million).

[@nedisawegoyogya]

@@tstcikhthyss not really, if we assume everyone understand metric like cm dm etc, it's useful to make statement like, "roughly 3 dm" I'll be shorter than say "roughly 300 mm". Me in my country learn mm cm dm m dam hm km in elementary school lol

[@alexjohnward]

@@nedisawegoyogya and do you still use any old units in your country?

[@nedisawegoyogya]

@@alexjohnward dude, metric is literally the first standardized unit in my country.

[@alexjohnward]

@@nedisawegoyogya and does anyone use anything else?

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

Sorry to break it to ya, but 'mili-' is just another prefix... Same as 'centi-' The base unit is a meter and anything else is a matter of convenience. I think the obsession with no centimetres stems from the problems America has dealing with yards, feet and inches. But in metric, it's just a matter of moving the decimal place around. You can even use decimeters or megameters if you want. It's all about using the set of prefixes that give you the best balance of accuracy and relatability. Agreeing on millimetres for things like construction or manufacturing is helpful to keep things uniform, but that doesn't mean you need to use the same prefix for everything. Things that have no divisions smaller than 10mm just makes sense to use cm, the same goes for m and km.

[@tapio_m6861]

Exactly. I can't imagine using millimeters for large distances and, by the way, no we do not handle large numbers well. Can you quickly tell me how much my car has been driven if I say it has 280 000 000 000 millimeters on it? How about 280 000 km? What is the difference between a million and a billion? Nearly a billion. The standard length is a meter. That's it. If someone says a length to me in millimeters, I do not calculate from meter down because I have enough experience with the system to know how much it is. I move the imaginary decimal place and think of millimeters. Same with kilometers. 100 kms? I don't think "hey that's a hundred thousand meters!", I visualize that distance with the experience I have using kilometers and move the decimal place. It's all down to the particular situation of whether it's best to use millimeters, meters, or kilometers.

[@pinununu767]

Centimeters are used all of the time, especially in volumes; 1 cm^3 is 1 mL or 1/1000th of a L. in volumes, dm are also useful, since 1 dm^3 is 1 liter. It wouldnt make sense to use mm^3 during conversion. One of the pressure units is kg/cm^2. A carpenter ruler, or a retractible one that is 2 meter doesnt make sense using mm for. And a map also has its units in cm because of such rulers. A person that is 1,80 meters sounds normal, so does 180 centimeters, but saying 1800 millimeters is too exact, they're likely between 179,5 and 180,4 centimeters, youre not going to measure your exact length in millimeters.

[@youkofoxy]

Megameters, now that is something you don't hear every day. Uhmm if my memory is right and I have done the correct math. The speed of light is almost 300 megameters.

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

@@youkofoxy megameters are only 1,000,000 meters (1,000 km) so 1 light-year is about 9.461x10^9 megameters... Light years are REALLY big! For reference, the earth is nearly 13 Mm across or 40 Mm around, it's about 384 Mm to the moon & it's 150,000 Mm to the sun.

[@youkofoxy]

@@sergarlantyrell7847 I forgot to place the second after, I wasn't measuring distance (light year) I was measuring speed, it occurred to me I may had placed Hours instead of second due habit and made a error by a factor of 3600. I didn't, I just forgot. Crazy.

[@surfie007]

In Australia I hardly ever see a millimetre ruler or tape measure, you mainly see them with centimetres and then little marks for the millimetres with each millimetre being 1/10th of a centimetre

[@MyTubeSVp]

surfie007 Thanks for clarifying this. As a Belgian, I was wondering if what he said about building in Australia was true. Over here all technical stuff is mm, building construction in cm, short land distances (streets, plots) in meters and longer distances (between villages) in km. I'm afraid the speaker doesn't give Americans enough credit, and wants to over-simplify. One more generation, and they will be completely metric too.

[@IgorRockt]

The thing is that in *CONSTRUCTION PLANS* in Australia, only millimeters are used over there. So there is less chance for mistakes if something is 100 mm (which would be 10 cm or 0.1 m) or 100 cm (which is 1000 mm or 1 m) when reading the plans. And since there is no decimal point, it cannot be overlooked, either. I don't know what the rulers and tape measurements looks like in Australia, but it's quite hard to confuse 10 mm and 10 cm when you look at it, so I guess it's not a problem if they actually have cm (and they would be much better readable for longer distances if they actually use cm). ;-)

[@FrodoOne1]

In Australia, Standard AS 1155-1974 "Metric Units for Use in the Construction Industry", specified : - "The metric units for linear measurement in building and construction will be the metre (m) and the millimetre (mm), with the kilometre (km) being used where required. This will apply to all sectors of the industry, and the centimetre (cm) shall not be used. … the centimetre should not be used in any calculation and it should never be written down" Millimetre tape measures are readily available at hardware stores, if you look for them (and dont't buy the cheap Chinese made ones!) www.bunnings.com.au/stanley-fatmax-8m-tape-measure_p5662780 (Made in USA but not sold there!) www.bunnings.com.au/lufkin-8m-fluorolok-tape-measure_p5663477 www.bunnings.com.au/stanley-fatmax-xtreme-8m-full-bladearmor-tape-measure_p5660074 www.bunnings.com.au/empire-8m-magnesium-case-measuring-tape_p5660634 www.bunnings.com.au/lufkin-10m-fluorolok-tape-measure_p5660645 www.bunnings.com.au/lufkin-5m-fluorolok-tape-measure_p5660389

[@tacv]

Building in Portugal is also in mm and sometimes (seldom) meter ... all technical stuff is in mm. The general population in the other hand prefer to use centimetre for small measurements, meter for normal distances and km for bigger distances . Never the less cm or mm one doesn't need special calculus, the difference is the coma: 1,5 cm = 15 mm ; 2,4 cm = 24 mm ....

[@FrodoOne1]

Europeans tend to use "commas" (,) as a "decimal seperator/point" and may use spaces as thousands separators - as in 1 234 567,89 English speaking countries use a "Full Stop" as a "decimal point" and may use commas as thousands separators - as in 1,234,567.89

[@XKillertofuX]

the guy is very imprecise actually :) Don't know why he mischaracterizes metric the way he does. But in Europe we don't use dual decimal points. We mostly use decimal commas, but the function remains the same. That's the entire point though... You can use whatever unit of length within the metric system and convert it to any other one. A 1000mm is 1m is 100cm. The choice of the unit base is dependend on the context of its usage and on a more theoretical level; the significance (science) or presicion (construction etc) of the measurement needed. In a casual context cm is a great unit for in and around the house. But the misconception would be that learning to use cm is something that would inhibit someone's ability to use mm. We get taught the system, not the uss of single units of distance in it.

[@AndersJackson]

Well, there are a difference between the drawings and what you actually get in reality. So yes, it is ok to talk about cm and dm, even in constructions. But in construction there should be no uncertainty, so that is why all measures are in mm, not cm or m. Even everyone knows what to do to convert

[@XKillertofuX]

+Anders Jackson > The choice of the unit base is dependent on the context of its usage and on a more theoretical level; the significance (science) or precision (construction etc) of the measurement needed. Yes, in construction one uses mm, mostly. That too is dependent on the specific task. My critique on the original video is that we would use all the different subunits interchangeably depending on context, without any problems. It doesn't lead to confusion like they claimed in the video. All construction drawings are done in mm (at least the ones I've seen during my years working in construction). But a supervisor isn't going to ask you to build a 1000mm wooden encasing for some concrete or to dig a 1500mm wide trench. The beauty of metric units is that people learn to use the system. The conversion anxiety is something that is alien to us. Here, the conversion is just a matter of shifting the decimal comma (point) and everyone over the age of 12 can do this effortlessly. Especially in working environments where precision is required.

[@AndersJackson]

@Kilrtofu, of course. But that is what the video is all about. Use one unit in plans and drawings. Do not mix between them there. So yes, I think we do agree here. :-) What you the do between construction workers, is another thing. They can use m, dm, cm or mm to their liking. They read the mm and then convert and talk about a more approprierat unit with smaller number of digits. Like meters and not millimeters when there are longer distances. BUT the references, the drawings, should not change units. Because that just make up for mistakes and errors. It is like using Imperial. There are no rocket science to change between different measures in foot and inches. But when you do it when you are in a hurry, you are going to do more mistakes. And if you read a construction plan, you will also make mistakes if there are different metric units for length. And yes, I am not American. :-) I is born in a country where we used metric system from long before I was born. So yes, WE do use the conversion between the unit without much thought, which can't be said with the Imperial system.

[@tstcikhthyss]

@@AndersJackson But then you're setting yourself up for "writing mode" and "colloquially talking to your co-workers mode", which is yet another chance for errors. If someone says "hey, this piece as 5", then you have to ask again "is that 5 mm, 5 cm, or 5 m?" Writing, reading, and speaking in the same unit _significantly_ reduces chances for errors and for having to use your brain for those useless tasks, which can be used for much better things.

[@Moribax85]

@@tstcikhthyss your example, i'm sorry, but it makes no sense: let's say you have 2 pieces of wood, one is 5 cm long, the other is 5 mm long. the first one is 10 times longer than the second one, no chance of confusing the scale. even less likely with a beam of 5 m, that's 100 times longer than the 5 cm piece. and that's for visual difference. but what about asking someone to go grab a specific piece? just say "can you get the 5 m beam?"... even colloquially, there's no chance of error or "having to use your brain for useless tasks", because you know istinctively how long a piece is: can you grab it by its ends between your thumb and index? it's in mm; is it half your height or less? cm; taller than you? meters. same for volume: does it fit in a glass or a soda can? cc; bottle or tank? liters... when writing, and of course, when reading, the unit is always expressed, when talking it often is aswell, and when it's not you just have to use common sense, it's not that hard, i've survived 35 years so far without any error in that department using metric

[@allexxmaxx]

Totally inaccurate lecture - it was invented by a Belgian named Simon Stevin, only after system of decimals was worked over by John Wilkins but to be really popular and named 'meter', 'litre' etc - this was done in France

[@rogermwilcox]

We should measure lengths in football fields, and weights in adult male African elephants, like they do on TV.

[@Spollekop]

Well a soccer field would be a decent measure for TV, because it's exactly a tenth of a kilometre.

[@AndersJackson]

Mass in football fields and length in Elephants, or what? :-)

[@tysonty5989]

We can measure mass by the avarage moles of copper, found in coins used to buy 10 loaf of breads, used to make the relative hamburgers, having the corresponding energy of 4324.56kcal. I think I'll rename this the Epic system

[@Jako1987]

Olympic swimming pools! Don't forget olympic swimming pools! 😬

[@lunde28]

That is called 'journalist units' here

[@vidright]

The biggest advantage of the metric system is its absolutely logical structure and that it is used in the vast majority of countries. In an increasingly globalized world, uniform standards are becoming more and more important. Not only for internationally operating companies.

[@viarnay]

The best way to start a talk about Metric system "I have a friend in Australia" X_D

[@JuliuszCovers]

I call bullshit on the "1.30.7" thing, taking into account that both France and Italy use a comma as a decimal separator, not a period…

[@martinlyhagen6166]

slide reads "EARLY ADOPTERS of the metric..." - so it was used around 1800 - not today.

[@daedalron]

@@martinlyhagen6166 France (and most non-english european countries) were already using commas as decimal separator more than a century before the metric system was adopted. So even in 1800, using a dot as separator would have made no sense at all.

[@dinamosflams]

@@martinlyhagen6166 200 years ago in the middle of a revolutionary war this maybe wouldve been a good point

[@almerindaromeira8352]

The guy is just lost. I don't know what sources he used for that presentation but they are far from reliable

[@FawziBreidi]

which slides are incorrect? I believe you use the imperial system to be so defensive.

[@almerindaromeira8352]

@@FawziBreidi what's up with the hate for centimetres? I've used them since I'm born and never mistaken anything. And I never known someone who did.

[@michieldemeyere6819]

This guy clearly doesn't know a lot about how the metric system is used

[@jnielsen20]

Nothing wrong with centimeters... just learn the math... centi=10^-2 so a centimeter is 10^-2 meters... or 10 milimeters mili=10^-3 easy peasy.

[@FactoryofRedstone]

What's the problem of an decimal point. But just one please. It's like you just using, dollars or so. Also you just have to learn the prefixes and done. No problem.

[@jordillach3222]

There is a problem with decimal points: in all European languages, except English, we use commas, not dots, to separate decimals from integers! 59,237 in Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, etc., is 59 and a little more. Actually, we use both points and commas all the way around: European 1.500,83 in English would be 1,500.83. That is why the international standard recommends to use spaces instead of points or commas to separate integers from a thousand up. The only Spanish-speaking country where they systematically use points and commas as they do in the USA is Mexico. Well, Mexican Spanish is full of strange things, anyway.

[@FactoryofRedstone]

So what is the problem, when the american don't use the metric system anyway, why don't we use our commas, than in science. But if there are commas or points, when you decide what to use, there isn't a problem any more, to avoid them.

[@Funkestech]

It's all about what you are trying to measure really, nobody says I'm 1830mm tall, It's 1.83m. Nobody says I'm 200000 meters away from home, it's 200Km.

[@FrodoOne1]

Note that in your comment you have divided each previous dimension by 1000 (and my height is about 1.82 m.) Although, in 1795, "metric" multipliers/divisors based on 10 and 100 (along with 1000) were introduced, since then the only multipliers/divisors which have been introduced have been 1000 based.

[@AmanSingh-nw7lw]

Centimeter is one of the most important units in measurement of length, almost all medium scale calculations between a mm and metre is done in it, which is alot

[@zeliard91]

Even in France, liquid drug prescriptions are often defined in numbers of cuillère à café (coffee spoons) or cuillère à soupe (soup spoon). To be fair, this is usually for sirup drugs (like for coughs) so no harm can be made if you mistake. For more serious drugs, you have a graduated pipette in milliliters.

[@germansnowman]

A few corrections: It really is giga with a g as in gas, as Greek does not have a dzh-sound for the g. They said it wrong in “Back to the Future”. As for the thousands separator, this depends on each country’s typographic conventions. In my native Germany, it is the period; the world is about evenly divided between comma and period. Some countries even use a superscript period. As a professional typesetter, I would however often use a thin space instead; full-width spaces would cause the number to be too disjoint. Finally, as others have pointed out, centimeters are indeed very frequently used in everyday life in metric countries. Smaller numbers are easier to use if accuracy is not required: I would never say something is 140 mm long when I can say 14 cm. In technical contexts, however, I agree that using mm exclusively might be beneficial, and indeed in the German construction industry you will find blueprints exclusively in mm as well.

[@max_208]

Wtf ?? I'm french and we don't use double decimals, WE created the real metric system (not a dreamed one) by mesuring the earth, and everyone on the metric word (except some exceptions) use centimeters, it's the most used scale (milimeters sucks)

[@williamsanders6092]

NO YOU DIN NOT CREATE THE METRIC SYSTEM.

[@Bastman2000]

Yes, french did, in 1795. Wilkins proposed a universal measure but in prussian inch. Not metric at all.

[@allangibson2408]

And the French made an error with the size of the earth…

[@behemothokun]

personally, I see no problem in using the centimeter (of course without a double decimal point; I've never seen that tbh).

[@tstcikhthyss]

That's probably because you've never dealt with conversions on an industrial scale. When you do a seemingly simple thing thousands of times, the smaller amount of brain energy spent on processing unnecessary things, the better. This is why Mark Zuckerburg wears the same T-shirt and jeans everyday.

[@WolfGamerBohumin]

11:58 BTW both bottom rulers are marked incorrectly. Uppercase M stand for Mega = million. #TechnicalCorrectness

[@AndersJackson]

Yes, I see that often. Like computers running with a clock at 50 mHz. Gosh, that is a slow computer (yes, 50 MHz are also slow, but not THAT slow)

[@grg121344]

a small correction regarding metric threads - you cannot use 12mm drill for M12 thread but you can put M12 thread on 12mm rod.

[@Awaken2067833758]

That is because the 12mm is the outer diameter, the drill is defined by the thread pitch. M12x1.75 10.2mm, M12x1 11mm M12x1.25 10.75mm ...

[@richardh50]

M12 x 1.75 pitch , metric coarse thread. Drill size 10.2 diameter

[@tms2566]

all technical drawings should be in mm, but for rullers and tape mesasure generally cm are beter - with mm you have to print large numbers on them and they are worst readable than those with cm.

[@puncheex2]

It's less than putting "cm" after each number to avoid errors. Of course, no one does that. They put it once at the top of the ruler. Leading, inevitably, to errors.

[@rastar6569]

​ @puncheex2 ??? In the part of the world where cm are used everyone knows how long a cm is and will never ever confuse it with a milimeter or a meter on a ruler. I just checked some of my rulers and usually there are just the numbers 1, 2, 3,... , 30 on it. No unit. They look like this: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Set_square_Geodreieck.svg upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Reglas.svg btw. this is also true for some of the australian stuff. See e.g.: www.eckersleys.com.au/set-squares

[@Spidouz]

It’s a centimeter ruler, with 1/10th sub-division (therefore mm). It’s not more complicated than that… Geez!

[@RideGasGas]

Good talk. Unfortunately, the prefix slide shown at ~15:04 min into the video has the incorrect prefix given for kilo. It is in fact a lower case 'k'. In SI units the upper case 'K' is reserved for the temperature unit kelvin. NIST has a few different pages on this, but a good one to start with is: physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html Many texts have it wrong and use an upper case for Km, KHz, Kbps (wrong in multiple ways), etc. Go to NIST in the US or the international home of the SI: www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units for the proper usage to confirm if someone tries to argue differently.

[@stevendern2543]

Antarctica bro, Antarctica. I bought a tape measure while I was on a visit to the US. I thought it was metric. It was not. It is now on display in my pool room. When people ask why I have a tape measure in a glass cabinet, I show them. Their minds are blown.

[@wolf310ii]

Just scale up everything 2.54 times, then you can pretend the tape is in centimeter

[@ccetomacrogol]

First time I witness someone mentioning the non-existing problem centimeter/millimeter.

[@tstcikhthyss]

Except it is a huge problem. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJuliH2YfdmMftE

[@Booruvcheek]

@@tstcikhthyss We're all metric in the former USSR, from the ground up. I've learned the system (meters, centimeters, millimeters, etc.) in the elementary school. Perhaps even before that, I was always curious as a kid. My whole family, friends, in fact, every person I know, none of them EVER had any problem with centimeters vs. millimeters. NEVER. How hard is division / multiplication by 10? 88 millimeters is 8.8 cm. Same thing. Or 0.088 meters, but this number looks kinda awkward. So it must be something found in Imperial countries only. TBH I find it extremely hard to believe that centimeters could be a problem for anyone. They're just a convenient unit, that's all.

[@jeanpierreviergever1417]

Agreed, this is only an issue when you’re not educated as a child in the metric system. In the metric world everybody works with it flawlessly. And that is more than 7 billion people, compared with 350 million people still using the system from their former coloniser.

[@ericvlasov1815]

I guess people here just don't get it. This talk is intended for the US audience. Using centimeters there already caused trouble, he only suggests avoiding them altogether for the sake of simplicity.

[@alexjohnward]

@@Booruvcheek that almost certainly isn't true, but you just never noticed the problem. Take some measurements down without the units written down, you need to consider what unit is meant to be used, if mm is the only unit you don't even consider the question, you never cut a piece of timber wrong if there is only one unit of measure used. The more different designations available, the more chance of error.

[@muhammadzaini5728]

Describing metric while you are used to imperial is not feast. This guy win my respect even tho all metric all the same as long as you understand it. There is no bad unit.

[@ZoneCracker]

When I was working in construction in Sweden we also used centimetres all the time. It's easier to work with.

[@haiddoukabl]

i don't get it, on one hand he praises the metric system for its easy conversion : 1000m in a km, 1 000 kg in a ton, etc. so why is the cm so bad ? conversion to mm is easy, also mm means a thousand of a meter so it is kind of a hidden decimal place

[@lizcollinson2692]

He's arguing it for construction. So use the 1000. Its true though I (🇬🇧) have never seen cm used in engineering, not once. Hes saying don't convert if you use a measurement system. Use it don't vary because if you ask to take 10 off that no one takes 10cm instead of 10mm. On documents you can ensure the units are written. But people make mistakes misread. Although I grew up using centimetres, I finally see why and i think I agree.

[@mikeblatzheim2797]

@@lizcollinson2692 In Germany (and I'm sure in most other countries as well) the accuracy desired, unless stated otherwise, depends on the unit. Most technical drawings are indeed in mm (so you have a tolerance of 0.1 either side), but buildings for example tend to have their plans in centimetres, as one millimetre of tolerance is enough. Plots of land will be measures in metres, and as such usually have a tolerance of 10 centimetres. 12.5 cm and 125 mm might be the same, but on a technical drawing they indicate different requirements without needing to declare them. When you talk about the size of a room you usually don't need to use millimetres, but rather centimetres, and the same goes for body height, sizes of appliances etc. Given that 'converting' between units is literally moving a decimal point, you just use what fits the needed accuracy. And for most things between 10 mm and 2 metres, it's the centimetre.

[@tiaxanderson9725]

I'm confused, at 12:10 this guy shows 4 identical rulers and is complaining about the differences? Why does 1 actually == 10 confuses him, but around 5:55 his 'perfect australian ruler' doesn't go from 990 to 1000 but from 90 to 1000? And then from 1000 to 10 and 20 rather than 1010 and 1020? Why does this not confuse him? It's the exact same thing (except arguably worse; if he had shifted the ruler 1 cm + 10 mm to the left before taking the picture we wouldn't have been able to tell that we were already 1m into the ruler)! I think this guy accidentally show-cases why the rest of the world thinks USA citizens are dumb...

[@deiniou]

I prefer my centimeters thanks. Unless I am measuring a house, then meters. Unless I am measuring a needle, then milimeters. Which... Is the same system, just change the dot up or down

[@pereklund9172]

How can you like the metric system, and att the same time dislike prefixes like centi and deci? Its not hard to understand that there is 10 millimeters in one centimeter, and 100 millimeters in one decimeter. Or is it? For someone born and raised with the metric system its very natural. Stop bullying the centimeter..

[@Laufbursche4u]

What is the point in making a new reference point? You can clearly see that milliMETER is a reference to Meter. 1 deci = 1/10 of the reference (m, kg, l), from Latin 1/10. 1 centi = 1/100, latin "centesimus" = "hundredth" 1 milli = 1/1000 In the opposite direction 1 kilo = 1000 of the reference. I think he's talking completely irrelevant stuff.

[@dutchman7623]

Agreed! And we do not convert, when I see 500 on a technical drawing I just know its 50 cm! 😊

[@AndersJackson]

@@dutchman7623 or 1/2 meter.

[@tysonty5989]

@@dutchman7623 same. Even using rulers in cm you know it's 10mm each, not even hard conversion to do. I would have never thought this could become a problem for some🤣 it's relatively intuitive since the arabic numbers are already in decimal scale

[@FAB1150]

The funniest part is when he said "and what are those on the ruler? Tenths of a centimeter?" YES they are lmao, it's not hard

[@sorencyrano1413]

I think he’s got a point. Exclusively using millimeters would make a simple system even simpler. And I hate to say it, but some people are just dumb. If something can be improved, it should be.

[@Gissersj]

In the UK we use both in tandem , we fill our cars up with litres of fuel and judge the vehicle by how many miles it does to a gallon . Height and width restrictions in both meters and feet.weights are in both metric and imperial We buy timber say 2 x 4 width but length is meters ie 4.8m . we can buy 1.8m timber pole/post or a 1.828 m (being six foot) We buy litre bottles of beverages and pour them out into pint glasses and so on. Older you are the more likey you still convert from one to another but most people will use both .

[@HotelPapa100]

The bashing centimeters thing is ridiculous to someone brought up in metric. It may have some merit in countries that are in the process of converting. But the example he mentions from Australia is really about an INDUSTRY. I worked in mechanical Engineering in Europe; we are the same, all dimensions are in millimeters (But we do need the decimal point (or comma), the millimeter doesn't cut it for precision when you work in Metal.) Building is mostly in cm. Surveying is in m and km AFAIK. Rulers with cm on them are no problem if you are used to them; the orders or magnitude are intuitive. Again: what is necessary is familiarisation with the system. The rest comes naturally. And the mind DOES have a problem with large numbers. In most every everyday problem precision to three SIGNIFICANT figures is good enough, and that's what you can easily memorize. Everything larger leads to unnecessary errors.

[@justusjanssen2241]

I want him to guess the volume of that hall he is in (apx 10m x 20m x 40 = 8000m³). Since he wants the Millimeters, go ahead: (10.000mm x 20.000mm x 40.000mm) what will be 8 Trillion mm³ :-) 8000000000000 mm³ Yes, it hurts !!

[@tstcikhthyss]

He actually advocates for metres and kilometres as appropriate for higher order units (squared and cubed) in line with the Australian building industry.

[@dutchman7623]

@@tstcikhthyss Technical drawings are in mm, not only in Australia. So when I see 500, I simply know that's 50 cm or 0,5 m without converting or even thinking.

[@PiGaming3.14]

Well i'm french and never saw such thing as 1.30.7 for meters.centimeters.millimeters (maybe u saw that on an old building like a historical one) but moreover "decimal point" ain't a french thing we use comma as decimal separator (like at least half of the word). and we use point as u use the comma. for exemple a price of 1 thousand euros and 20 cents would be written like that 1.000,32 € while a price of 1 thousand dollars and 20 cents would be written like that $1,000.32 So, yep ! No such thing as double decimal point for us the point is just a separator (but not the decimal one)

[@xgentis]

That dude probably never set a foot in France.

[@neplatnyudaj110]

It seems like most people in the comments don't get the point about cm/mm. There's absolutely no problem when you grow up with metric and everything around you is metric. The problem is when you are running a company in a country using medieval units and want to start using metric system.

[@nachtelfirokese88]

Even than the whole cm/mm problem makes pretty much no sense to me! Because even in school we learn basic math with decimal numbers! And guess what you even pay in a more or less Metric way! FOr example: You want to pay for a Tv 499.99$ and a pack of batteries for the remote 5.99$ so we have to pay 505,89$! Does this throw you of? Or would this be easier for you if i some would write it down like this 49999¢ and 599¢ is 50589¢? Same goes cm/mm ! Let's say you want to build a simple box 10cmx10cmx10cm! Why pushing the numbers up and make out of it 100mmx100mmx100mm! There is no more information in it if you doing it! Not even if you want to build a Box that is 10,5cmx10,5cmx10,5cm! You can read this information from the Ruler you can clearly see those things also we know by the Money example that we already understand the system behind it!

[@user-YuHaoHuang]

i've seen college textbooks written in imperial, and i still remember the face i made when the energy is in the unit of foot pound..... even better, boltzmann const, dirac const.....

[@herosstratos]

Esp. in an US textbook using standard inch AND US-survey inch without further notice and you try to figure out why the numbers don't match ....

[@fredericlepeltier3435]

Avoirdupois which should be written Avoirdupoids is a french "inside joke" and translate to "Tohavemass".

[@Sir5227]

This is dumb. The point of the metric system is, that you can easily change from m-dm-cm-mm, say how much a gram is (you need cm for that), a liter, ml a.s.o. Don't hate on the cm scale just bc you think ppl are to dumb to count to 10.

[@FrodoOne1]

NO! It is not DUMB. It is ENLIGHTENING. At the time of the French Revolution, when the Metric System was developed, counting by 10s, 100s etc was a BIG THING. Today, we are used to ratios of 1000, 1000,000, 1000,000,000. etc. These are termed kilo, mega, giga etc and our minds are attuned to these multipliers (and their corresponding divisors of milli, micro and [even] nano.) The now "obsolete" centi, deci, deka hecto prefixes just get in the way of a smooth transition both-ways from the SI Unit. Note that electrical units do NOT have Imperial/US Conventional equivalents. You will NEVER see anyone referring to centivolts (cV), deciohms (dΩ), dekawatts (daW)) or hectoamperes (hA), although these are all valid metric terms. Electrical units are ALWAYS specified by the Unit or an associated 1000 multiplier/divisor prefix - never those based on 10 or 100. So it should be with ALL SI quantities.

[@Sir5227]

I don't get the cm hate. Even in SI you still use angstrom Following his logic we should all count in $cents. Quick write 10l in mm

[@FrodoOne1]

There is no centimeter "Hate" An "angstrom" is simply 0.1 nanometres (or 100 picometres) The "Angstrom" is not part of SI but can be equated to SI measurements. You wrote "Following his logic we should all count in $cents. Quick write 10l in mm" What do you mean by "$cents" And "10l in mm" is meaningless. (Do you somehow conceive 10 litres as being something in millimetres?)

[@Sir5227]

1$ = 100$ cents 1liter = 1dm³ = 1000cm³ = 1.000.000mm³ => 10l = 10.000.000mm³

[@FrodoOne1]

$ 1 = 100 cents 1 litre = 1000 cm³ = 1.000.000 mm³ =1 m³/1000 (Do not forget the required space before the prefix/unit when writing these dimensions.) So? (However, you did write "Quick write "10l in mm"" - without using mm³ )

[@HeberFerrazLeite]

This guy may know a lot about the SI system (not sure why people call it metric, as meters is only for length), but he is completely missing the point about when to use millimiters, centimeters, etc. All units are interchangeable, and those familiar with the system can convert in their heads. If someone measures my height and tells me 1,73m (note the decimal comma, not point), I immediately know that is 173cm. I of course also know that it is 1730mm, but do I need that level of exactness? Was I even measured to that level of exactness? I mean .. it is also 1730000 micrometers, or 1730000000 nanometers ... but that is an overkill. The reason for using different units is that you can go to the level of accuracy that you need and/or are able to provide. Hence in construction they will use millimeters, because they need to be really exact, while when saying how tall people are centimeters is ok, and when telling you how far away the trainstation is from my house I will say "about 800 meters", because saying that in millimeters would be ridiculous ... and if you ask me how far Salzburg is from Vienna (where I live) I will tell you "just under 300 kilometers". If you want to I can convert that to millimeters, but you don't need that level of precision at that scale ... and my estimate cannot offer it. For the same reason you don't measure medication in gram, but in milligrams, because that is the level of precision you need ... while when talking about a person's weight you would usually talk about kilograms, because that is the level of precision that fits. (yes, I do know that kilogram is technically the mass and not the weight, but I have never had anybody tell me they weigh in at 833 Newton).

[@Tscharlieh]

So you can calculate from feet to yard to mile, but you have problems between mm and cm?

[@Ginkoman2]

Why is it so hard to understand that 1 cm is 10 mm? If it says 1.35 cm it is wqual to 13.5mm or 0,0135m or 1.35*10^(-2)m. It is simple. And how is it bad if the ruler has cm on it? there are mm to. just add them. I dont understand the problem

[@turun_ambartanen]

I agree, but your conversion is wrong. 1.35 cm = 13.5 mm = 0.0135 m

[@simondover569]

Ginkoman2 He is essentially right. But of course there are exceptions. I use m or mm, N or kN. They divide easily into things. But I use cm for section properties because they are just easier to write in a table, or calculation sheet (written length wise). But we generally avoid if we can.

[@MsUltrafox]

Having CM on your ruler is not the problem. The problem is when people see 1 for the first time they make the mistake of learning it the wrong way. And once they have learned it, it is hard to UNLEARN it.

[@nomadtales]

umm it's 13.5mm. oops

[@WolfKenneth]

maybe it is just when you are teaching morons they don't get moving decimal point?

[@nigeldepledge3790]

It's interesting that he didn't even once mention the SI unit of volume : the decimetre cubed. At standard temperature and pressure, it's exactly the same as a litre, but the litre (although widely used) isn't an official part of the SI. He also didn't mention that a millilitre also happens to be one centimetre cubed. In scientific papers, I've seen microlitres, millilitres, litres, cm^3 and dm^3 all used, because there's no enforcement and everyone knows that the word "litre" is shorthand for dm^3.

[@TiSapph]

I think you mean at standard temperature and pressure, a litre of water weighs a kilogram (yeah little off, but close enough for most things). A litre is in fact always exactly a decimetre cubed. Which is also super nice because that means a cubic meter is 1000 liters :)

[@nigeldepledge3790]

@@TiSapph - Er, yes, that's kinda what I meant.

[@playbagpipes]

At about the 15 min., 19 sec. mark, on the slide called Prefix Cluster around Unity, it writes that the "Modern SI uses spaces: 1000 or 100 000 or 10 000 000." Shouldn't there be a space in 1 000, too?

[@Congobajer]

If there had to be a space he would have to include 10 at the beginning. 10, 1 000, 100 000 and so on. And then you may ask, why not space in 10 (1 0), then he would have to start with 1, but it doesn't make any sense. But it always adds up 100 times, and it would be informal to start with a higher number like 1000 with a space, because it insinuates a number behind.

[@jukka-pekkatuominen4540]

Well. I have had a several talks with people who educate themselves to become nurses and most of them say that the medication calculations are really difficult to do. Or at least something that can go wrong easily if you are not focused. I cannot even imagine what it would be using two separate systems for measure.

[@mrfailman2396]

1 CM = 10 MM It's not that hard bro.

[@RideGasGas]

Guess it it's harder than you think ;-) See physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html and www.bipm.org/fr/measurement-units/si-prefixes. Hint, check your casing . . .

[@mrfailman2396]

@@RideGasGas I know there is a million ways to calculate if you are in science. But in daily usage, metric system is lot easier than imperial. @Nuovo from top liked comment says what I ment actually. I m just too lazy to write that long.

[@RideGasGas]

@@mrfailman2396 While I don't think it is that difficult, it seems that it must be harder than you think because you got it all wrong in your initial comment, and apparently still didn't get it even though I provided a hint in my initial reply. I believe you meant to write that one centimeter (cm) equals ten millimeters (mm). What you wrote is 1 CM = 10 MM. Attempting to decoding your formulation using proper SI units, one would get one something like: one coulumb mega (CM) equals ten mega mega (MM). My point is, you toss out a line like "It's not that hard bro." when talking about the SI - "the metric system", but totally botched your attempt at its use. ;-)

[@Shrek_Has_Covid19]

bro they are american everything that requires a brain is hard for them

[@ThomasRonnberg]

Just wait till you realise it doesn't actually matter which one you use as long as the equation is right.

[@Si_nengatcha]

We use metric and it's easier than imperial.. But depending on the stuff ur working on, it could be in mm or cm. For example, people's height will be in cm, construction drawings will be in mm, distance (road) will be in km. A lot of things are actually in cm like length of books, packages etc. Unless you need to be really precise (like in construction) then mm will be used.

[@FrodoOne1]

Wherever centimetres MIGHT be used, millimeters are much more appropriate - simply because the centi, deci, deka, hecto prefixes are completely "out of step" with the "thousands" multipliers/divisors of (most of) SI - which is the modern Metric System.

[@xgentis]

Agree it's a base 10 system, I never heard of anyone refusing the centimetre 1cm=10mm simple.

[@johanfagerstromjarlenfors]

With the metric system Peoples height i think is more common to see in dm or m not in cm. Distance usualy is in km or mile depending of how long it is. Mm is like never used in normal life, quite common in construction and industrial places though (and other ”work stuff”). And in theory there are a lot more names in metric system... micro-, nano- etc... but also going up to kilo-mile... but who the hell uses that?!? Who ever talks about distances on 1000 miles?!?! The distance around the globe on the equator is 4000 miles (4 kilo-miles), how often do you talk about going a 1/4 around the globe? Never!

[@SamoScopom]

European here (Slovakia): There is no problem with cm. Actually this is the first time I have even realized that most tape measures are in centimeters, because I don't think about the different prefixes. The only thing I'm interested in is the precision - what is the smallest length I can measure - 99% it's 1mm. But of course when I write lengths down I try to keep all the measurements in one common "unit" to not be confused later - depending on the precision and size I need. Architecture: mm, landscaping: m/cm, arts and crafts: cm/mm, traveling: m/km I buy a 2m tape measure that has the numbers printed in cm (note: A lot of tape measures denote whole meters in meters.) and write down a mm reading in my sketch. And I don't, at any point, think that I'm "converting". It's just natural.

[@camembertdalembert6323]

9:28 I'm french and I can say this is fake. Nobody ever used this notation in France.

[@lizvlx]

this is not even mansplaining anymore, this is inchsplaining. SO, FOR YOUR INFORMATION: EVERY PERSON ON THE GLOBE CAN USE CM AND MM (ETC) SIMULTANEOUSLY, NOBODY NEEDS YOUR HATE ON CM!!!! thank u. i will stop screaming now.

[@AndersJackson]

I don't understand it as he hate cm. He hate mistakes witch would undoubtedly occurs when one use more than one unit in a drawing. That is why mixing mm, cm, dm and m in a drawing are bad. Not the carpenter (or whoever reads the drawings) uses after read the drawing. So you have to understand the context he uses.

[@tstcikhthyss]

Uh...everybody needs it. Centimetres have basically no benefit, yet they add about 100 years to a country's metrication efforts. Use millimetres or metres.

[@ivoivanov7407]

@@tstcikhthyss 1cm^3 is 1 ml. Don't go extreme. Also, 1 dm^3 is 1l. So, calm down.

[@tstcikhthys]

@@ivoivanov7407 Those are exactly the reasons no one needs to learn centimetres or decimetres. If you're going to learn new unit names like "litre", then people don't really need to know that they're from cubic centimetres or cubic decimetres outside of maybe 5 min of class time.

[@Booruvcheek]

@@tstcikhthyss Yes, the whole problem is with centimeters. Right. Not with people's resistance to change. Centimeters are the villain.

[@vincentweatherly9991]

As an Aussie, never expected it to heavily reference my country

[@MrButtonpusher]

Where has this video been....ive been looking for this for so long....I loved it 100%

[@surfie007]

What’s wrong with centimetres? I live in Australia and I never use millimetres to measure something only centimetres or metres and so does everyone I know

[@FrodoOne1]

Since Australian Standard AS 1155-1974 "Metric Units for Use in the Construction Industry", specified : - "The metric units for linear measurement in building and construction will be the metre (m) and the millimetre (mm), with the kilometre (km) being used where required. This will apply to all sectors of the industry, and the centimetre (cm) shall not be used. … the centimetre should not be used in any calculation and it should never be written down" you can't know anyone in the Building Industry!

[@piltrid1]

If just measuring, it doesn't matter what you use. I've used cm, mm, inches, width of my hand/finger/book/etc. However, I've noticed whenever I need to build/plan something and start sketching, I may thoughtlessly start with cm, but always end up changing to mm as it seems more logical (especially when going past meter lengths). In bunnings/hardware shops, length/width of wood and metal are usually in mm (or meters where labeling space is limited).

[@FrodoOne1]

As you have noticed, Bunnings (and others concerned with building hardware) adhere to Australian Standard AS 1155-1974. Lengths of timber is always sold in multiples of 300 mm (or 600 mm), although the price is usually given in $/metre.

[@Jack_C_]

Well you don't know me then. I live in Australia too and rulers with centimetres suck (specifically tape measures). Yes it's easy to calculate but why bother if everything is in millimetres. That's the point, start at one and just keep going.

[@Jehannum2000]

The U.S. system is fine for building a chicken barn and stuff like that.

[@e.c.listening326]

Even chicken prefer the metric system

[@jonilarsen-haikarainen8733]

As someone who as used the metric system my whole life. It's very easy to mix mm, cm, dm, m, km. The reason to always use mm in construction. Is not to avoid decimals. it's just a standard for all blueprints. any measurement integer on a blueprint is in mm. But working on fine machining a mm is often to big. so then it will say something like 0.05 for 50 um. So the standard being mm on blueprints is a compromise so that it works across many fields. Oh and it's not just Australia. It's the standard in most of the world. Including here in Sweden, where we for some reason are really attached to analyzing statistics.

[@nachtelfirokese88]

But what you pointing out here is a specific usage, where high accuracy is very necessary and have very important information in it! But that doesnt mean that the cm is actually obsolete for other usages! And yes even in germany this is standard to do Blueprints in mm!

[@jonilarsen-haikarainen8733]

@@nachtelfirokese88 I never said that cm is obsolite. I said it's easy to mix all prefixes :)

[@nachtelfirokese88]

@@jonilarsen-haikarainen8733 But honestly, if you are a professional who doing this stuff for living! Than you actually should do this stiff with closed eyes!

[@gklkjuhylpoiuyuiojhjklkjuh9976]

@@nachtelfirokese88 I suppose he do but we are the human, human make mistakes.

[@puncheex2]

The basic problem in American construction are the local building boards. They are people who lived, drink, eat and defecate in "feet, inches and fractions thereof". You cannot get a metric plan to be looked at, let alone accepted by such a board; even a make-sense compromise sort of thing like making all measurements in inches and decimals thereof is not acceptable. He spoke of anti-metric lobby - these older architectural and construction people are a prominant part of that. I created software at one point in my life that drew construction plans; that madee it easy to do the plans in millimeters and then convert at the last step before printing. I love the four laws. I've been using them since I was in engineering school, although I didn't know them by that name. Get rid of deci-, deka-, centi-, and hecto-. Sure the centimeter is sort of a convenient length, but its just not worth the hassle; it's another opportunity to make a mistake. The sciences have stressed that for a long time - think in thousands, even when writing scientific notation. A great lecture, after the presenter got off his sarcastic bent and warmed to the subject.

[@nicktaylor5819]

America: it's 1"1/8 UK: its 1"1 1/8 or 28.575mm China: its 5/16mm

[@kristianbrandt3012]

I'm sorry, how are the Australians ''better at metric'' than any other country? You either use it or you don't, there's no contest, you can't be better at centimeters.

[@FrodoOne1]

From 115 occupations listed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the results are as follows: - millimetre users - 96 occupations centimetre and inch users - 12 occupations where length measures are relatively unimportant - 7 occupations (www.metricationmatters.com/docs/centimetresORmillimetres.pdf page 5)

[@ricoblaser6308]

Okay, Australia uses it this way. Well, in my job I need km, m, cm, mm and μm. If I order cable for a construction site from the warehouse, then there are sometimes 6 km on one roll. When I order tools for assembly, they are made in μm. The big advantage of the metric system is that there is a suitable unit of measurement for every area, but it can be easily converted.

[@PropperNaughtyGeezer]

Technical drawings are not only given in mm in Australia. This is the case all over the metric world. If not, it will be noted separately on the construction plan. In road construction e.g. Sinilar like time. Half past seven PM, in EU 19:30 Uhr oder only 1930. At AM ist 7:30Uhr or 0730.

[@xgentis]

There are no double decimal period.

[@martinlyhagen6166]

Slide reads "EARLY ADOPTERS of the metric..." so it was used around 1800, not today,

[@manuelgarciabarbero1872]

Using mm for everything is stupid and diminish the power of metric system. We use meters in construction, that way it is easy to refer not only longitudes but also surfaces and volumes. a 10x10m house is 100sqm. if you refer it in mm, you have a million sqmm. house. (stupid, isn't it?). Imagine a New big Las Vegas hotel in sqmm? Architects working in an Urban scale work in km, or 1000m scale or 100m to avoid millions of sqm interventions and work with square km or hectars, (which is a 100mx100m rectangle), working in the size of a building, we do use meters, then, working in furniture you may use mm or cms... the more little the object the tinier the working unit that we use.... for example nanometers. going from one to the other is as easy as adding ceros in one side or the opposite one. For example, 12.577 meters = 0.012577Km = 1257.7cm =12577mm. Meters are Ideal because they are somehow in the middle of our range of scales, not to large, not to short, and they allow you to comprehend surfaces and volumes in a inteligible way. I am sorry for the speaker, he is funny but he has no idea!!!

[@alainprostbis]

that's true. The whole point of the metric system, apart from the relationships between units as defined by physical laws, is that you can chose your unit according to the scale you're concerned with. easy peasy... in the classroom, doing geometry, the centimeter is the way to go. this guy is all over the place and as a burger he has still not grasped the beauty and the interest of the metric system. let's give him more time... he seems to be at the anger state in his grieving process for the imperial system. Angry at the French for some reason (they did not create the system, and they should not be asked how to use it as they are too dumb or something....) then will come bargaining, depression and finally acceptance...

[@CucumberFanatic]

England tend to use both but for diferent things, for any form of accurate measuring we use mm, however, if we are estimating things we use imperial. For example if we were describing somones height we would use feet and inches, or distance traveled in a car, miles. We are a bit weired lol

[@morthim]

"they weigh people in pounds, they convert it, they calculate the dosage, and then they convert it back, how many chances for errors" 4 there are 4 chances for errors.

[@darknessblades]

Lets calculate how many errors you can get using any calculator. Result 1: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 2: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 3: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 4: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 5: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 6: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 7: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 8: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 9: OVERFLOW ERROR Result 10: OVERFLOW ERROR Scientist: I GIVE UP

[@Pokemc0831]

I feel smart for knowing the barley corn question

[@Biergartenparadoxon]

Wtf is that rant about cm vs mm? You completely missed the point about the 10-base nature of the metric system. You just have meters. And than you can add the fitting prefix for order of magnitude. Distance between two Cities? => km (1000 x meter). Technical drawings? => mm (0,001 x meter). Those rulers aren't dual scale. They just have big markings for the 10^-2 digits and smaler markings for the 10^-3 digits. Even tho the rulers on the lift side are labeled misleading. Maybe because they are manufactured by an american. I dunno Last ruler isn't technically wrong but gets ugly if its longer that 10cm (aka 100mm, or 1dm or 0,1m for those guys who cant multiply/devide by 10 by their own) and a catastrophe, if longer than 1m (aka 1000mm, or 100cm, or 10dm, or 0,1dam, or 0,01hm, or 0,001km ...etc) Edit: In other Words: the prefix only says how far the decimal point is shifted to the right or lift to get nice looking Numbers. Maybe you know the scientific notation for big/little numbers for reference? The mantisse*base^exponent notation? Like 1000 = 1*10^3. So kilo just means *10³ etc

[@Mercilessonion]

He says remove prefixes but wants everyone to use the prefix 'mili' too...

[@donkmeister]

15:00 the only problem with commas as thousands separators is that in some countries they use commas as decimal points. Loving this presentation, it's good to see kindred spirit (albeit 6 years ago!) who is spreading the message that the metric system is only as good as its users. the number of times I've seen commas use as decimal points, lower-case m's to denote "*10^6", upper-case K used to denote "*10^3"... ridiculous exponents that aren't based around 3s... I used to work with an engineer who would always call the project managers out on it when they used them incorrectly in prices and such. Quips like "my word, 100K - I don't know how much these cost but do they really need to be that cold?" or "Oooh, 10 milli-Euros? That's very cheap, I might buy some too."

[@daedalron]

There's still a lot to do for a universal system. Many commonwealth countries still use feet / inches for measuring height for example. But even once that is done, there will be 2 big things to work out: - decimal separator: most european countries use comma as decimal separator, UK and USA use dot. - short or long scale: same as above, most european countries use long scale (million, milliard, billion, billiard, ...), while UK and USA use short scale (million, billion, trillion, ...). That one is a big potential source of error, as in one scale, billion means 10^9, when in the other billion means 10^12... And those are not just spelling mistakes like the K/k you mentioned, those are fundamentaly different writing conventions.

[@CUBETechie]

I have never seen a measuring tape with mm. The tape I used had 3, 5 and 8m First big mark's where at every 10cm and between it has the big line for every 5mm and then have ever mm a line.

[@Bastman2000]

You can't say John Wilkins invented metric system. He proposed universal measure based on prussian inch.

[@joaonobre9003]

I use the metric system and dont see any problem using the cm. If someone says a measure in mm i always convert it to cm. Its a smaller number to deal. Each job area as is own rule working in metric, small examples... Metalworking use mm Woodworking use cm Housebuilding use mt and cm and in rare ocasions mm. But everybody knows how to convert from one to another only by head, no one uses a calculator.

[@tstcikhthyss]

Centimetres lead to decimal points, and decimal points lead to errors. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJuliH2YfdmMftE

[@regnbuetorsk]

@@tstcikhthyss absolutely not

[@tstcikhthys]

@@regnbuetorsk Evidence suggests that they do.

[@regnbuetorsk]

@@tstcikhthys then it's the case to go back to school, instead of altering the system

[@tstcikhthys]

@@regnbuetorsk No one is altering the system. That'd be like saying if you weren't taught what a yottametre is, then you should go back to school. You're merely only learning stuff that is useful to you, and ignoring the stuff you don't use or are useless. Centi-, deci-, deca-, and hecto- prefixes are useless in linear units.

[@aguyontheinternet1]

He is right in that the metric system is better than imperial units, however I do not know why he is so against centimeters they are used so often, and are really useful for simple measurements we use inches for here in the US.

[@kymico]

i'm an italian working in the construction industry, we mostly use centimeters and don't have much problem. But i remember when i spent a year in Australia all the measure where taken in millimiters

[@FrodoOne1]

So you found the most "Metric" country on earth and "The Metric System IS Better By A Thousand".

[@kcegr]

come on, cm and km and mm, is ok. no need to stick to one, that is the beauty of the metric system.... who is gonna give speed in mm per hour? hahah you use km per hour

[@Spollekop]

We should use m/s, because seconds are the base of SI not hours. Strangely the SI is based on a non metric unit (time) seconds, hours, days, week, months, year. Are you understanding what I'm trying to say? Actually only the second is metric and should be used for speed. So m/s. I'm pretty sure NASA used m/s and m/s*s for their spaceprogram.

[@tstcikhthyss]

He said use factors of 1000 (e.g., don't use cm), not to use millimetres as the only unit for the rest of your life. Speed is in km/h (or m/s), but lengths should either all be measured in metres, or in millimetres, not interchangeably. And they shouldn't have decimal points to simplify it significantly.

[@Moribax85]

@@Spollekop time is a metric unit. metric doesn't mean it's divisible or multipliable by 10, just that it's based on a physical constant. metric doesn't come from meter, but by the greek metrike, that means "the art of measure", that's why the word is used for language, for music, to descibe a constant, in those cases, the rythm. but going back to time, yeah, it's metric: in SI the second is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency ∆νCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1. as you can see, it's part of a physical constant, unlike feets or yards. where do you have read that hours, days, weeks, are not metric? and hour is defined in the SI as 3600 atomic seconds. day, week, etc are all defined in the SI aswell by virtue of being multiples of those previously defined units. So, Km/h is an accepted unit of measurement, as it's just a multiple of m/s, and yes, NASA uses m/s, just to save computing power on conversion and because they require more precision: 10 m/s under the set orbital speed means wrong orbit, and, possibly, a mission failure. but for cars Km/h are more than enough precision, and is more easily readable and relatable, since distances are expressed in Km, not m: say you have to travel by car from Paris to Berlin, that's 1054 Km. assuming a constant speed of 100 Km/h, you're certain, without some annoying math, that it will take you 10 and a half hours to reach, right? now, how much time would the same trip take you if you traveled at a constant 60 m/s? would you be able to tell me without taking out your calculator? i'll give you the process and the answer: in the first example, you just had to divide the total distance by your speed per hour, to get the hours. in the second, the one with m/s you have to multiply the speed by 3600, that way you convert your speed in m/h, then divide the m part by 1000 to get the Km, and you would find, after those 2 operations, that you're going at 216 Km/s, so divide again the total distance by the speed, and you'll get just over 5 hours. same result, not practical for everyday use when you don't need that magnitude of precision

[@ottoneiii4353]

usain bolt used to run the 100000mm

[@NMalteC]

For people brought up on the metric system it is utterly ridiculous to be exposed to the imperial system. I guess the reverse is also true.

[@tstcikhthyss]

The reverse isn't really true because the metric system is actually sensible. Also, the US uses US customary units, not imperial units.

[@noelmasson]

I was brought up on metric and now 100% converted to U.S. customary units. U.S. units are better in every way for everyday life. (excluding scientific work which relies heavily on collaboration around the world)

[@basicguy5785]

@@noelmasson You must be joking or trolling. If you already know metric there is no way the US system is better, unless you don't have tools to use metrics.

[@noelmasson]

@@basicguy5785 Not trolling at all and I can back up my arguments completely. I've had a lifetime to compare and assess. What do you want to start with?

[@basicguy5785]

@@noelmasson if US units work for you, fine. But there is no way they are better. More people would agree with you, if that was the case, but they don't.

[@lebaguettethailande]

I think one of the best oint of metric system is the easy convertion from centi to deci to kilo to hecto... this way you can adjust the mesure you need regarding your need. for exemple bottle are in centiliteer but for medicine it s mililiter and wine and beer producer use hectoliter. you would not use milimetter to calculate distance to the moon and you would not use milimeter to calculate distance between transistor in a computer chip

[@crescentnarga6126]

He triggered me at first, because I thought he didn’t understand the metric system. But the way the audience kept laughing at his ridicules towards the system, made me realize that it’s probably a good idea to simplify the notation increments to multiples of 1000 and not confuse the audience with occasional multiplication and division by 10. They can leave that job to the civilized world.