Why Americans don't use metric

[@aragusea]

***NOTE: I would ask folks watching this video to be mindful of which arguments I'm making, versus which arguments I'm merely relaying to you. Most of this video consists of me and Dr. Mihm explaining other people's arguments, not making our own. Q: Why do you hate the metric system?? A: I don't! I think it's great! Watch the whole video! Even if it wasn't great, I would still be all for my country adopting metric, purely in the service of getting us all on a single global standard. Q: Dr. Mihm says the U.S. was the biggest economy in the world by the 1870s. Some other sources say it wasn't until the 1920s. What gives? A: You can calculate the size of an economy lots of different ways, and you'll get slightly different results. But Dr. Mihm is hardly the only scholar to say this happened in the late 19th century, rather than the early 20th. I believe he's going by gross domestic product adjusted for purchasing power (GDP-PPP). Q: Is this really a cooking video? A: I've decided that, going forward, this channel will be dedicated to food topics and immediately food-adjacent topics. I would consider this a food-adjacent topic. I will likely start a second channel in the next year or so dedicated to things that have nothing to do with food. I hope you'll subscribe! Q: Why did you get political at the end there? Isn't this a cooking channel? A: I have no desire to shoehorn politics into this channel. I don't think that's what you come here for, and I have no desire to needlessly alienate some viewers. But sometimes food and food-adjacent topics intersect directly with politics, and there's no intellectually honest way to avoid talking about it. Metric adoption is a political issue. Q: Did you get new glasses? A: No, I found my old glasses! It would seem a child stuck them into a low shelf. They've been missing for a year. Q: Why did you show a picture of the Mexican flag when discussing the Spanish language, rather than the Spanish flag? A: Because I was discussing the Spanish that I learned in high school, which was Mexican Spanish. Strikes me as pretty logical for U.S. schools to favor Mexican Spanish dialects! Q: Why are you so confident that globalization is, on balance, a good thing? A: Globalization has done many things, many of them terrible. I could talk about how it has probably lifted literally billions of people out of extreme poverty, etc, but for me it's pretty simple: Literally anything is better than WWIII, and economic interdependence of the world's great powers has made WWIII a lot less likely.

[@adenarrington7607]

Do you eat instant ramen

[@downiemcsyndrome8067]

@@adenarrington7607 lmfao

[@Astavyastataa]

This was a very fascinating video and I want to thank you for making it. I do have to disagree with your whole-hearted enthusiasm over the adoption of a global standard, however, precisely because it is, as you say, a political issue. I think you come off as a bit disingenuous when you present the arguments for the adoption of metric as a positive yet almost snark at those people (really, strawmen you've set up) who are concerned about the increased globalization and flattening of the world both economically and culturally.

[@yourmother3207]

I think you should keep everything on this channel, Adam. I've been following a lot of youtubers over the years and usually secondary channels aren't nearly as successful as the primary. They often get a lot of views at first but then get barely any. I just dont want you to make videos that go underappreciated because they aren't as accessible as if they were on this channel.

[@JudsonCc514]

I first read that as "a child stuck them *to* a low shelf" and I was briefly fascinated by the level of engineering and commitment to keep your glasses affixed to a low shelf for a year.

[@niallsulcer600]

When it comes to adopting the metric systems, American drug dealers truly are trail blazers.

[@ValhallaXYZ]

Metric suppression: the real reason for the war on drugs.

[@mrrashu77]

@@ValhallaXYZ Stay right where you are!

[@SilentSymphony5]

The drug dealers here use ounces and pounds too

[@gclinton5796]

Niall Sulcer they use grams, then ounces, pounds, and then kilos. they like to mix it up lol

[@nomnom4755]

Nice

[@Audiojack_]

I use the universally applicable measuring system of "that looks about right."

[@forestshepherd253]

Just use your arms, hands, and fingers. The measuring devices we all carry!

[@hhiippiittyy]

When assembling and building, I have a final article on the list. Look at the things that are wrong but good enough or irreversible and say... "Well, that's where that goes."

[@shyguy_daniel3919]

yup, just guessing

[@1nicerboyz206]

that is literally what the imperial system is all about

[@NeoDarkling]

"That looks about right" is the only way I mastered ANY of my mom's recipes! 😂

[@OnboardG1]

The most British thing is to look at a boundary and say “I think the fence for that needs to be six feet tall and three metres long”.

[@Milesco]

LOL! 🤣 How is this comment not getting more upvotes? 🇬🇧

[@techstuff9198]

2 by 3.

[@falconne]

Hot days are measured in Fahrenheit, cold days are measured in Celsius.

[@techstuff9198]

@@falconne One thing both systems agree on is that anything negative is bad. Also, Celsius is shite as both a scientific measurement and an experiential one.

[@falconne]

​@@techstuff9198 What are you talking about? Celsius is much better than Fahrenheit for science, as the F scale doesn't relate to any useful observation points or conversions (you can use Kelvin if you want to get pedantic, but a difference of 1K still equals a difference of 1C). The point of the metric system is that all the different types of measurement can be interconnected by nice easy round numbers. It takes 1 calorie to raise one millilitre of water by one degree Celsius. One millilitre of water has a volume of 1 cubic centimetre and a mass of 1 gram. And so on and so on. All metric measurements are related to each other in round numbers and the properties of water is central to this system. Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees Celsius under 1 atmosphere that's why Celsius is important scientifically. And also makes the scale very easy to calibrate.

[@moth3rfck3r-s4n]

I grew up with the metric system, but after living for a few years in not the US, but Canada, I had to become somewhat unit bilingual. Canada might officially be metric, but they're having a hard time letting go. All the recipes were imperial, and for cooking temperatures they use Fahrenheit, but for temperature in other contexts they use celsius. Doing construction and electrical work, everything was imperial. I had to get used to feet and inches. All the weights at the gym were in pounds. No one knows what you're talking about if you tell them you are 175cm tall and weigh 70kg. My Alberta drivers licence had my height in cm, but the lady at the registry converted to feet and inches to make sense of it. So its really dumb when people make out like the US are the only hold outs.

[@donaldcake1]

Definitely agree here, we measure driving distance in time, cold temps in Celsius, hot temps in Fahrenheit

[@joeyhardin5903]

Even worse in england where we measure height in feet and inches but weight in kilograms... But, its not that hard to convert in your head. 6 feet is 180cm, one pound is half a kilogram. A pint is half a litre (give or take 50ml depending on what country youre in) and a mile is 1600m. Pretty easy

[@RothAnim]

A big part of it is because the US has roughly 10x our population, which means not only is a lot of their culture and products imported here, but a good chunk of our own is intended for export. So most of our packaging is in both metric and imperial, and recipes tend to use F. And a lot of that is fine for common use; feet an inches are pretty convenient at human scales. It's only when you need to start converting inches to miles, or grains to pounds that things go really off the rails.

[@Elliottklassen]

I would say it’s not really fair to claim Canada is “holding out”. Most of us have no idea how to interpret American weather reports, and miles, gallons, and feet are always something we have to convert (with the exception of older people or height measurements). In all of our schools we only use metric for anything. Also, not all buildings are imperial here: my wife is an architectural designer and her work only uses metric (as do all new commercial buildings in Canada). The reason we are weirdly caught in the middle is precisely because the states are holding out and by nature of their large economy and population as well as our close proximity, we’re forced to be bilingual through association. If we’re importing building materials from the States, it’s imperial. Not much we can do about that.

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

@@joeyhardin5903what about weight in stone?

[@ATaylor369]

I would like to thank my 5 years as a drug dealer for helping me master the metric system.

[@arthas640]

oddly enough theres still a bit of tension between old school dealers who use "Elbows" (lbs or pounds) and ounces (usually in fractions of an ounce or "teen-ths"). I knew some old school dudes who were dealing in elbows and ounces and got kind of pissed when some younger guys tried asking for so many grams because they hated converting.

[@jayroush6154]

Iv found that people who have actually dealt illegal substances rarely if ever talk openly on the internet about those deeds, at least the ones who actually made real money...not middle men

[@Knallteute]

As a metric born I think it would sound great to buy 15grains for 10 dollars than 1g for 10€ in weed.

[@5frogfrenzy]

It takes 10 minutes to memorize it

[@bcubed72]

@@Knallteute Nobody buys weed in "grains," silly: wouldn't get an ant high! Ounces, and fractions thereof, however...problem with metric is a gram really isn't enough weed to bother, and a kg is waaaay to much for retail.

[@schmules101]

MYTH: In the UK we measure speed using miles per hour. This is a LIE: we actually measure it in furlongs per fortnight

[@ImranZakhaev9]

Americans: My hummer gets 71 fathoms to the hogshead and that's the way I like it!

[@SK0R092]

we use boils per kettle

[@83Bongo]

It's true. The speed limit for motorways is not 70, it's 188160.

[@crisppr]

Here in Canada, we measure speed using sorries per hour

[@arcticreindeerroleplays3488]

I measure mph I live in uk

[@jimmymifsud1]

In the industrial setting, for any size in between 1/2 1/4 1/8 etc it becomes incredibly difficult to work out in between sizes. Metric is 10,11,12,13,14,15,16mm etc

[@sofielee4122]

Honestly people write down 115/128 like that's an acceptable measurement to ask someone to work with, it's obscene

[@russell2952]

There isn't any pressing need to divide by two. That's possible with the imperial system, but it isn't required any more than dividing by 3 is a requirement.

[@la-go-xy]

​​​​@@russell2952At least, it is rather easy to take approx half of sth. However in 4:14 there is no need to take 1/32 cm since 1/16 cm < 1/32 inch already. And manually marking smaller than 1/2 mm does not seem easy anyhow.

[@JudsonCc514]

I found myself increasingly using metric in the kitchen for a very lazy reason: I can wash fewer dishes if I'm weighing things in a big mixing vessel as I add them instead of using a bunch of cups and spoons. And I use grams because of the increased precision (my old scale only used to do 1/8's of an ounce and very imprecisely at that). I'll do nearly anything if it requires washing fewer dishes.

[@robertoaguiar6230]

They're getting it at last

[@Zeverinsen]

Now that's words to live by!

[@nidohime6233]

That is neat.

[@Lara-jp4xk]

I hesitate to try a new recipe if its only measurements are in Freedom units (USA imperial). I must really want it, because I have to measure or google and transform everything in grams and millilitres before starting it for the same purpose: faster measuring with a scale or a volumetric cup. And if the recipe contains something so atrocious (to me) like 1/2 cup of butter, I'm out. How is that butter supposed to be in the measuring cup: melted, softened, cubed? It gives too much error and /or work if I have to melt the butter in the microwave just for measuring it, whereas weighting 225 g of butter gives the same amount regardless of how soft or hard it is.

[@ltgerbilmuffin]

​@@Lara-jp4xk butter translation guide for US recipes: All butter measurements are solid volume, because in the US almost all butter is sold in sticks measuring 1/2 cup, and they have a scale printed on the wax paper indicating the other measurements. So the recipes are using the volume as a proxy for the weight based on that convention. So just convert the volume to metric and then cross out the "ml" and write "g" and there's your weight.

[@NiklasRi]

5:35 i think that really just depends on what you grew up with. If you grew up with the metric system estimating what 500g of flour is, is the same as estimating what one pound of flour is if you are used to the imperial system. Same with temperaure. I often hear Americans say that Fahrenheit is more intuitive because you know that 100°F is a really hot summer day. However if youre used to Celsius you still know that its a hot day if the thermometer says its 37°C. There is no difference. If i wanted to go in with this there would be more examples (french numbers... 99 is spelled like 4 * 20 + 19 but because they did it their whole life for them its just intuition)

[@mishXY]

I mean every single country protested metric initially, and had to change everything and then *everybody* was metric

[@NothingXemnas]

Intuition and guess work is not a good argument. Mainly because "intuition and guesswork" is universal. Everyone knows what they have, want to have and, for instance, what half of it is. Now, when you apply systems, things change. Metric works on a single base, 10, so anything you multiply or divide in it is still in a constant scale. Imperial has no constant scale and works only on fractions, with bases changing between even different measuring forms, as yards having more feet than a foot has inches. Then a mile straight out kicking numbers below 12.

[@qxTorii]

Yup, completely agree. It's really weird for me, because I use metric for almost everything, except when eye-balling the *length* of anything. At tiny scales (grains of sand, marbles, etc) I use metric (easy to say a marble is about 1-2cm). From there until anything below 2 metres I use feet and inches (height of my computer case is like 1.5ft?) After that it's back to metric (height of a doorway in my house? about 2.5 metres). ... Simply because that's just how I've done it for my entire life lol.

[@kevinconrad6156]

Temperature is the one place the Metric system does not get it right. All they other measurements can be more precise but the 0-100 for freezing and boiling leads to less precision than the Fahrenheit system. Maybe it should have been 0-1000. I'm a yank and it all measurements except temperature I prefer Metric.

[@danielrapp7016]

@@kevinconrad6156 Celsius isn't metric. Also, what would be the difference between your proposed 673C and the current 67,3C?

[@acck01]

It's incredibly interesting that federally we DO operate on the metric scale. The Army and Marine Corps adopted the metric system in 1957 which is actually BEFORE Great Britain adopted it in 1965. The navy generally measures in nautical units for distance and speed so neither metric or imperial. When you hear military personnel use the word "click" as in "The target is 4 clicks out." They're referring to Kilometers. 1 Kilometer is 1 click. Our ammunition is standard 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and 9mm. All metric. Artillery rounds are generally 155mm or 120mm rounds. When we go to the range to qualify with a rifle we're shooting at targets at distances measured in meters. Also in 1988 congress passed the "Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act" which mandated that all federal business be conducted in the metric system by 1992. As far as the federal government is concerned we ARE a metric country. The imperial system really just lives on as a relic of society and culture rather than some government mandate since the entire federal government operates on the metric system not the imperial system of measurements.

[@Jmoneysmoothboy]

True pirates shoot at targets by the yard and measure their plunder in troy ounces

[@timothydoyle9635]

I imagine this was due to the lessons of WW2 and the need for a combined logistics train. If everyone shoots the same bullet, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to supply. As well as planning. If the US unit moves forward 10(miles) and the UK unit moves forward 10(kilometers). Someone is gonna have a very bad day. Helps as well if your base for combined ops can just get NATO standard rounds, and not need to get US rounds, and everyone else rounds.

[@ThaSingularity]

Fascinating

[@jeffforbess6802]

It just makes killing more efficient. Isn’t that what the military is all about? Knowing is half the battle...GO JOE!

[@JohnA...]

Knowing is confusing, that's why we just keep making things to blow everyone up first so you don't have anyone left to question... Did the military thing, they try to push the "we are trying to be friends" thing early on, but you are surrounded by a lot of testosterone fueled meat heads that aren't typically the over intelligent type (those guys stay away from the front lines usually) and are quite prone to also be the ones shouting "kill them all, let god sort them out" nonsense (while also pretending that is somehow a peaceful religious mentality, hypocrisy as well). But they are right, military is almost all metric now partially because of working with other forces, part because much of our products are made in other countries, and also because using one unit makes it simple for people with typically very low education rates to understand. Such as putting "on a rock or something" on MREs to explain how to use a basic just add water food heater without hurting yourself.

[@HedgehogStudios1]

I live in California. I started learning metric in sixth grade. My computer hardware has always reported its temperature in Celsius. The 3-D printer I got several years ago is completely metric. About a year ago, I got into coffee brewing and everything there is done in grams. I never sought out metric measurements. They just kind of happened, and honestly I don’t mind

[@SpencerLemay]

What could the possible advantage of using Celsius be? The only way that would happen without you purposely seeking it out is selecting the wrong region on your PC. Everything is just harder to keep track of. Also how is a 3d printer completely metric? Every slicer I have ever used has a drop down for both units.

[@shotgunner3780]

Actually, the IS temperature measurement is based on Kelvins

[@jasonstormsong4940]

@@SpencerLemayMelting/freezing water = 0, boiling/condensing water = 100, direct subtraction/addition from and to Kelvin.

[@victortwotimes1566]

@@SpencerLemay its useful for physics, due to being similar to kelvin

[@georgH]

I do appreciate when people take the extra mile to give us, non-Americans, quantities in metric. Thank you 😉

[@georgH]

@Lord Waluigi XD I thought about that while I was writing it, glad you got the pun 😉 TBH, I'm not a native English speaker and, at least in the languages I know, there is no equivalent of the "extra mile" expression (equivalents exist but don't use length).

[@livedandletdie]

@Lord Waluigi I do use the extra mile expression that's because we still have a unit known as the Scandinavian mile. Which is standardized to be 10km. Att gå en extra mil, To take an extra mile... lit. to walk the extra mile. It used to be slightly longer than 10km, and half a mile used to be called a rast, meaning rest. So if a foreigner wants to take a few miles walk, and they happen to let's say walk on Gotland or somewhere, where we still have milestones, then let's say 3 miles would actually be more like 15 miles...

[@Cordelia0704p]

The correct English idiom is "go the extra mile."

[@georgH]

@@Cordelia0704p Thanks, appreciated :)

[@Radii_DC]

@Lord Waluigi That's "taking the extra 1.609 km" to you, mister!

[@sonicpsycho13]

I'm an American engineer working in manufacturing for the automotive industry. All of the car parts we design and make, as well as all of the tools we design are done completely in metric. American automakers switched to metric decades ago as they started selling more cars in foreign markets. Rather than have separate catalogs of parts in inch and metric, they just decided to reduce costs and make all of their cars metric. The machine shops whom we order tools from operate in inches, but they use inches in decimal form, rather than fraction - i.e. thousandths of an inch.

[@orlock20]

That's because the majority of parts are made outside the U.S. and then assembled in the U.S. Also, the U.S. wants to sell its vehicles outside the U.S. and most of those countries use the metric system. Those countries would want an ease of use in fixing those vehicles and can't do that with their tools not fitting the nuts and bolts.

[@OneEyeShadow]

Capitalism bringing Metric to the States. Just like Apple Pie.

[@jokeassasin7733]

The funny thing about most tool and die companies is that most modern machines are fully capable of swapping from Inch to mm in just a couple minutes. They are so reluctant to use metric that they have to convert every value instead of just programming and running in metric. I work for a company that makes high end milling and edm equipment used in that industry.

[@siqizhang]

Why are wheel sizes always in inches and engine displacement always in cc's?

[@buffdelcampo]

@@orlock20 In the US metric automotive parts started production in 1977. The conversion was complete by the mid 80s. I am hassled by Europeans all the time about not using metric. Where have they been for the last 35 years? A couple of British guys were giving me trouble. They said I couldn't work on their equipment because I didn't have metric tools. They were dead wrong. In America we have all tools. We know metric and SAE quite well. It's funny, the first wrench I had to buy was in 1963. I was 9 years old. It was a metric wrench for a bicycle. In England, they still use miles.

[@real-oppenheimer]

"metric is so small compared to imperial" That's the kicker, I can easily transform 500g to 0.5 kg in my head. And that works for nearly all other units as well.

[@ibrahimfadel7711]

@Lassi Kinnunen For imperial and metric, you would need the density to find mass given volume i think

[@mishXY]

@Lassi Kinnunen 1L of water = 1kg = 1000cc = 1000ml = 1000g But in cooking there are reasons not to just measure volume in weight

[@robinjones9225]

Imperial is easier to scale down, because it's easy to half in your head (12oz ÷ 2 = 6oz) while metric is easier to scale up because it works in 10s, which is easier to multiply in your head (10 x 10 = 100 just add a 0 on the end). Also, because metric works in such small numbers (eg. 1g) its easier to use when you need accuracy, like with science.

[@terramerc733]

@@robinjones9225 are you... drunk? 200 grams ÷ 2 is 100 grams Same shit

[@kristofsoma4430]

@@mishXY im european too,but keep in mind that this only applies to 4°C water of course the change is small

[@russellswan8394]

As a non-American I have always loved that you give metric quantities in your videos! As a result, you are one of very few American food KZbinrs who I watch. There have been so many times I have given up watching a video when people start discussing things like meat cooking temperature, because they are using fahrenheit and I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. How insular do you need to be to not care that almost all of your potential audience cannot understand your video?

[@rossn646]

"We have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke." - Great Britain

[@consumerbot7980]

Also us in the UK: 'We use both systems lol'

[@asdfhuk6798]

@@consumerbot7980 and stones lol

[@t.dominey4150]

@@asdfhuk6798 yeah, we use a mix of metric and the really archaic sort of Imperial

[@lookoutforchris]

@@t.dominey4150 same in the US.

[@t.dominey4150]

@@lookoutforchris I've never seen stones or hundredweights used in America

[@cassandralesh8536]

The automotive industry went metric in the 80's My husband is a automotive technician and almost all of his tools are metric. Even drill bits and taps. He blames carpenters and plumbers for America not switching to metric.

[@chrisdoe2659]

I've owned three American cars that were made after 2000, and all of them used SAE hardware and tools.

[@fliteshare]

@@chrisdoe2659 None of 'm were DESIGNED after 2000. Thus, merely running out the machine tool inventory.

[@chrisdoe2659]

@@fliteshare I promise you that the Pontiac G6 was designed after 2000, and that it uses SAE hardware. It doesn't take over half a decade to run out your inventory.

[@fliteshare]

@@chrisdoe2659 It takes 40 years to wear out your MACHINE TOOLS. We are not talking cars here, we are talking car FACTORY. BTW, The Pontiac G6 was the el cheapo knock off of the Saab 9-3 thus all major parts are guaranteed metric.

[@FlyOverZone]

That's because cars are not assembled in one country one vehicle can have part contributions from 27 Nations. Building a car nowadays is an international affair

[@Gottenhimfella]

The subdivision argument only works for situations where you start with a convenient number, like one pound. If (say) a recipe calls for 5 oz, and you want to halve the recipe, you straight away have to deal with the 2.5/1.25/0.625 scenario. Same in the machine shop. In any case, machinists tend to work in decimal inches where fine tolerances are concerned, ie they're actually using base ten whenever it gets hard, so (once again) the subdivision argument is moot.

[@Maik-db4xm]

I exactly thought the same. And I thought, I am stupid. Basically you can define anything as a reference and subdivide by half. 1 cm can be conveniently subdivided: 1/2 of a cm, 1/4 of a cm, ... . What's the point here with the inch?

[@Tinman3187]

Yeees I was confused by this too. I often use fine measurements that go down to thousandths of an inch but sometimes the things I'm measuring come with millimeter definitions so I have to switch to that instead or suffer a conversion error. Honestly for most types of measurements it actually doesn't matter what system you use as long as you don't mix them up.

[@upphgm]

@@Maik-db4xm Also with the added benefit of mm, µm, nm and so on.

[@NormReitzel]

It's more likely that some people just Hate to learn anything new. It requires them to Think,l and as Daria © said, that makes their head hurt.

[@uoodSJW]

I think it's just a false argument, anyone working with inches converts it to 'thou' (base ten) anyway and knows 1/16" is 0.0625" (63 thou) off by heart.

[@rosem6604]

Having been born and lived my whole life in a metric country and then lived in the US for 4 years AND brought back home an American hubby I know the battle all too well (It's the worst when it comes to Fahrenheit vs. Celsius with us) . I can do the conversions roughly in my head so it's never been a problem in the US but I find metric easy, of course. Grams or millimeters are tiny but that's why there are bigger units and, to me, the accuracy is gr or mm is more easily understood. In cooking I prefer the cups/spoons measurements, actually, unless a specific weight is needed (like half a kilo of flour for bread, etc). Funnily, the one qualm with American measrements I have is with sticks of butter in recipes. We don't have those so I always have to go look how many grams a stick is. :)

[@sofiatgarcia3970]

I'm Canadian and we are on the metric system. As a cabinetmaker, we continue to use feet and inches in the shop, but when a project arrives in metric, rather than do conversions, we simply work in metric. We Canucks tend to be known for our willingness to compromise. :) Awesome video as always Adam.

[@wiltonater]

There's a joke that Canadians don't know how tall they are in meters.

[@sofiatgarcia3970]

Quite true in many cases. We are stuck between two worlds, metric and standard.

[@denelson83]

I am also Canadian, but I use the metric system _exclusively,_ as that is what I grew up with. And I certainly know my height in metric, 1.67 metres.

[@MagicCinema101]

I'm also from Canada, and depending on what I'm doing I switch from metric to imperial back to metric. If I'm doing construction work, imperial. If I'm dealing with electronic, imperial for wire gauge and metric for everything else.

[@ivan7453]

So which is easier to use, metric or the other rubbish?

[@MiniHos]

"Grams and millimetres are too small!" Yeah, they should make the SI units kilograms and metres instead... Wait.

[@archdukefranzferdinand567]

The standard is gram, hence why kilogram has the kilo prefix

[@maltabossXD]

@@archdukefranzferdinand567 no the si unit is kg

[@PvPsFinests]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Yeah, but the SI standard unit is still kilogram regardless of the root and prefix.

[@brianclemensen3313]

@@archdukefranzferdinand567 Nah, the base unit is the KILO gram, eg the unit that is defined by physics. The gram is defined as 1/1000 kg

[@Pat1100-z7u]

Don't forget hektrograms (hg) and decimeter (dm)

[@capersmith]

Canada converted to the metric system in the early 70s, but, out meat and produce is still advertised in imperial measurements because it makes things seem less expensive the advertising in metric.

[@wherethewildthingsarenot]

All my meat and produce had both listed. Lbs are in small writing under the kgs.

[@drprogensteinphp]

When shopping for building supplies in Canada, you still but 1" nails, 2"X4" lumber, 4'x8' sheets of plywood, drywall, etc. No explanation needed for this, as the answer is pretty obvious. As a Canadian in his mid 60's, I would say most of us use metric about half the time. The main reason for this is that as citizens we have no choice in the matter, and we are directly influenced by what's presented to us. For instance; The weather network and all weather forecasts are metric, and all speed limit signage on roadways are metric. If someone asks me for the current temp outside, or how far I've driven my car, I'll give them the answer in metric. If someone asks me my weight, height, or what temperature to bake a cake, I'll always answer in Imperial (lbs, feet, inches, etc). I have noticed that some younger Canadians will use metric more frequently than those of us brought up and educated prior to the metric system being adopted in Canada (pre 1974-ish).

[@rime1585]

We also still use Fahrenheit in cooking for some reason, I'd guess because we're still mostly cooking with American recipes.

[@PockASqueeno]

Kind of like how the British still use imperial measurements for distance. Speedometers in British cars still have mph, not km/h.

[@toisitrappings6483]

​@@drprogensteinphp Construction materials are starting to become metric as well. My home is built entirely in metric measurements.

[@RadiusFive]

Coming to the US, it took me a while to realize that cups and spoons were not what I had in my kitchen cupboards and drawers, but actual units of measure with precise meaning.

[@LythaWausW]

I cook with metric cuz I'm in Germany. German cookbooks however use "teaspoon" and "eatingspoon" as measurements, and since measuring spoons do not generally exist in Germany, they want you to go to your silverware drawer and pull out a small spoon or a big spoon, and then estimate what a half or a quarter of those should be. There is also the funny measurement, "knife tip" where you just put a tiny amount, what fits on the tip of a knife.

[@Milesco]

Not very precise! 😄 As you apparently know, we (Americans) have sets of measuring spoons for tablespoons and teaspoons, and various fractions thereof. (E.g., half, quarter, eighth.) A tablespoon is 15 ml, while a teaspoon is 5 ml.

[@hxhdfjifzirstc894]

But zee trains! Zay are on time!

[@tuomollo]

Yes but this is only for the ingredients that are not that critical. If your teaspoon is slightly larger than mine, you will end up with a slightly more salty soup but it's not a big deal.

[@hollerinwoman]

@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 Haha, you got that right! Love those Germans! :) And their food!

[@jeffreymontgomery7516]

Oh, but you miss out on adding a pinch... and a tad... and "about".... and "sprinkle"... that some American cookbooks have. "Add about a handful of...." "Add a pinch of salt" "Add a half cup of oil, and a tad of Worcestershire sauce" "Sprinkle some...." etc.

[@Trixxine]

I will buy milk in pints, but use ml in recipes, I will buy petrol in litres, but measure consumption in miles per gallon, I will measure my height in feet and inches, but distances in miles, I weigh myself in stones and lbs but buy meat by the kg... You kind of have to be able to go back and forth in both if you live in Britain. But fluid ounces can jog on.

[@alexanderkupke920]

Isn't a pint actually the only measure that matters going to the pub? 😉

[@simonsimone6050]

How did I miss this video?!?! I was a graduate student at the University of Georgia's history department and remember attending one of Mihm's talks on this exact subject. I've been an early Adam fan and thought I'd seen all of your videos. This was a real treat. So glad that the weird pyramidology made it into this video! I was worried it would get cut because it is just genuinely bonkers.

[@Urza9814]

Same in the US IME. I use millimeters, inches, feet, meters, miles...cups, liters, gallons...both pounds and kg depending on what I'm measuring...almost always Fahrenheit though, Celcius kinda sucks for daily use. It's also strange that gas and milk are imperial while water and soda are metric...probably because milk and gas aren't being exported as often? (At least not in those quantities/containers?)

[@alexanderkupke920]

@@Urza9814 I always wondered about soda cans having both units printed on. What makes sense about Fahrenheit? That's temperatures no one can really relate to without beeing used to it. In celsius you can at least say 0 °C is the freezing point of water, while 100 °C is the boiling point. So about everyone ahold have at least some idea what those feel like (well, maybe better not for the boiling water)

[@Urza9814]

@@alexanderkupke920 Eh, Celcius isn't crazy or anything, I just don't think its reference points are particularly useful in daily life. Fahrenheit's reference points, AIUI, were originally the coldest thing he could find and human body temperature. So in most of the inhabited parts of our planet, temperatures below 0F are pretty rare. They happen, but when they do it's REALLY FUCKIN COLD. Same for temperatures above 100F -- they happen, but when they do people start literally dying from the heat. In Celcius, that range is something like -18 to 38....maybe round it off to -20 to 40, still kinda ugly. And each degree C is larger so the temperature is less precise unless you're giving decimals (though to be fair, one degree F of difference doesn't matter to most people, although it might make a difference for something like setting a thermostat). And if you measure your temperature to be much over 100F, you've got a fever, but in C that line is 38 degrees. And how often in daily life do you actually care about whether something is exactly at the boiling/freezing point of water? You can usually tell that just by looking at it. And for baking we usually use Fahrenheit temps like 350, 400, 450...maybe a 425 or something, but always a round 50 or 25. In Celcius...well, I don't use it so I'm not sure, but I've checked a few online lists of common oven temperatures and can't see what the pattern is. I know 180 is common from watching cooking shown, but above that is it a mix of 20 and 30 degree increments? So I think Fahrenheit gives much nicer numbers for all of those uses...and I can't think of any other common daily uses of temperatures...

[@EverydayAwes0me]

“Dividing by 1/2” = Multiplying by 2

[@EckieM8]

You should become a math teacher

[@zackiechan2601]

Who cares?

[@rauha38]

Yes! Long live accurate mathematical wording!

[@紺野-純子]

me if I dont see this comment: divide by 1/2 (0.5) oh that's easy

[@None17555]

Idiot

[@thux2828]

Just like how some fields have organically gone metric, if metrification were legislated, the change will not immediately affect some fields. In Australia, we went metric in the 1970s , yet most people still talk about human height in feet and inches.

[@PTEC3D]

I was lucky, went through the last years of Primary school learning the "new metric system" and so I got both, so I'm mentally bilingual in metric/imperial and also (family having emigrated here in the mid 60s when I was around 8-9yo also mentally multiingual in English/French/German/Italian because these were the people most evident in the small country towns we lived. I can still think naturally in English und Deutsch but I can only speak English naturally now. Same with measurements, I tend to bounce them from one system to the other in my head but I've stuck to metric in the kitchen and my workshop because otherwise I might crash a Mars lander or something like that... 😂

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

In Norway we use inches, to describe construction wood in speech. 2×4 = 50×100 raw cut = 48×98 fine cut 2×6 = 50×150 raw cut = 48×148 fine cut 2×8 = 50×200 raw cut = 48×198 fine cut Some other dimensions have inches assigned to them, but other dimensions are more common (or exclusively) referred to using mm.

[@Muritaipet]

I've metricated in almost everything. I even think of my height as 175. *Except for baby weights. Cant shake that one.* 9 1/2 pounds is big. And according to the midwife, my fault as the father

[@kenoliver8913]

Most OLDER Australians still talk about height in feet. Younger ones only ever use cm. There's a group of middle-agers who mix them up ("My nephew Jimmy's grown 2cm since I last saw him - he must be over five feet high now ...")

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

@@Muritaipet 9 1/2 pounds is tiny. I was initially labeled to be twins. However I later turned up to weigh like twins (combined). More than 11 pounds.

[@cartallus]

The only place where the imperal system is superior is in music:«All those miles between us, i'm thinking of you» VS «All those kilometers between us, i'm thinking of you»

[@shaynegadsden]

You would probably just say k's in that case not sure about other countries but here when someone refers to a distance we say 200 k's not 200 kilometers

[@chkpnt-fq5rv]

Yeah and "You load sixteen metric tons and what do you get" doesn't quite have the same ring to it

[@fastnbulbouss]

And try to imagine Kilometer Davis......doesn't sound as cool.

[@fliteshare]

@@chkpnt-fq5rv It would be 14.8 tonnes, no need to refer to "metric" after the switch.

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

And if someone were to use "all those klicks between us" it might terrify you

[@ciangargan]

I live in Ireland. It's like listening to a different language when I watch American cooking shows. There are so many different units of weight and volume.

[@kitefan1]

I've never seen gas mark 3 in the USA. Fortunately the kitchen in the Irish house we rented had one of those nifty electric water boiling kettles where the pot sits into the stand so I could have tea and toast before thinking. 😃 turning on the electric outlets with a switch takes me a while too.

[@oscargr_]

Additionally, a cup of flour does not have the same weight as a cup of water. Or worse, the amount of flour in a cup depends greatly on how densely you pack it. There is no alternative for grams for anything in cooking, with the possible exception of eggs.

[@KaitouKaiju]

@@oscargr_ Ounces (not fluid ounces) works perfectly fine here on Earth as a substitute for grams

[@oscargr_]

@@KaitouKaiju Though what you say is true (I should have expressed more carefully that there is no alternative to using weights..) , your answer also makes clear why ounces may not be a better alternative.

[@krombopulos_michael]

It used to be us doing that too. You still see vertiges of it when older people talk about bodyweight in stone.

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

I've never weighed anything in my kitchen, so I don't care what system you weigh with. My measurements are "a pinch", "a lot", etc...

[@victoralejandrotrimmerestr3672]

yeah for personal kitchen use its better to cook with measures you know and are familiar depending on where you live, but metric is more precise so when you need to cook thousands of diches with consistency and precision (like restaurants) go metric

[@fakecubed]

Clearly you're not a baker.

[@bernhardreitshammer1]

Sounds like a world I'd like to live in!

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

@@fakecubed How'd you guess? ;) Though thruthfully a lot of baking recipes still work even in non-exact amounts you just need to get the right consistency.

[@jsodkksols2715]

Jasper van Heycop you have to be a mom

[@MrDeadhead1952]

On metric and cooking, the shots used to illustrate the use of customary measures for packaged foods in America showed the opposite since the items shown had dual weights Ib and oz's and metric. For a Brit who uses both metric and imperial recipes the most irritating thing about American cookbooks is the insistence on using cups and spoons as measurements which forces me to do conversions regardless of whether I'm using imperial or metric measures.

[@bradleyfleming2434]

As children (born, raised and living in Australia) we were taught both cups/spoons and millilitres. I know I didn't even think of them as imperial/metric but just that a cup, teaspoon and tablespoon were easy and common cooking "units" of 250 ml, 5ml and 20ml.

[@HMJ66]

It just forced me to buy measuring cups and spoons. Not a big deal for things like liquids or powdered ingredients like flour, but what *does* grind my gears is when you get recipes that call for "2 cups of chicken breast" or "1/2 cup of cheese" WHO MEASURES SOLID INGREDIENTS WITH A VOLUMETRIC MEASUREMENT?! "Good morning shopkeep, 2 gallons of your finest steak please!"

[@HighGeneralDawg]

Be me thinking that i will never have to see my history professor ever again Then Adam posts this video

[@najif7644]

Was he a good professor?

[@gentle6400]

Was he, my dood?

[@HighGeneralDawg]

He was pretty good and he knew history like the back of his hand but i was never a fan of his picky grading on written assignments

[@MarkARoutt]

Maybe write better.

[@doublevendetta]

Waiting to see Adam comment on this thread. 😂

[@amanatee]

One thing I love about these videos is it's exemplary in showing how important our educational institutions are all across the country, if for nothing else but for historical records and helping us, as a people and culture, understand WHERE WE ARE in terms of progress or change. It's very easy to forget how important these educational pillars are in our communities and they desperately need to be supported and defended.

[@LizLFey]

I feel like the imperial system is only more intuitive to people who grew up with it. To me, trying to think about what inches and ounces are is crazy. But the idea of thinking large numbers of grams or even in decimals seems natural and not a problem.

[@The1234567890ashish]

@@nharber9837 paste this in the main comment section!

[@thejackimonster9689]

To me it's really useful to know that 1L of water (and most other drinkable fluids) will weight about 1kg. You don't have to calculate that. But you already have a feeling about how much weight it will be to carry a bunch of bottles (which are 1L, 750ml or 500ml).

[@daala6698]

@@nharber9837 I say the idea is not to convert. Just think whatever you are working on. If you need to convert, there's the formula or the chart. When I lived in Europe I could convert distance and temperature but I never did learn to think in Celcius. I am still working on that. The money was close enough not to worry, just think in Euros. Later find out you have extra, NP. I am getting better at grams in the kitchen. Liters of water. Just dont worry about cups and pints. Yes, I can adopt this too. that's my motto.

[@seriously1184]

@@nharber9837 Love your comment !

[@recurrenTopology]

@@nharber9837 The difference with regards to backing is more the difference between using volumetric and gravimetric measurements for a recipe than the result of using metric as opposed to imperial. The norm of expecting access to a kitchen scale, while more common amongst metric recipes, is not intrinsic to the metric system. An imperial baking recipe using ounces (in weight) and pounds would be just as reproducible as one using milligrams, and a metric baking recipe using milliliters would be just as unpredictable as one using cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.

[@bing3253]

I grew up with both. As a kid in Australia (in the 60's), I learnt British imperial measurements, then in 1974 we transferred to metric - it was a tad confusing at first, but luckily I was still at school, especially the temperature, as it was kind of cool in summer to break the old 100 degrees Fahrenheit (which happened regularly for weeks at a time) only to be replaced with 36.8 degrees celcius (or centigrade - same thing). It just didn't mean the same thing. To this day I still use both, I will still work out measurements in my mind (as for timber), that I want 1.8 metres of 4" x 2"

[@simonsenaviev7541]

Americans: **uses pounds** Me: well... Ok th... Americans: **also uses tons** Me: **Visible confusion**

[@TommyAngelo1337]

And it's not even the same kind of tons. Why Americans why?

[@ncooty]

Which tons? 2,000 lbs or 1,000 kgs?

[@JW-be8wf]

If you look at our (US) dietary habits, we start off in pounds and after a few decades of fast food in our stomachs, tonnes make more sense.

[@ChronoWarrior1996]

@@ncooty isn't a kilo about 2 pounds

[@phamdinhhoang1998]

Enchanter 2.25 something..

[@Betterhose]

3:04 "When metric advocates suddenly show up and start POUNDing on the table." I see what you did there...

[@ivan7453]

And they inch away?

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

Then they trip on there FEET on a Yard rake

[@r4ls3i60]

So around the world they kilogram on a door?

[@ivan7453]

@@r4ls3i60 That's exactly why all around the world we measure wieght by the kilogram and pound on the door.

[@zacterztx]

God, the reply section. Y'all just take my like. My humor is miles away.

[@jarrad2000]

I think a big precision pro of metric recipes is that we weigh dry/solid ingredients per weight, not per volume. So regardless of packing / density (think of fine vs kosher salt) it always comes out the same. Liquids are usually measured per volume but since most cooking liquids are very similar to water you can also weigh them. One liter of cold water weighs roughly one kilogram, half a liter 500 grams etc.

[@KaitouKaiju]

American recipes that call for weight measure in ounces (which is different from fluid ounces for volume)

[@mrwiggiewoo]

That's dang confusing! So much more work -I'll stick with the American way... Simpler

[@petervogt8309]

@@mrwiggiewoo weight measure in ounces (which is different from fluid ounces for volume) - yes, clearly that's much simpler

[@Fasand]

US cups, tsp etc. are just a lazy convenience which indeed is quite convenient. Using metric all my life (and until the end of it), I've used tsp/tbsp/cups to measure stuff because you don't need batteries for them. However, weight will absolutely always be better for the simple reason it's consistent. Measuring something like flour in cups is atrocious (maybe a strong word) because it eliminates all consistency and precision of the recipe, which should serve as "an algorithm" to cook a meal and have it come out the same way every time. That's not to say you can't measure flour in ml and you'll definitely see that on many European measuring jugs. Volume is good shortcut if you don't have a scale but weight is the way to go (without getting into how convenient it can also be) when you have a scale. 200ml, 240ml, or 300ml of flour can be the same weight depending on how you scoop it up, but that weight will be constant and the effect within a recipe will be constant

[@davidcramb5793]

@@mrwiggiewoo , it would be if US imperial measures were the same as UK imperial ones. I've messed up a few US recipes by using British measures. E.G. a US gallon is only 4 litres, in Britain, it's 4 1/2 l. It's the same with cups.

[@minidisque]

how often do you really open a cookbook and think to yourself "i'm gonna make 1/16 the quantity of food in this recipe"?

[@brenthooton3412]

I clicked on a video about the metric system and found out it had exactly 1,000 comments, or one kilocomment (1.000 kc).

[@superandreanintendo]

Omg ahah. KZbin should implement those measurements just to mess with those imperial fanatics

[@superandreanintendo]

Anyway it should be 1000c = 1kc

[@sskofu]

yeah, that's why it's called 1K comment XD

[@Alkuf100]

Ihsan Maulana theyre startong to get it these guys

[@amgoose9032]

Now it's 2.1 kc

[@JamieDoyle8]

The UK might be even weirder than the US - it's metric except when it isn't. If you ask someone who grew up in the UK their height or weight, they'll probably use feet and inches, and stones and pounds. Clothing measurements are usually in inches too. Speed limits and distances on road signs are still exclusively in miles. It's fairly common to see weights in pounds, especially at small greengrocers or butchers' shops. Newspapers still give temperatures in Fahrenheit on occasion, especially during summer (it makes a hot day sound hotter as the number's bigger than the Celsius equivalent). Supermarkets often sell 454g bags of coffee, and milk and beer is still sold in (imperial, not US) pints. My personal favourite is the social distancing guidance - it's officially two metres, but it's common to see 6ft on signs too (which is less than 2m, but the actual conversion isn't round)

[@hebneh]

People who have feet and inches in their cultural backgrounds tend to hang onto them, I think because in the metric system there's no intermediate unit of measurement comparable to the foot. Thus it hangs on for some things, like people's heights.

[@bobv5806]

I was surprised when I went to England to find that they are not completely metric, but an interesting mix.

[@Milesco]

@@hebneh : Exactly! 🙂

[@Milesco]

@@bobv5806 : Yeah, as an American it kinda annoys me to hear people denigrate my country and say every other country in the world has gone metric, when in fact one of our own closest friends, Great Britain, has clearly NOT gone metric! Certainly not completely, at least, which is what all the America-bashing pro-metric fanatics imply. 😠

[@Vysair]

No wonder former british colony were like this too

[@andrewstambaugh8030]

As a mechanical engineer, naval architect, fabricator, and now machine mechanic, I enjoy watching people's take on the US empirical system. Yours was one of the better videos covering this - well done. I was really glad you brought up the base numbering system. That is one of the most commonly cited reasons to move to the metric system. In fact, I setup my hobby cnc router in metric - because I design things from scratch on the computer and whole & decimal numbers are much easier to TYPE than having to constantly convert fractions! (but that also means when I measure something built in imperial, I have to convert it) At work, I use both: the machine shop has plenty machines that are built in imperial units and plenty in metric. I have to have tool sets for both, and even more annoying - some machines have both on them! (but every vehicle I have owned at home is metric, including my motorcycles, so I have almost exclusively metric tools at home) So why metric or imperial? Numbering system/base counting system: *So the real problem here isn't that imperial doesn't match and metric does, it's that we chose to use a base 10 numbering system that is really limited when relating to reality! - no matter the 'size' of your measurements. Metric fits well only because we use the base 10 system for our numbers, but as soon as you start trying to apply it to physical things its problems start to show: *binary: electronics: base 2 - the numbers the computer operates in and the numbers we read are indivisible bases, so you get lumpy matchups. If we counted in a base 2, 4, 8,16, 32 numbering system, it's divisible by base 2, making mental conversion a snap and saving a lot of computer calculations. *dividing/fractions: think of physically measuring things. What's one of the most common methods? some kind of a string that is either marked or compared to a measure afterward. To get half, you hold the ends together and pull the bend until it comes tight (even), 1/4 - just fold it again. Now think about how you would get that to line up on base 10? give me 1/7 of the rope length...er yeah, you now have one of those measurement puzzle brain teasers. Scalability: Overall the metric wins here with it's prefix system, but it does get stolen/adopted for Imperial use. (eg kpsi commonly used for 1000psi, or frequently shortened to "ksi" and read aloud as "K S I") *each have places/applications where the 'size' of the base unit either scales nicely or badly, which is to say the counting units match nicely/in whole units in the range being used. *the ideal is to have the counting unit size that is - large enough to easily count without excessive digits (don't weigh a car in mg or oz) - but small enough to emphasize differences and avoid needing fractions/subdivisions *example: machinists like the imperial system in America, not just because they are used to it. Schools teach both systems (bi-lingual?), so most machinists now know both. So why imperial? -Machinists work in decimal (so number base is not a problem) - (big reason) The size of the units 1/1000" .001" or "thou" is a very convenient size for dealing with tolerances/part fitment the accuracy of most machinist work. eg "3 thou" is easy to count and rounding to meaningful sizes is easy, "it's within 1 thou". Partial below that scale are insignificant. In metric, you'd be counting in microns, which is just a little bit too fine so you end up having more digits to write/deal with and significant and insignificant within the same digit, so you have to decide if it's significant instead of it being self evident. This breaks down when crossing into ultra-high precision work (which is typically done in metric), but that is outside what most machine shops are even capable of doing and almost a field of it's own. Consistency: Metric doesn't change names a whole bunch because of the prefix system. Easy win here. Mass, Force, and Volume: Yes I grouped all of those - for good reason Metric wins hands down. Size/scales line up for easy use both at medical fine measurements and at common purchases like drinks and fuel all without needing to know how such and such a name converts to another. But the biggest problem for the imperial system is ambiguity, giving 2 different things the same name, when there is possible crossover of use. Imperial examples of bad things: lbs... is that lbs force or lbs mass? Oz... is that weight or fluid? (which is why everyone who cooks starts to read the metric measurement instead) So now a really big reason the Imperial measurement system is still a thing: cheap vs quality materials: *overlapping what you stated about economies and production, America got very good at producing medium-good grade metals - inexpensively and fast/high production (That's also why the scrap price for steel is so low). Places like china tend to export low quality material with lots of inconsistencies. *So when the standards for material quality were being studied and set, America was the primary leader at that time. *So America is very good that meeting/exceeding the standards of that time. (but kinda timelocked to that, because why build an expensive modern plant when so many med-grade plants are cheaply available to buy that would immediately start turning out a consistent profit) *If you want inexpensive but reliable metal you can trust with good properties, America has the world market beat at that. If you want exotic super metals at exotic super metal prices, places like japan, korea, etc specialize in that. If you want the cheapest you can buy, China has the world beat at that. *The world's 2 biggest producer markets are China and America, so it should be little surprise that most items come from china, because if you are competing to sell something for a profit, then you need the price to be low. And if you are selling in a market where above cheap quality is demanded, then most metal things are going to be American, because the quality can be trusted. Example: as a naval architect, I'd be working on ships from all over the world at all kinds of different price ranges ($60k to $3million). The entire design would be metric, except the steering column and possibly prop shafts. Why? You can't afford to have them fail and need the size to be reasonable or related parts get more expensive. So no cheapo Chinese metal that could have large defects/be very out of material spec, but you also don't want to pay for super expensive miracle Japanese metal, so you end up with buying American mid-high grade stainless at efficiently mass produced prices. So you end up with an Imperial/American size on a metric design.

[@BronzeTheSling]

Wow, I learned a lot from you comment. Thanks for the in-depth insight! You remind me of This Old Tony. Do you know his channel?

[@andrewstambaugh8030]

​@@BronzeTheSling Thanks. This Old Tony is great. If you enjoy him, definitely check out Project Farm and Smarter Every Day.

[@angrydragonslayer]

I still remember my first US job (manufacturing consultant) in a friends norfolk shop where they were primarily turning prop shafts for yachts At ~150 mil, it was a 50/50 whether it was metric or imperial and at 350, it was almost exclusively metric with a certain steel specified either from sweden, japan or germany.

[@eggsaladsandwhiches]

I'd say most American machine shops are accustomed to going back and forth. I imagine many in Europe are as well. For example, I work a lot with aluminum extrusion which comes in sized like 20mm^2 or 80mm^2, but it routinely gets cut into 1ft lengths, or is milled to fit a half inch slot. The American car industry is also notorious among mechanics for randomly alternating between 10mm and 1/4in fittings.

[@tc2241]

In engineering we heavily use metric, imperial mainly comes in when discussing human interaction. Tolerance or thresholds in imperial is a great way to get your blueprints thrown in the trash.

[@techmage89]

Not always true. Many shops still require drawings in inches, in both the US, and in China.

[@robertromero8692]

You're overgeneralizing. When I did my senior mechanical engineering project, I soon learned that the real world still heavily used imperial units, unlike the emphasis on metric in academia. More recently, when I took the Professional Engineering exam, almost ALL the problems used imperial units. That would not be the case if your claim was true.

[@obiwankenobi8764]

@@robertromero8692 I was taught the imperial system and the metric in elementary school (american school in china), but then moved back to europe and only used the metric. So I understand how the imperial works, just don't remember it well enough to be able to use it. So I would like top know if you would prefer metric for engineering purposes as I feel switching between units is easier or are you so steadfast with all the different units that it doesn't matter. I just feel, that for me personally the metric system or better the SI units are easier to use.

[@robertromero8692]

@@obiwankenobi8764 I readily switch back and forth between imperial and metric, depending on the circumstances. Metric is much easier when converting to another unit. In everyday use, such as measuring with a tape measure, imperial is perfectly fine. When I remodeled my kitchen, all units were imperial. No one in this country will sell you cabinets that are "x number of centimeters". You're given the dimensions in imperial.

[@obiwankenobi8764]

@@robertromero8692 Figured it was something like that.

[@themaster9601]

I love these journalistic videos you do! You clearly have fun making them and they are more enjoyable than your recipes even!

[@hannahmerlino2462]

The Master I’m pretty sure he’s a journalism professor! He mentioned it in a different video, so that would make a lot of sense

[@brandonkendrick1925]

I also like these videos as well. Very well composed adam

[@simonbor77]

I think you are missing one important thing about metric - we have sub-units. If we are to divide main units (like meter) into smaller chunks, we switch to sub-units (centimeters in case of length units). 1/8 of meter is 12,5cm.. if it's not enough, we go lower - 125mm. Same goes for weight or volume. You insist on converting imperial to metric, like you try to get (for example) one gallon of a product, but using metric units - this is the mistake. We would start from full metric unit (4 liters instead instead of gallon as an expected result). You convert units instead of sticking to one system.

[@Gottenhimfella]

@@saberswordsmen1 And a fifth of a yard is? Or a third of a gallon? You seem to be somewhat selective in the examples you choose. Easy divisibility is an occasional "nice to have", surely not an ever-present "must have", and would be more persuasive if your system stuck to one such base. Perhaps 24, or 60? But that would require changing the number system to work on the same base. Obviously we could choose to do arithmetic in base 24 or 60. However that would entail a huge effort (and a dislocation from the info and skills base of the past millennia of humans working with and recording in base 10), all for a gain which is an occasional "nice to have". So the metric system goes the other way, and changes all the bases to match that of the number system. It's a compromise. Like everything we do. And every country on earth, with a couple of exceptions, has tried it, and will never go back.

[@Gottenhimfella]

@@michaeltres Straw man argument. You attack a point I didn't make, and wouldn't agree with if someone else tried to. The post of mine you seek to refute readily acknowledged that easy divisibility (with whole-number answers) was not a feature the metric system could claim. I was instead pointing out that the e-d claims made for the inch gallon pound system were typically selective, and furthermore, that the feature did not rank high on the list of essential features, of which the highest would surely be that the measuring system should use the same base as the counting system used for arithmetic, which as of this writing is universally 10. Your "easy divisibility" argument should be directed at changing the base of the counting system. That has undeniable merit, and I guess hexadecimal is probably, in today's world, the way to go. But until and unless you win that argument, the other one is entirely moot.

[@Gottenhimfella]

@@michaeltres And you don't even succeed in attacking the wrong point. I didn't choose one number as you claim. I chose two, and the other works well in SOME US situations, just not the galllon/quart, or the pound/ounce. One more point: in the US, do you talk of thirds of a second? Sixteenths of a dollar? I don't think so. You are using base 10 without complaint or difficulty when it happens along -- and in metalworking machine shops, where it is optional, it is preferred.

[@phillies4eva]

In an engineering standpoint you'll almost never switch to a subunit within a design. If you're using millimeters you will stay in millimeters for the entire design. If you're in inches you'll stay in inches. Metric really shines when it comes to science or relating completely different concepts. Example: 1 Watt is 1 joule per second and also 1 Amp and 1 Volt

[@ActualDumBatcha]

This is the longest comment length per comment I have seen.

[@charliesimpson2974]

I'm 70 y/o. My Dad owned a hardware store and I began going to work with him every Saturday when I was 10. I learned to recognize the size of bolts and nuts at a glance, could tell a 3/8 from a 5/16, a 4d nail from a 6d. Learned how to mix tints into paints, measure and cut glass, and cut and thread pipe. I'm at a loss looking at a metric nut, have to try 2 or 3 sockets to find a fit. Too old for it to matter anymore.

[@bgdgdgdf4488]

Funny thing is, I'm from central europe, a completely metric state and for things like nuts and bike tire sizes, we actually often use inches like you do (3/8, we call it "cola")

[@emanueljmartins]

Hey Adam, both you and your guest forgot to mention one BIG advantage of the metric system which is the interoperability between different measures around common materials, such as water. One liter of water weighs 1 kilogram, at sea level and takes up 1000 cubic centimeters. This is priceless when you work in a scientific environment and if you were to experience its use in cooking you'd realise how easy some conversions between liquids (volume) and solids (weight) become.

[@jayteegamble]

1 pint of water weighs 1 pound as well, at least in the US Customary system. "A pint's a pound the world round" was the saying my teacher taught me. (also, 1 liter of water takes up 1000 cubic centimeters (or milliliters, as ccs are also known))

[@emanueljmartins]

@@jayteegamble , I'm sorry to inform you that one pint weighs 1.04375 pounds. So your teacher was more than 4% wrong. That's the problem with the non-metric systems. They're just not designed for precision. They are the systems for the "around" in all of us, which is fine for cooking but not for putting ships in space. That's why NASA, JPL, engineers, and scientists, use exclusively the metric system - except when planning products that are to be sold to folks with that cultural bias towards the imperial system.

[@cleementine]

@@jayteegamble 1000 cubic centemetres = 10 cubic metres, and I can assure you that 1 litre--which is slightly larger than a U.S. quart and slightly smaller than an Imperial quart--is nowhere near 10 cubic metres.

[@andrewritchie1380]

@@cleementine Actually 1000 cubic cm = 0.01^3 *1000 = 0.001 cubic metres = 1 litre, hence why there is 1000 litres in a cubic meter

[@jayteegamble]

@@cleementine A cubic centimeter is the same thing as a mL. There are 1000mLs in a liter.

[@KaeganThornhillTheCyberRaven]

UK: Ha you Americans are still not using Metric? - Get on my Level. Also UK: I have lost 1.3 Stone since Christmas of last year -- so my Diet is going quit well. Edit: 💂👸🇬🇧

[@KaeganThornhillTheCyberRaven]

1.3 Stone = 18.2 pounds Edit: Yes, 1 Stone = 14 pounds

[@thingonometry-1460]

Plot twist, actual stones

[@szven2567]

@@thingonometry-1460 little stones? big stones?

[@KaeganThornhillTheCyberRaven]

@@szven2567 Little Bitty Stones.

[@pablerarav9016]

Yeah, still using Stone is hilarious. We use both systems in Canada - nobody uses fahrenheit except for ovens and old people, but most people still measure their weight and height with imperial units. I can imagine eventually weighing myself with kilos and whatnot, but like Adam pointed out, there are a lot of advantages to cooking with the old measurements. Can't imagine getting rid of my cups or teaspoons anytime soon.

[@theurzamachine]

The imperial system was redefined in terms of the metric system such that an inch is exactly 2.54 cm. Technically, the imperial system is metric; just with extra groupings.

[@chaklee435]

the imperial system is technically metric only in a bureaucratic sense. imo, the most useless kind of technically correct.

[@cisium1184]

No.

[@canbo7643]

Technically they’re two different systems of measurement.

[@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece]

Speak for yourself heathen. I use the thumb width of my emperor for reference.

[@Ned-Ryerson]

This may have been pointed out by somebody before, but nevertheless, here goes: I grew up metric, mainly in the German-speaking world, but even there, you will find different approaches. For example, in Germany, you would ask for quantities of grams at the meat counter, but in Austria, it would be quantities of dekagrams (which I found very weird when I moved there), and the Austrians tended to call them "dag", which is actually the official abbreviation (as I just found out). Another example were drinks cans, which the French labelled in centilitres, rather than millilitres.

[@vb2162]

I have no idea what a dekagram is. But yeah here in Australia (not Austria) we use millilitres on drink cans and bottles. I found it a bit weird in parts of Europe they used centiletres. But the good thing about metric... I knew exactly how much that was. You just move the decimal place. Also a bit weird here in Australia we probably more commonly talk about people's height in feet and inches for some reason.

[@RiggieHeartland]

@@vb2162 Deka means 10, so it's 10 grams. You'll also find it in the word "decade". But it's very rarely used, the only other country I've heard of using it is Poland. In Denmark some drink cans are labelled in centiliters, some in milliliters. Btw. litre is British English - liter is American English.

[@vb2162]

@@RiggieHeartland thanks. And yes in Australia we use British English being the propper English and because we are still part of the Commonwealth.

[@joeyhardin5903]

In england, almost all drinks are measured in millilitres, except liquor which is in centilitres for some reason, and milk which is in pints. Also if you're in a pub, beer is in pints but if youre in a supermarket, it's measured in millilitres despite the fact that it's still sold in pints (the cans just say 568ml)

[@_LifeOfReilly]

When I was in elementary school, way back in the late 1970s, here in California we were taught Imperial and Metric simultaneously. It was considered “inevitable” that the US would soon be making the switch and they wanted us to be prepared. Let me tell you; when learning them side-by-side as a child, the Imperial system seems ludicrous.

[@chadpunte1731]

which is an important life lesson. If something is appears that simple and people ignore it, it is actually not that simple. Depending on application, depends on which system I use.

[@NotASummoner]

@@chadpunte1731 I think it isn't simple in countries who don't mainly use metric as you're required to live with another system of measurement. If you live in continental Europe you go to the store and buy 2 l of milk, 900 g of chicken, 2 kg of pasta etc. Easy and simple if you never have to use anything else.

[@chadpunte1731]

@@NotASummoner 900 grams of chicken. lol

[@flixelgato1288]

@@chadpunte1731 are you scared of numbers bigger than 100? What’s wrong with the number 900? Please I just don’t understand.

[@chadpunte1731]

@@flixelgato1288 Terrified, in fact. Do you just like grind up the chicken and put it in a measuring cup? Why are you like this? Do you enjoy scaring people?

[@Mokkisjeva]

I'm working in a machineshop and you're right. The metric system becomes "ugly" some times with all the decimals. But that ONLY happens when the parts have been designed with the freedom units in mind. We have our set of screws M6 -> M8 -> M10 and so on. When converting from freedom units thats when the metric becomes ugly. What happens with the screws when they become small? 1/4-20 UNC is about the size of M6 Smaller? Note how the naming changes. #8-32 UNC similar size in metric? M4.... When you think of a #8-32 screw, us metric folks don't think of 4.166mm screw because we don't even use those screws. So changing to metric would eventually phase out freedom bolts and screws too. I know this was about the ease of use when halving, but you don't even follow your own "logic" when it comes to screws. Look at this sequence for UNC when halving the size: 1" -8 -> 1/2" -13 -> 1/4" -20 -> #5 -40 ...... ye, great sytem.

[@ViewerAbuser]

Yes, it only gets ugly when you convert from one system to another. The argument made at 4:13 is totally invalid because there's nothing preventing you from representing measurements in terms of fractions. Freedom units are just as ugly when you convert them to a decimal representation.

[@user-by7hj4dj9s]

@@baronvonslambert kinda yeah, a standars M24 screw has a pitch of 3 mm, that is the highest pitch of a M24 bolt yeah its 24mm over the threads, and comes in many pitches (3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.75, 0.5 and 0.35 most of those are not common at all like the 0.35 to 0.75) sucks i guess if your machine is inch. the Drill needed for internal threads of M24x3.0 (the standard common one) is 21mm, 3mm less than the outside very easy, that applies to all M series threads. Most common American bolt is UNC there is also UNF 5/16 UNC threads have a pitch of 18 treads per inch (TPI) and 5/16 UNF have a pitch of 24 TPI easy enough right. now lets head over to the chart to find the drill. that have a drill size F for UNC and drill size I for UNF. 1" UNC is pitch 8. Now if you want to calculate the drill size it is also take away the pitch from the outer diameter but now you need to split 1inch into decimal and take that off the outer diameter you can maybe do that in your head. With 1" this is pretty easy. but say you have 1/2 UNC pitch of 13 using the calculator that gets me a drill of 0.4231" AKA 27/64 inch

[@RC-bl2pm]

@@SimonWoodburyForget it nullifies their use. If everything divides/multiplies by tens you can work directly on it without a calculator or doing any fractions. Just move the decimal. whats 42.8% of a mile? I dunno, but 1km=1000m so .428 x 1000=428m

[@RC-bl2pm]

@@SimonWoodburyForget sorry i missed the point of the question...it has to go to the smaller unit...what is 42.8% of a mile in feet... try it again. This will illustrate the torture in going between units in the imperial system. Miles into feet..yards into inches. In metric they are as you so unnecessarily pointed out just decimal exponent prefixes on the same unit...to go from nanometers to millimeters to km's is just a matter of moving decimals/ math by tens...which is easy to do in your head. Go from yards to thousandths and youre going through more trouble and opening up to more error in your work.

[@RC-bl2pm]

@@SimonWoodburyForget -Why are you converting miles to feets? OK...You only work between units that math nicely? -Math by tens usually only makes sense in a base 10 system and youre doing construction or machining or engineering work in binary?

[@rowey1992]

Fun fact: According to Wikippedia, the use of two different unit systems caused the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999. NASA specified metric units in the contract. NASA and other organizations applied metric units in their work, but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided software that calculated and reported thruster performance data to the team in pound-force-seconds, rather than the expected newton-seconds. The spacecraft was intended to orbit Mars at about 150 kilometers (93 mi) altitude, but incorrect data caused it to descend instead to about 57 kilometers (35 mi), burning up in the Martian atmosphere.

[@khamfai]

Wow!

[@tomhenderson2430]

How does a craft "burn up" in the Martian non-atmosphere?

[@MrTuxy]

@@tomhenderson2430 At 1% the density of Earths athmosphere Mars still has an athmosphere 10 million times greater than outer space. Check out every rover we have sent to Mars and you will see they made use of a heat shield for entry through the Martian athmosphere.

[@rowey1992]

@@tomhenderson2430 Not a physicist but I assume just as aircraft can burn up on entering earths atmosphere. it is more friction induced heat than fire.

[@sajanramanathan]

@@rowey1992 Just want to note that "friction" is not the cause of things heating up in the atmosphere. It's a pretty common misconception (and often spread by teachers and journalists) because the actual explanation is a little more technical. Basically as air is compressed with no heat exchange the temperature of the air rises, because you have the same amount of energy in a smaller volume. This interaction is called adiabatic compression, and it's that which causes spacecraft and debris from space to heat up as they enter an atmosphere (be it Earth's or Mars's or whichever). Air drag is still a thing, but it doesn't cause nearly the same amount of heating as adiabatic compression does.

[@jcortese3300]

I've got an MS in physics, and I can at least say that if you go into the physical/hard sciences, you end up knowing metric anyhow. The minute you get into the lab or the lecture hall, you leave your feet, pounds, and fahrenheit by the door. Thus you get grad students who work in SI (or natural units) all day in the department and then complain about having to walk a half-mile to their apartment with ten pounds of books and it's 90 degrees out. (By natural units, I mean where the speed of light and Planck's constant are both 1. And I mean a unitless 1. It's not 1 of anything, it's just 1. This puts time and length into the same units. You want weird, we'll give you weird.) Thus, if you know someone who studied biology, chemistry, or physics, you already know someone bilingual in measurements.

[@GobPalRosieVT]

Yep. In the weather job I used to work, we used metric and now I am super used to it.

[@hhiippiittyy]

Canadians generally are moderately bilingual. Nobody describes their height in meters or kg. Small distances are usually feet. Large distances are kilometers. But any driving descriptions will be by drive time. Boomers are the last group to exclusively use Fahrenheit for outside temp, but many many thermostats will be Fahrenheit even for Xers and millenials. Industry and construction are a mixed bag, but imperial still dominates because of the huge integration with US industry. Toyota's are metric bolts Chevys are imperial. Windows are made in metric at the factory but sold as imperial at the store. Machine tooling is generally metric, machine use is imperial. Foods at the grocery store will show grams if prepackaged but often in weird numbers that equal full imperial units. Meat and produce goes by pound and kilo on the same display, but people think in pounds, and flyers will advertise in pounds with very small print that will say the price per kilo. Sandwich meat is per 100g. Milk is liters until the top size where you get 3.78 liter jugs. Gas is sold per litre. Beer is served in pints. Pizza is measured by inches. The dough will be measured in shop by grams. It's weird, but doesn't really trip anyone up in their daily living, as far as I can tell.

[@davidr6338]

North Americans have used the metric system all your life. Our monetary system is and always has been based on units of 10, yup its metric.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

And you leap from their to the presumption that what you say works best for science automatically presupposes a superiority in all aspects of modern life?

[@colinluff1]

I had an... eccentric physics professor in college who hated metric. I remember him ranting about the metric system in a few lectures. All of our exams used US imperial measurements for units.

[@bird718]

i'm a tool guy and most everything is metric these days, i almost never run into SAE sizes except on older equipment. when SAE is used its the universal sizes

[@wawiairsoft]

He means machinist and manufacturing. Bolt sizes are mostly metric due to cost. But metric sizing of metal and raw materials is difficult to find in USA

[@JW-be8wf]

That is because all tooling is done in China or Vietnam these days :)

[@bird718]

@@JW-be8wf i think because its easier for global sales and this is in regards to stuff made in the USA. sticking to the universal sizes of SAE and metric. then you got the Germans who love torx bits in all different weird configurations.

[@gabemillikan7670]

what about the standard 1" square aluminium tubing though

[@dodgeball28]

As a baker, i'm so grateful for metric system. 👏👏

[@snosibsnob3930]

Dean Dodge better yet are baker’s percentages, which allow for total conversion of any system, or the use of no system at all.

[@muraygun]

"The metric system is the tool of the Devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!" - Grampa Simpson

[@hlynnkeith9334]

The way American measure gas mileage differs radically from how the rest of the world does it. Americans measure mileage in miles per gallon, so -- for economy -- high numbers are better (30+). But the Germans -- for an example -- measure mileage in liters to go 100km, so lower number are better (

[@nahor88]

I think both systems have their advantages in different applications, and Americans should learn BOTH. The point about the half-diviser is a really strong argument for why imperial needs to stick around, but there are plenty of situations where metric does work better.

[@LednacekZ]

@@nahor88 Who cares what the divider is if you are using a scale to measure it anyway. The scale don't care if you need 200g or 238g. You just want a round number. Which, btw. you dont get when you half or quarter things.

[@danielwatson6529]

hogsheads is a unit of beer fyi

[@phillipsofthedriver]

only forty rods to a hogshead? WTF are you driving that gets such crappy rods per hogshead?

[@ОсликИа-я2ы]

3:50 - yeah, because lining up sizes 7/32, 13/64, and 3/16 makes so much more intuitive sense than 5.56, 5.16, and 4.76 mm /s Hint: it's not. Imperial is still an unintuitive garbage, especially in this workshop application example.

[@efcon8646]

A great master of the shadows once said, "Tradition, is the corpse of wisdom".

[@gleaveinjapan]

I once read on the internet.... ''Tradition is dead people's baggage''

[@RobertDeloyd]

you can look around at today's society and see that wisdom you talk about dying because of lack of our lack of tradition

[@f1r3hunt3rz5]

Look at the Cleanse, look at the moves! Faker, what was that?!

[@joedatius]

@@RobertDeloyd example?

[@RobertDeloyd]

@@joedatius open your eyes.

[@Baconsaurus]

3:43 Yeah those weird fractions on the Allen keys are definitely easier than having 1-10mm keys instead.

[@hashimiyazib]

Powers of two are easier to work with visually and aren't particularly "weird." If a carpenter needs a tool half as large, he can go with something half the size in imperial easily. To be fair, there are stupid imperial measurements such as 3/16 that somewhat negate that point.

[@Baconsaurus]

@@hashimiyazib The range of Allen keys is not intuitive at all. 7/64, 3/32, 5/64, 1/16, etc. I know it's just going down by 1/64th, but at first glance it's more difficult to tell which is smaller. This could be remedied by using x/64 for all of them but that is not more elegant than using Metric. It's confusing. Also I fail to see how it's easier to divide by two in Imperial vs. Metric.

[@Marpurrsa]

@@hashimiyazib am i the only one who just randomly pulls out an allen key and tries if it fits and then goes from there like if its about a mm too big just pull out one thats a mm smaller im not gonna measure if its some weird amount smaller and then calculate what tool i have im not a carpenter mind you but idk what else you'd use an allan key for except for screwing in something

[@BigHenFor]

Metric is where its at if you need precision, and faffing around with fractions is not as straightforward as just quoting digits. Computers can use digits easier than fractions, so be prepared for imperial measures to wither away and become vestigial.

[@ImranZakhaev9]

As a Canadian, there's nothing more infuriating than having to figure out what's slightly larger than this 3/8" wrench that doesn't quite fit. Is it 5/16 or 7/32? Thank god my Honda uses mm, obviously if 7mm doesn't fit, 8 should.

[@Zovcka]

what I learned: MURICA BIG, GRAM TOO SMALL

[@DevinAK49]

When you're not free enough to understand nuance.😂

[@yeahbutnobutyeahbutno7479]

DevinAK49 Land of the free with the most incarnated people..oh

[@Zovcka]

@@DevinAK49 should I ask my doctor if this is a sick burn? I could do that for free here

[@DRTechTV]

@@Zovcka hahahaha

[@DevinAK49]

@@Zovcka haha, nice.

[@gameface6091]

I started my professional journey as a technician in the U.S. Navy where, obviously, everything* was done according to Imperial (or U.S. custom, or inch) standard. The * is because the U.S. belongs to NATO and many munitions the U.S. uses are in metric because as allies we need to be able to share munitions. After leaving the Navy I entered the world of semiconductor manufacturing. This was an almost exclusively metric world, even though I worked in the middle of the U.S.. I started to become far more familiar with metric measurements then Imperial (or U.S Custom, or inch). I left the semiconductor world and then worked for a dairy food maker that ultimately was based in France. Most of their production equipment also came from Europe. I became even more accustomed to using metric as a mechanic/technician. I just started working for a U.S. based biomedical company and almost all of their equipment is on the "inch standard" which I find mildly infuriating in the medical field. I think in metric at this point in almost all things other than miles and outside temperature (I think in metric for scientific temperatures and food temperatures), which would be rather simple adjustments.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Medicine is almost entirely metric in the USA, but were you referring to medical values at the biomedical equipment company or just mechanical things? The nuts and bolts on medical equipment don’t have to be metric.

[@gameface6091]

@@GH-oi2jf The equipment almost exclusively uses "standard" but this is sterilization equipment (autoclaves, sonic washers, cold chemical sterilizers) that has critical temperatures and pressures and there is it a mixed bag. Sometimes in a vacuum system we measure in inhg, sometimes psig (and sometimes relative psig where 0 is equal to atmospheric pressure, other times absolute psig where at my altitude it is 12.4) and other times it is measure in Torr, which what I'm used to from the semiconductor industry. Similarly temps are randomly displayed in F or C.

[@GH-oi2jf]

@@gameface6091 - I see. Medical doctors in the USA do use mm of mercury. The equipment has to use what the medical industry uses.

[@noob19087]

3:56 Here's your solution: Use fractions instead of decimals. Rather than saying 1/16 cm as 0.625 mm why not just say it as....... 1/16 cm? You know, just like how the Americans don't say 1/16 inches as 0.0625 inches.

[@grassroot011]

I used .0625" ordering drills, for that specific size.

[@BigHenFor]

Metric is about precision and as less humans are involved in manufacturing, there simply is no need.

[@thereaction18]

@@BigHenFor Metric is about decimal units and decimal points are notorious sources of error.

[@None17555]

Is this a joke? Then you'd still need two sets of tools. One for the fractions and one for the decimals. Silly!

[@Electromanx3]

@@thereaction18 ...for fourth-graders?

[@agustinperuzzi]

Americans: metric is hard Also Americans: *uses 1/64 of a teaspoon of baking sodas*

[@rocksnot952]

Never seen 1/64 of a teaspoon of anything.

[@Barackobarrels]

i get the joke but no one here would measure 1/64th lol that's just a pinch

[@I_discovered_civilization]

Agustin Peruzzi source?

[@zosqi]

@well done that doesn't work here

[@sionnachdensolas9787]

@well done yikes

[@f1r3hunt3rz5]

You can use fractions with metric too and do easy halvings. For example, half a meter is 0.5m, BUT you can also express it as exactly that, half a meter i.e. 1/2 m. Half of that? 0.25m or 1/4m, that is a quarter of a meter. Half of that, 0.125m or you can just say 1/8m, that is one-eighth of a meter. Granted this is not the way most people use it as they always utilize the advantage metric has: precision by using decimals.

[@miwiarts]

Better yet, remember that a decimeter (dm) is 1/10th (0.1) of a meter, so; 0.5m = 5dm, 0.25m = 2.5dm and so on. The fact that we subdivide our units by 10 instead of some arbitrary numbers makes them so much more manageable.

[@fridarey]

Good vid. Emphasising the "well... because we can" point is really important. Unless things matter to people in meaningful ways it's unwise/difficult to force them to do things they're mostly "meh" about. In the UK we're more than comfortable using elements of both systems. Anything important is measured in metric and has been for decades (apart from vehicle speed), and anything chatty/colloquial/unimportant uses either or both, whatever people feel like. It works out fine. People buy meat in grams to make a quarter pounder; talk about the height of a guy in feet but the height he can jump in metres. It's all cool. I work in construction, we'll still talk about 8x4 sheets (feet) or 4x1 timber (inches) but all the measurements and drawings are in millimetres, the 8x4 chat is just shorthand and everyone copes just great.

[@Persun_McPersonson]

Well it still confuses and needlessly complicates things to mix systems together, so just because people are able to "cope" with it doesn't mean it wouldn't still be a better overall experience for the other system to be phased out.

[@Zeverinsen]

Adam: Grams and millilitres are too small! Kilograms and litres: *exist* Also, why didn't you address the fact that lobbyists don't want you to switch to the metric system because it makes it too easy for you to know how much you're actually getting of what in your food, especially sugar? It was specifically decided that the ingredients were to be listed in metric on products because of this.

[@KaitouKaiju]

KG and liters are too big Pounds and cups are perfect

[@coreyoak]

@@KaitouKaiju wdym kgs and liters are too big?? I put a liter of milk in my pudding and eat it all in a day

[@carultch]

The last time I checked, sugar is already noted in grams on food labels.

[@Stephen._.Chapman]

dekagrams and decilitres also exist to be in between.

[@carultch]

@@Stephen._.Chapman Yeah, but for some reason people don't bother familiarizing themselves those prefixes.

[@PropiaRealidad]

"Grams and millimeters are so small" That is why you have kilo-, deca-, and other such prefixes to adjust the unit at your convenience size. Also, the core units for length/distance is meter, not millimeter (so it is not really that small) and the core unit of mass is kilogram, not gram (contrary to popular belief). Fun fact: a "gram" used to be what a "kilogram" is today, but it was deemed too big, so it was reduced 1000th of its size, later on a gram was way too small, but instead of reverting it back (because it would be confusing and people were accustomed to the current gram measurement), they decided to make the kilogram the core unit; making it the only basic measurement that uses a prefix as a core unit. One of the incoherences of the system. "1 pound of flour is 454 grams..." This is an absurd way of getting your point across... like me saying 1 kilogram is 2.2 pounds, which makes the unit smaller, and also not very pretty for division, while you could just do 1 Kg -> 0.5 Kg (or 500 grams) -> 0.25 Kg (or 250 grams) -> 0.125 Kg (or 125 grams) -> 0.0625 Kg (or 62.5 grams, or 625 decigrams) and so on I can keep dividing by half in "pretty numbers" perpetually in metric system. Doesn't mean metric is more intuitive (ALAS, it is not, because you have to change unit from kilogram to gram, and then gram to decigram to keep this perpetual "pretty numbers" halving. Though learning those changes is easy, unlike imperial, were 1 pound is 16 ounces, and 1 imperial ton is 2000 pounds...). Fun fact: a metric ton is a metric system unit for mass that equals 1000 kilogram, why? I don't know, but it would have made more sense to just use megagram for that (literally 1000 kilogram). Maybe it didn't exist at the time? Anyway, another incoherence of the system. "Americans didn't want to change because of industrial reasons" Well... there might be another reason. During (and before) the industrial revolution, trading was commonplace, and like any reasonable trader, you tried to get more for less and give less for more. If you haven't noticed: there are 2 types of fluid ounces, the US ounce and the imperial ounce. The US traders used bigger tanks/barrels, therefore getting more product quantity for the same price. The metric system was a more strict standard, making such tricks less easy to pull off, therefore less appealing for traders.

[@guilhermecorrea545]

Let's be honest: no one uses decametres

[@silphonym]

@@guilhermecorrea545 maths and physics teachers love 'em.

[@Sethslayer1147]

@@guilhermecorrea545 yeah, but you can

[@sadiqmohamed681]

The metric tonne is about 2200 pounds which is near enough a standard ton of 2250 pounds, so a simple comparison is easy to make. The thing I find most annoying about Americans is the insistence on measuring everything in pounds! If you say a truck is 40 tons then I can get how much that is but 80 thousand pounds? WTF! And the point you completely missed, as do most people, is that our technology makes it so much easier to take measurements and do the math with digital devices that it no longer matters.

[@PropiaRealidad]

@@sadiqmohamed681 I was sure I was making a conversion mistake somewhere... oh well. I didn't miss the point though? I was just pointing out the incoherence in his logic (at least to me). I can totally get not wanting to adopt metric (or imperial). And I do understand that machines help us with conversion, reducing the need to truly change system from imperial to metric or viceversa. However, it is also true that it is more convenient not having the need of a machine for conversions (even better would be no need to do conversions, but good luck with that) and metric does help a lot with that as it is more intuitive for conversions (a bit contradictory to my original comment though, I am not sure what was I thinking at that moment?).

[@chainsawenthusiast]

as a european, i have to say imperial has it's benefits in the kitchen, as you mentioned. especially when working as a bartender i find it easier to remember recipes in imperial because of the exact reasons of divisibility you described. thanks for the insightful video on the history of both measurement systems!

[@asenciofacundo]

I've worked in machining both in metric in my country, and for the US, and can say that metric is waaaaaaaay easier. Machining is way more precise than an inch, so you have to deal everyday with fractions like 1/64 or 3/128, making calculations completely non doable without a computer or a piece of paper, which is not needed with mm (an interval of .1-.2 mm is more realistic to most machines and assemblies tolerances. You can use thou as a unit though, but converting back to inches and feet for total distances is finally more trouble than working with metric from the start.

[@danharold3087]

Henny Ford figured out that machining needs to be done in thousandths of an inch about the same time as he embraced the Johansson block. What substantial advantage does the metric system over this in the machine shop. Converting to inches is just moving the decimal place (as with metric conversions). If you need feet divide by 12 but don't see where there is much call for that in machining. My old machines have imperial lead screws. So I say no thanks to metric just like the industrialists who where fueling the US economy in 1950. Must confess I have metric drills and taps but that is about as far as it goes. On the other hand 3D printing is all 3D. So I have selections of metric hardware from 2 to 8mm. I wish the US had metrified prior to my birth but I have no desire to be forced into it. This video makes a lot of sense

[@clarkmarkey1498]

The auto industry, which I work in, has been fully metric since the early 90s. There may have been a few parts made on very robust tooling that lasted a bit longer in a few instances. The conversion starts with a couple models designed during the very late 60s. All new tooling was needed, so metric measurements and threading were chosen. Parts that shared tooling for older designs were still imperial, though, making for a large tool kit at the service level. Any industry that changes designs and tooling on a short schedule has probably changed by now. The building industry, on the other hand, finds the inch and foot to be very convenient since the vast majority of things they repair or modify were built with those measurements.

[@drichmo]

Also with building, a foot and inch are much easier to eyeball imo than meter or centimeter. Meters too big to eyeball and a cm is too small. Much easier to visualize a foot or inch measurement as they really are close to the size of body parts.

[@Rocketsong]

I might go late 90's. I had a 94 Cherokee with one metric and one SAE bolt for the starter. That took a while to figure out while under the vehicle. Pretty sure Ford (with it's major German manufacturing segment) switched over far before Chrysler though.

[@kombirat]

@@drichmo I live in Australia and the tradies that I have met are very good at eyeballing stuff to within 5mm or even less. Normally they just guess to the nearest 10mm if they were to say "the tile is 20mm too high above the floor" or something.

[@SurmaSampo]

@@drichmo A meter is a handspan less than half the height of the average man. The only reason you have issues with visualising metric is due to lack of practice. You know the practice you have decades of in eyeballing imperial measurements starting from early childhood. I am not even a tradie but I can eyeball 1.6mm, 3, 5mm, 8mm and 10mm as they are standard thicknesses of metal sheet and plate. I can also eyeball 50m and 100m as they are common distances.

[@crashicle]

basically the uno meme, "use the metric system or draw 25 cards"

[@Pablo-V]

4:29 What if we're talking about salt though? Does 1/7 of an ounce sound better than 4 grams?

[@fordhouse8b]

That is why he pointed out that pastry chefs and bakers almost exclusively use metric. For other culinary applications, measurements like teaspoons, tablespoons, pinches, and the ever useful, ‘to taste’ are used for salt.

[@yosselgarcia3100]

Teaspoons and tablespoons

[@yosselgarcia3100]

@@SimonWoodburyForget 2 ½ tablespoons ×3 for teaspoons.

[@livedandletdie]

@@SimonWoodburyForget I use metric in my daily life, as I'm Scandinavian, however if I'm baking, I'm using pinches, teaspoons, tablespoons and cups. Because they're intuitive measures. I do not say something as inane as 11cm long nail, when 5 inch nail is easier. femtumspik that's 3 syllables, instead of elvacentimersspik which is 6 syllables.

[@age234]

@@SimonWoodburyForget not really. Once you know the units it doesn't much matter, and since we grow up with them, we know them. 16 tablespoons in a cup 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon These units are just as precise as metric units, they're just not base 10.

[@paulstewart1557]

I really enjoy your videos. You are charming, engaging and funny. Australia went from imperial to metric when I was in primary school ... the 1970s ... changing our weights and measurements but also our currency slightly earlier. I think it interesting that America has the dollar of 100 cents but is otherwise resistant. Australia before Metric also had imperial currency. There was even a cute jingle sung by a character called "Dollar Bill", that went something like "out go the pounds, shillings and the pence and in come the dollar and the cents on the 14th of February 1966!

[@БрухБрух-щ7и]

❤l❤😊😊😊😊😊

[@CarlVandenberg]

I became bi-measurist when I got my first full-time job as a pharmacy technician in a large hospital back in the mid 80's. Pretty much everything in a medical setting used metric measurements so it became second nature to me.

[@FrodoOne1]

As it should be.

[@astranger448]

I (European) worked a summer(1984) in the US in a machine shop. For the time I was there I became the goto translator for metric. Hey 10mm? the guys would ask, I reply with 'bit less than half an inch' and right away they knew what the plan was asking for.

[@zhiracs]

The spirit of George Carlin enters Adam and speaks through him at 10:50

[@yourmother3207]

Lol

[@aragusea]

god I miss george

[@ReapTheWhirlwind]

Bless Adam and bless George, may he rest in peace. George is my favorite celebrity birthday twin(the poet Dante is a close second!) and I appreciate his wisdom so much more now that I'm getting into old person territory. 😂

[@JW-be8wf]

@@ReapTheWhirlwind George Carlin was an atheist so I am sure he isn't resting i n peace. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[@ReapTheWhirlwind]

@@JW-be8wf He, like myself, was a sun worshipper. 😂 For real though, I was being respectful of the dead. It costs nothing to be respectful.

[@liamwelsh5565]

Then there's Canada who's a mix of metric and imperial. We weigh with pounds but we measure in meters just as an example. But we also don't measure in metric as well. We say oh it's 6ft away but we also say he's going 100km/h. It's very weird, we are technically metric but everyone still uses imperial for some things.

[@Seskoi]

It's 26C outside, but the pool is 81 F! Truly weird :)

[@PatrickRatman]

@@Seskoi my brain still has a hard time converting Celsius to Fahrenheit whenever some brit/euro guy in my discord uses it. its like some wires are crossed in the part of my brain that identifies temperature numbers with actually feeling it.

[@dunnowy123]

If you said you were 130 cms tall and 172 kg, people would look at you like a psychopath. (unless you were in medicine or something) Then again I don't know how tall or fat that is, so maybe you do look like a monster.

[@NoKrAzYz]

@@dunnowy123 Thats roughly 4 feet tall and just under 400 pounds , yikes

[@davidcramb5793]

The UK is exactly the same, we use a hybrid of both systems. Speed, and height are usually imperial, but temperature is in Centigrade. Land is still in acres, beer in pints, but small measurements tend to be in cm or meters. Fuel is sold in litres, but fuel consumption is mpg, but loads for trucks are calculated in tons.

[@ricraciti443]

Very nice and informative, you've done a great job at presenting this subject in a fascinating way, like all your cooking episodes. Some really good points made for and against. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@sjenkins1057]

For precision, machinists work in "thou", thousandths of an inch, and smaller units such as "tenths", tenths of thousandths, and are well familiar with the conversion of those easy inverse powers of two fractions. Despite the thesis of the video, there is a real superiority in working in decimal rather than fractions. But neither method implies some inherent superiority of the size of the whole units. Whether units are too big or too small depends on the application. Even for cooking, I have a gram scale which reads to hundredths of a gram, because that is needed for small quantities of spices and salt (darn that low sodium diet). The gram is just too big. Same thing with the meds in the video, grams are just too big. Where the metric system shows its true advantages are in science and engineering, where unit conversions are very important. Newtons are much easier to work with arithmetically than pound-feet. Very little of that applies in the kitchen, where only three units are typically used, weight, volume, and temperature, and they are rarely converted to one another. What may make recipes written in metric a little better is the tendency to specify by weight rather than volume, but that is easily done in traditional units as well.

[@aragusea]

To be clear, that is not the thesis of this video. I was presenting an argument that other people have made, and then I presented some counter-arguments.

[@laneromel5667]

That must be why the majority of US industry has long ago switched to metric.

[@kuyaleinad4195]

For me at least, I think metric simplifies cooking just because it completely negates measuring volume. Most kitchen liquids are water based solutions so I just use the fact that 1ml water= 1g water and so measure liquids by weight. It just means that I don’t need to clean a measuring jug, just weigh the dry ingredients first then the wet ones. Possible problem would probably be measuring oil since that’s not water based...

[@jasper-od3dv]

Tenths, thousandths, tens of thousands. . . hmm. . . kinda sounds like you, know, the x10 scalability of metric?

[@sjenkins1057]

@@kuyaleinad4195 The density of food oils are very close to 1, just a touch under. The approximation of one ml means one g works well enough for them within the tolerances of home cooking recipes.

[@genefoster9821]

I’m a 78 year old male, who loves to cook. I have converted all my recipes to metric - so much earlier. Try to divide a standard recipe by 3 or 5.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Here’s how you divide the recipe: Get three (or five) Pyrex storage bowls with lids. Spoon the prepared food into the bowls a little at a time, alternating from one bowl to the next, adjusting where necessary, until they are approximately equally full. Then cover and put in the refrigerator.

[@Lismakingmovie]

I don't really see why metric would be easier for dividing by 3 (or why you would need to divide by three regularly.) 10 divided by three is 3.33... whereas 12 divided by 3 is 4. In terms of pure divisibility, standard is just always going to be better, full stop. Really, the ideal system would be to use standard with a base 12 number system, but changing that would be near impossible.

[@KingofHassi]

@@Lismakingmovie Because in metric, the numbers are larger and more easily divisible in such a way they are still measurable, you can simply round to the nearest gram and weigh using a scale (like I do for nearly all my cooking). Try dividing 2oz into 3 and so on, or deciding you want just 1/3 of a recipe for 12 pizza doughs that uses 3/4 cup of this, 5oz of that and 2 teaspoons of something else

[@Lismakingmovie]

@@KingofHassi it’s hard to judge the worth of a system of measurement based on unit sizes alone. Sure it’s easier to divide metric because people usually use grams, but if standard was usually divided into a large number of teaspoons instead of cups and such, would it be better? Is Fahrenheit a more useful system of measurement than Celsius simply because the units are smaller? I guess purely for practical use, you are correct. However the fundamental reasons for that are mostly arbitrary.

[@KingofHassi]

@@Lismakingmovie i think for cooking where you often are adjusting amounts and scaling, grams is easier. You rarely have to divide temperature measurements so the same doesn't apply for Fahrenheit Vs Celsius apart from perhaps Fahrenheit is easier to read off an analogue thermometer

[@sadiqmohamed681]

In the late 60s and early 70s, there were two things which I believe drove Britain to go metric. NATO and the car industry. Trying to export to a metric country was difficult, because servicing British cars meant having two sets of tools. The industry realised it needed to change. With NATO, interoperability needed a common set of spare parts and tools. I have friends who were engineers and mechanics stationed in Germany in the 70s, and they came back thinking in metric! In the mid-70s I owned a Volvo 122S (an Amazon) and had to buy a set of metric spanners. US industry is going through the same thing. It is much easier now that designing is done on computers and manufacturing is done with digitally controlled machines. As you said, the change will happen without anyone realising it.

[@wallacem41atgmail]

It was the same with the US car industry. Today, cars are designed with parts being fabricated and assembled using SI units. However, this is then converted to US-customary units for purposes of marketing. Today, the US military trains its service members to think in terms of, and use only, SI units.

[@darkJohnSmith]

As an American woodworker in a large shop, I wish we used metric!! Many machines are computerized or have digital inputs for measurements, displayed as decimal. We have conversion tables taped on every machine. We download special calculators on our phones so we know what 60 23/32" - 1 7/64" + 1/8" is. AND certain woodworking tools and equipment only come from places like Germany, so I have to also own and use metric measuring tools to calibrate and use metric machines anyway. It wastes time and cognitive energy! But I can't just use millimeters to make my life easier, because our products go in/on American buildings, and all the code we must comply with is Imperial anyway, so I'm stuck with inches.

[@cinderblockstudios]

As an American (and millennial I guess) I look at it this way based on your analysis: Metric upscale easily. Imperial downscale easily. Being literate in both makes for a better world economy and a more versatility in the kitchen.

[@Darninja99]

Dunno man. While it's true that 1/32 may be more intuitive than 0,03125, it's also true that 27/32 is arguably even less intuitive than 0,84375. It ultimately just comes back to what you get used to: in my mind 3mm is way more intuitive than whatever fraction of an inch it corresponds to.

[@osric1730]

Tell that to the $100 million firework NASA set off in Mars' atmosphere because people tried to use both.

[@pedrorvd1]

Imperial doesn't downscale easily 1 mile is 1760 yards 1 yard is 3 feet 1 foot is 12 inches That's the opposite of easily While in metric you only divide by 10 and you get the next unit, simple as that

[@shaynegadsden]

@@pedrorvd1 not quite metric with the excemption of the centimeter is by the 1000's a meter is the base for distance with up being a kilometer or 1000 meters down being a millimeter or 1000th of a meter

[@TlalocTemporal]

@@shaynegadsden -- Centimeter is popular because it's a nice size. There's also decimeters, decameters, and hectometers, but they're rarer. I've seen deciliters occasionally.

[@reploid001]

"5 cups bread flour" me: I have lotsa cups; different sizes.. which one will it be? "5 cups bread flour --- 500g" me: oh, i see

[@pino_de_vogel]

www.google.com/search?q=cups+to+grams&oq=cups+to+gra&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l2.4460j0j7&client=tablet-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 Yeah hows that cup conversion working out. Everyone uses a differet conversion totally making recipies and formulas broken. Hence i ignore ALL american recipies. They often fail hard because of dumb conversions. Plus a cup isnt a acceptable measurement ever. A cup of flour can have 2 different weights based on filling. American recipies are glued together by guesswork and estimates rather then actual measuring.

[@ginsederp]

The cup is a volume measurement, not a mass one. One cup -> 240ml

[@pino_de_vogel]

@@ginsederp yeah thats where your massivly wrong. A us cup is 236.58ml but thrn theres the uk cup which is 284.13 amd then theres conversion tables that show a cup as 250 ml which can be wrong in 2 ways as shown now. As long as not all recipies and cups are based of the same size let alone conversions it can have a massive impact on the item you are making. A ml or grams recipy however will always be accurate.

[@ginsederp]

@@pino_de_vogel Nobody uses UK cups anymore, and a US legal cup is 240ml.

[@pino_de_vogel]

@@ginsederp google cup to ml.

[@CuoreSportivo]

actually that was a pretty nice explanation. still though it doesn't justify grams being "too small" my kitchen scale even measures 0.1 grams for really precise recipes like coffee.

[@JosiahMcCarthy]

Which model scale is that?

[@roadchewerpe5759]

Pasty chefs as Adam said is a good use of metric, so is Coffee / Tea, really anything similarbeverage related.

[@CantEscapeFlorida]

Got a link for that scale

[@CuoreSportivo]

@@JosiahMcCarthy i live in Turkey so it's a local brand but it's most likely a rebranded chinese model. i'm sure you can find similar ones over there. or ask a friend who deals drugs.

[@KevinJennissen]

This is the scale I use. It has the same function: www.amazon.com/dp/B0007GAWRS/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_IZZlEbHES2PG4

[@reubenmiller7988]

I can second that machine shop work is often easier in freedom units. The inch divides well into usable decimal places. What few people realize though is that the modern inch is standardized at exactly 25.4 millimeters so in a sense our system is based on the metric standard at least for length measurements

[@kenoliver8913]

Same easy answer as with gram vs pounds - you just work with the metric unit that gives a big enough number for the precison needed. In machining it's microns (25.4 microns to the thousandth).

[@gerrador0]

It's also worth mentioning that compound units for engineering/physics become pretty complicated and unruly using Imperial units. A surprisingly large amount of our time in American Chemical Engineering coursework is focused around unit conversions back and forth between Imperial and SI. e.g. frequently converting Fahrenheit over to Kelvin due to needing absolute temperature values and nobody uses Rankine, converting both lbf and lbm (pound force and pound mass, respectfully) over to Newtons and kilograms, etc. When heat capacities can end up in SI unit combinations like J/mol-K, to more complicated expressions like C^2/N-m^2 for the permittivity of free space, these units cleanly cancel and convert within metric equations. Not so much for Imperial units, with units constantly requiring additional conversion terms, and with the simplest expressions for constants being in SI, it's usually not worth the effort to manually convert them or search out a version already in one of 3-5 variant combinations of Imperial units. It's not uncommon that if you take an input in Imperial units with an output that's also in Imperial units, that the easiest way to perform said calculation is to just convert over to metric, perform the calculation, and then convert back to Imperial units.

[@RJT80]

Adam destroys his own argument within the first few sentences. We spent 350 billion (4 trillion adjusted for inflation) fighting with and equipping allied forces in WW2, mostly using the imperial system at a time that our anglosphere allies still used it much more. So it's no different than the US really not being able to switch to DC current because we'd already pioneerred and normalized AC in our largest cities before many foreign cities even had light power lines. We learn both and implement both. It's really not something worth getting vent out of shape over. Imperial is still better outside of laboratory environments in a few cases where the human condition and experience matters more than crunching numbers.

[@sandrawiersma2512]

As a scientist in Europe, I can tell you that your scientists are not all on the metric system. Anytime something is built with tools and imported from the US, we have to switch our entire toolkit. So many hex screws end up fucked when you forget which part came from where and you inevitably put a little too much force on it with the wrong key. My concerns are relatively minor though, RIP Mars Climate Orbiter.

[@ZeteticPhilosopher]

“Nobody uses rankine” Bruh. Tell that to US aerospace companies. I fucking hate rankine.

[@ssholum]

"lbm". Bruh get that dumb name out of here (if we want to talk about stupid units, this is an actual example). We solved that naming problem long ago: it's called slugs. The pound is a force unit; making it pull double duty is a linguistic and metrologic atrocity. My fun jab at metric snobs is that they claim to _weigh_ a number of kilograms (which is nonsensical, in the realm of unit snobbery they tried to enter). Units don't matter as long as what you're using is recorded (multi-billion dollar project became a heap of junk because some dumbass didn't record their units on the plans), so use the ones that make sense to you. Standardization within a system matters, but trying to make everyone use the same system is just globalist politicking.

[@Akuseiko]

Fun fact: The imperial measuring system is defined by the Metric system.

[@Markle2k]

Fun fact: The US does not use the Imperial System of measures. It uses US Customary Units, which was defined by metric units back in the 19th century rather than in the 1960s. This is particularly important when speaking of volume measures.

[@paspax]

lol.. Metric equivalents are tacked on. Nobody created the inch by deciding that "25.4mm is a nice round number, we'll call that an inch".

[@alexanderkupke920]

@@Markle2k I think the only thing that happened in the 1960s, more exactly in 1955 I think, was that they redefined the definition of the foot from a weird fraction of a meter to been 1 foot = 30.48 cm, they cut the tail of digits behind that. That difference in rounding was what up until recently made the difference between a statute mile and a survey mile.

[@Markle2k]

@@alexanderkupke920 It's complicated. The UK agreed to adopt the International Yard (0.9144 meters) in 1959 and synchronize with the US which had standardized on 25.4 mm per inch with the Mendenhall Order in 1893. Mendenhall was the Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. (still, the US Surveyor Foot continues for purposes of _some_ historical political boundaries, the difference is too small for ordinary property measures) The US had already codified the use of the metric system in commerce in 1866 and was a charter signatory of the Metre Convention in 1875. While the UK had agreed to accept metric measures for the purposes of international trade in 1899, it wasn't until 1965 that the UK and Commonwealth countries agreed to work toward metrification for their populations. It took pretty much the entire decade of the 1970s, and a bit, to transform the UK to metric due to opposition from various interests and industries. The pint of beer remains one of the few legal units remaining of the UK Imperial Units.

[@katerinaandrasko3755]

@@Markle2k I think what he means is that the pound and yard and other measurements are defined by the metric system. Take pound for example, it's defined as 1kg * coefficient that has been agreed upon. In this case it'd 0.45359237. And this goes for other units as well. Anyways, saying pounds, miles, inches and so on in English is much easier for me. So if I'm communicating with someone in that language I'll use those units. Otherwise I just use metric system.

[@rockysage7760]

I like that he's blending together cooking and history.

[@Milesco]

And then chopping it and pureeing it. 😆

[@pauln07]

As someone studying engineering I just have to say the argument that imperial is better holds no water. Especially when u get to more complicated units that are defined as quantities of other units. For example one Tesla (T) is 1kgs^-2A^-1 how in the hell are you going to relate any of those measurements to imperial.

[@PatNetherlander]

Spot on! That’s why imperial will always be inferior to metric. Because it relates to the other units, volume, temperature, time. Imperial can’t do that.

[@Avenus112]

For lab work and just about any professional calculations metric is better. But for everyday purposes personal comfort is what matters.

[@anonperson7386]

I think its funny that mass and weight are two completely different concepts but we determine mass by weighing it.

[@Avenus112]

@@anonperson7386 mass and weight are synonyms. They are the same concept. Mass and volume are the different concepts.

[@anonperson7386]

@@Avenus112 Incorrect. Things don't weigh the same on the moon as they do on Earth.

[@DrPhilboBaggins]

All the "metric doesn't divide" arguments are moot when you can use 12mm or 16mm (common board thicknesses in woodworking, for example) easily.

[@aperson7243]

How did I miss this video?!?! I was a graduate student at the University of Georgia's history department and remember attending one of Mihm's talks on this exact subject. I've been an early Adam fan and thought I'd seen all of your videos. This was a real treat. So glad that the weird pyramidology made it into this video! I was worried it would get cut because it is just genuinely bonkers.

[@storyspren]

I happened to notice that some of the food packaging you showed at the end also gives the measurements in metric. It's in second place, with the parenthesis and all, but it's there.

[@Eyedunno]

Yes, pretty much all food packaging shows metric units alongside the imperial units, and sometimes we even think of those items primarily in metric. If you told someone you bought a 67.6 fluid ounce bottle of soda, they would just look at you funny, and you'd have to explain that it's a two-liter bottle. Also, nutritional information is in metric. The packaging isn't going to tell you how many ounces or teaspoons of fat or sugar are in something; it's in grams.

[@cogspace]

The label is there on the box, but the quantities are useless. 113g per stick? How much is 200g? A bit less than 2 sticks? Sure, I can bust out a calculator and a scale, but at that point it doesn't matter what units you're using as long as the scale supports them. Compare that to an American recipe that calls for 1 cup or 3/4 cup or 1/2 lb (8 oz). Any of those would be super easy to measure with butter that comes in 8 oz packages labeled with teaspoon divisions (and often tablespoons and cup fractions as well) on the wax paper wrapper. You can just cut it to length. There are no metric markings on the paper (but there should be!)

[@birgerz360]

@@cogspace and over here the 500g butter comes with the same markings but with 50g markings

[@IamBrianDickson]

I'm from the UK and found this video very interesting. Living in the UK you will find a mish-mash of systems in daily use. Driving on roads is still in Miles as it is for speed (MPH). Golf courses still use Yards as measurements. Objects measurements differ depending on source so either Inches Feet/ CM MM. People refer to milk in 'pints' despite Litres being on the carton. So you see, we're a mixed up and confused nation. 🤪

[@matthewlacey4198]

Yeah honestly the metric system is our predominant measurement, but anyone over 40 still talks in imperial measurements, to the point that I'm a 50/50 imperial/metric split myself, bc I picked it up from my dad I do distance in miles, height in feet, but other kitchen measurements by weight and volume in metric ml and grams, it's honestly fucking nuts

[@StoneE4]

That isn't much of a surprise since you're talking about a nation that drives on the wrong side of the road and writes the numeric date backwards.

[@Nitroblast]

lmao here in the uk we still use miles when talking about transport and on road signs, it's a mess of both systems that's worse than having either system

[@CrazyManwich]

Not to mention you measure human weight in stone.

[@nosslived]

I heard recently that the UK has finally started switching speed limits (and presumably road distances) to metric.

[@ninesquared81]

@@nosslived you heard incorrectly. Internally, everything is metric though. Speed limits and distances on signs are (still) all in terms of yards and miles (per hour), though. Strangely enough, we _do_ have some signs that have a distance in kilometres, which are called driver location signs (and the related marker posts). They appear at the side of English motorways and have the motorway number, a letter denoting the carriageway (A or B for the mainline, J, K, L, M for slip roads), and a distance - which is measured in kilometres. The distance is measured from some arbitrary reference point, so doesn't really carry useful information to a driver, but it can be used to pinpoint their location if they need assistance. DLSs are a bit of a weird one, though, and I'm not sure how many people know what they mean (or at least know what the number on them refers to), so it's kind of a moot point in the discussion of changing to metric. I'm not sure if we'll ever make the switch to metric signs, tbh. It would have to be a gradual process, as signs are expensive (so replacing them all in a short span of time would be a complete non-starter), but then you'd have to do it in a way such that there's no ambiguity as to which units the sign is in. This is especially a problem as on distance/direction signs, mile(s) is abbreviated as "m", which is of course also the symbol for metre(s). I feel like our bizarre duality of unit systems will remain for a long long time yet here in the UK.

[@6Glitch]

Kilogram is the base unit of mass in metric, not gram.

[@villenilsson7182]

Kilo-gram, kilo means 1 thousand, therefore gram is the base unit since kilogram means 1000 grams

[@chrismorong931]

@@villenilsson7182 Wrong! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_base_unit

[@martinnylander4285]

@@chrismorong931 yeah but kilogram isn't a measurement of weight. Gram is the measurement. Kilogram is just 1 000 gram.

[@morristgh]

@@villenilsson7182 The kg is the exception amongst the base units in that it makes up the base unit. Veritasium made a video about it the TL;DW: a gram is too small too accurately define or at least used to be before it was redefined. For french revolutionary reasons the kg is not called grave like it initially was so it's called kilogram.

[@aragusea]

Yeah, as others have explained, that is not true.

[@Noah-d7q]

I live in a Canadian border city (Windsor) and it's really complicated. Everyone in Windsor mostly uses Fahrenheit because that's what is on the news stations we get from Detroit, but everyone else in Canada mostly uses Celsius. We measure height and body weight in feet, inches and pounds, but we use the metic system for things like distance, physics homework, and food packaging. Sometimes this is confusing lol

[@swedee5870]

We already use the metric system in the US. In elementary school we learn inches and cm side by side. Every packaged food or drink I buy has both measuring systems listed on it. Any chemistry lab a high school or college student attends uses metric. Our distance runs are 5k and 10k, etc. (Marathon excepted, for obvious reasons). When I visit Europe, I am surprised by the polite assistance people provide to help me understand that 0 C is freezing for water and 100 C is boiling, etc. I think the people who have helped me with such simple things, do so because they are (naturally) much less familiar with the English system than I am with metric, but I think they imagine Americans just don’t use metric. Similar to the way that the prevalence of English has made it a second language for many in the world, so metric has become so popular that it is our second measuring system here in the US. Some elderly people don’t know or use metric here, but that’s the case with English as a second language throughout the world as well. When I hear people’s annoyed comments about the US needing to drop the English system altogether, I wonder if they would ask Europeans, for instance, to drop their mother tongues just because the English language is so internationally useful. The English measurement system is also a deep part of our culture, with phrases like: Inch by inch Not budge an inch Give an inch they take a mile Inching along Inch forward Every inch a (something) Wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole The whole 9 yards And many, many more. I’ll readily agree that one’s mother tongue is more culturally valuable than one’s “mother measurement system” as it were, but I think the potential cultural impact and loss is overlooked, when even our socket wrench sets (tools) come “bilingual” (mm and inch fraction sizes). It seems to me that both measurement systems have uses in which they excel, and I would hate to just stop using either one actually. And for those who argue that a base ten system is just better, when your clocks and calendars have a revolution, then we’ll talk. ;)

[@Milesco]

Well said, Swedee! 😊

[@iagobkstar]

You're the first American I've heard/seen providing reasonable arguments about the imperial system. You've opened my eyes, sir.

[@intellectualrebel5340]

This argument actually makes sense. Thanks for the insight.