As an engineering student, with the metric system I was able to find formulas I'd forgotten out of nowhere with a simple dimensional analysis, no arbitrary coefficients, everything is elegant.
As a cnc programmer and machinist who works in an R&D machine shop, engineers need some manufacturing experience because they usually dont know how things actually work and we constantly have to correct their designs and show them better ways of doing whay yhey are trying to accomplish.
@@AngraMainiiu Any unit of length can be defined in terms of the speed of light in a vacuum, this doesn't make the meter special in any way. There's a reason nobody's using plank lengths as their primary unit of measure.
@@lordpengz16not at the time (and in a few ways we still don't), we invented the imperial system and used it for century's and as such it's taken us a while to shift off from it.
@@matthewmac5787you brits generally do some weird things. But what annoys me the most is that i cant find any new shows with the typical british humor i loved so much during my youth. Heck, you can measure lenghts with your spitting distance if thats what floats your boat, as long as you bring out anything comparable to little britain
Hey, fun fact about the temperature in both systems: In Celsius 0°C is the temperature, at which water freezes at sea level. 100°C is the temperature, at which water evaporates. In Fahrenheit 100°F is the body temperature of a sweating horse of a very specific breed, at a very specific time, at a very specific spot in Germany. 0°F is the coldest temperature detected at the winter of 1708/1709 Just saying
And to avoid any confusion with the pressure-dependency that the freezing and boiling point of water have, you can even further simplify this by saying that the triple point of water is exactly 0.01°C or 273.16 Kelvin.
100 degrees is impressive for me meaning in Texas life is going to suck. 30.255334 is worthless to me. I dont care when water boils. Don't bother me with that. 32 is easy for freezing. 0 means death might be imminent. Same goes for speed 100 kmph not far 100 miles per hour fast and dangerous. The average person isn't a scientist no one cares.
When the members of the British Rocket Society, sitting in a pub in London, heard the explosion of the first V2 to reach London they cheered, realising that the sudden explosion, with no pre-ceeding engine noise meant that a supersonic rocket had just landed.
It's even more connected than you say. 1 metre was set at 1/10,000,000 the distance from the equator to the poles. (They have since then measured the distance more accurately and it's slightly out.) Also, a cube 10cm x 10cm x 10cm has a volume of 1 litre. 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram. At sea level water boils at 100°C and freezes at 0°C.
There are a ton of cool definitions of the meter. They also thought about having it defined as the length of a pendulumn that has frequency 1 with a weight of 1 kg attached to it. That's why earths acceleration is roughly π^2
Even energy units are defined by metric and even used in us... for example Calories and Joule are based on the metric system (1 calorie needed to heat 1 gramm / 1 millilitre of water 1 degree)...
@@georgigeorgiev891the mass doesn't change the frequency of a pendulum.... T=2π√(l/g) The meter has an old definition as the lenght of a pendulum with T = 2 seconds.
I grew up in South Africa and learned in the Imperial system until I was 12. When we changed to metric everyone in my class cheered! No more adding 33'9 and 3/8" to 21'8 and 25/64"!
Totally agree. I started my life with Imperial and with 3/16 and 8/32 and I still don't have a clue of what they are. Please give me a ratchet set and drill bits in metric!!!
@@TheGrimPeeper, apparently the English didn't get the message about the metric system being superior - perhaps it was the Alabama accent :-). So the American on his gap year in Germany needed to keep sending them rockets until they understood it. That's why Britain is (mostly) metric now.
I'm British and the problem with this video is that the US doesn't and has never used the British Imperial system, as that system was established after the founding of the US. USA uses 'United States Customary Units'.
I love a tiny error, the voiceover says "a lb is 0.435 kg" (9:12) which is just a perfect little example of how easy it is to make mistakes in such a silly conversion system.
Wernher von Braun is seriously one of the greatest men of history just in terms of the roasts people make of him. Tom Lehrer's song on him alone is legendary.
Then again, if it's like here in Italy, we use the term without even any clear grasp of what's supposed to be. For how many of us are concerned, a "pint" is just a kind of glass you use for beer rather than an actual unit of measurement.
There are several things used worldwide which are designed using inches. The ones most commonly used are automobile wheels, Schrader valves to inflate tires, threads to mount cameras to tripods, and square drives for socket wrenches. I have learned that there is a Metric alternative to the 19-inch rack. I think it is a little larger, so any equipment designed to fit in a 19-inch rack would fit in the Euro rack with a suitable face plate. Even the ordinary 19-inch rack was partially Metricized. The original design had threaded mounting holes built in. Current ones can be used with either US or Metric hardware.
I'm British and the problem with this video is that the US doesn't and has never used the British Imperial system, as that system was established after the founding of the US. USA uses 'United States Customary Units'.
Every time I come the US I have to get used to inches, miles, ounces, liquid ounces, gallons, Fahrenheit... And every time they ask or mention time, I get surprised that they use hours and minutes!
@@liamswiderski8978 , am I supposed to add #sarcasm to every sarcastic / ironic comment of mine? 8)) Besides, second _is_ a metric unit, as well as minute, hour etc. Whether you’re in the US, Europe, Asia or on the ISS, you use _metric time._ The meter is defined as the distance covered by light within 1/299792458 of a second in vacuum. Funnily, inches and gallons are metric, too, cuz they’re defined through metric units: one inch is officially defined as 25.4 mm. There’s no other definition of the inch that is absolutely independent from the metric / SI units. Otherwise, international trade and science would be impossible.
@@SummerThyme-ye5rd Minutes, hours ect aren't metric. Metric time is measured in seconds, kiloseconds, megaseconds ect. starting from some arbitrary t=0.
As a graduate Electric Engineer, ALL my studies were in Metric as all electrical units are metric- UN Standard (MkSA). Using the archaic "Imperial " units is quite simply ridiculous.
@@GH-oi2jf yup. Though I remember taking some Mechanical engineering courses. I had such a fun time getting accustomed to imperial units, the difference between lbm and lbf certainly messed with my mind.
@@GH-oi2jf the thing is: With metric all units are connected to each other. And electrical units like Volt are defined by metric units (1 Volt is 1 (kg*m^2)/(A*s^3). You see the meter and the kilogramm will show up here too. So when analyzing problems you can really play around with the units and use these metric definitions to draw connections from electrical problems to mechanical designs, physical behaviour or chemical requirements using all those metric laws and equations developed by all those clever scientist celebrities in the past. The possibilities are endless.
@@elvisdorkenoo Or as we say here, the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom at a temperature of absolute zero.
Skerples yeah but doing basic math IS where the mistakes happen. Not everyone is going to be able to simple math 100% of the time correctly. At some point you will make a simple mistake.
@@Z0DI4C basic math errors are waaaaaay more frequent than anything else, a good engineer would tell you to triple check a simple sum even if you do it with a calculator
This is a contrived problem, typical of the sort of thing Metric monotheists use to try to make some obscure point. The first problem with it is that the precision is biased. A mm is only about 1/25 inch. We don’t use 64ths much. The second problem is that we don’t necessarily express fractions as ratios. The third problem is using multiple units to express the length. The number in US units would be better expressed as 91.4 inches, where the precision is .04 inch. One half of that is 45.7 inches, which is as easy to do in your head as half of 2422. Carpenters, who do express fractions of inches as ratios, have other ways of finding the center than arithmetic. The diagonal method is a common way.
@@GH-oi2jf Where do I find a tape measure that's marked for said 91.4 or 45.7 inches? All I could find in any hardware store ore those marked with 1/2, 1/4, 1/8/, 1/16, ....
The biggest advantage of all in SI metric system is that most scientific formulae don't have extraneous constants in them. F = ma just works. F = g m1 m2/r^2 so I don't have to remember a heap of random constants! I tend to do calculations in basic units: m, kg, s etc. that way I don't have factors of 1000 and stuff complicating my calculations. Unfortunately some scientists still hold on to old cgs (not SI) metric units. I wish they would get with the strength and go pure SI but at least they aren't using poundals and slugs... :)
cgs is the worst "system". When I first learned they even used it for electromagnetic units and even have various cgs systems like esu or emu I went crazy. I had to read a old book with some measurements of ferroelectric transition in TGS and saw the units. I wanted to cry knowing I had to convert these to compare them with my own measurements.
cgs proves useful when doing calculations especially in physical chemistry. chemists generally deal in masses of grams and not kg. volumetric measurements are also in mL and so it proves useful to have gm and mL instead of the 10^-3 factors everywhere
@@joiseystud Both are different measurements. It's about a relation between a volume of water (Liter or cubic decimeter) and an amount of its mass (kg).
@@joiseystud Well, but what about a cubic inch? But maybe it just takes a bit. Decifoot for decifoot, you will fin a way to use another completely weird system.
@R. Schowiada71 And if we wanna piss everybody off we throw in that the density of water alone varies due to its temperature etc. which would mean even bigger differences :P But yeah, you're completly right though.
Yes. Here in America a football field is common. It's easy to visualize. Trip most people that don't have to deal with it to visualize land area in English or metric and watch the stupid look.
Imperial system: -inch: in -Feet: Ft -Yard: Yd -Mile: mi Metric is great for tiny measurements, because god knows there's a metric tonne of them you can use for that purpose. Imperial is more focused on larger measure, but can be broken down using fractions of a whole inch. Break the cycle. Change the norm. Use the Nautical system.
@@captbiptoe 1. the "centi" in centimetre doesn't come from "century", but from the latin "centesimus", wich means a hundredth, 100 meters is called hectometre 2. technically football fields can have different sizes
@@Genius_at_WorkThe Brazilian default is the safest. Half of each pin is plastic, only the tip of it is metal (which is more than enough to make contact), In addition to the connector having a format of a type of hexagon, which is mirrored in the socket so that it is impossible to get shocked unless you stick something in there by purpose. This shape also makes it much more difficult to cause accidents with water, no matter if there is ou isn't anything connected.
The imperial system isn't one system, it's 3 or 4 separate systems that were forcibly bolted together by creating conversion equations. And that's just the system for measuring length, all the other stuff was also just haphazardly applied with zero consideration. Kinda like the English language, it isn't a language, it's several languages in a trench coat that randomly mugs other languages for random parts.
That's why English spelling is such as mess: English adopts words from other languages without altering the spelling. As an example, the word "colonel" is spelled via one language but spoken via another language.
Omfg the roasts. I started using metric in my chem class and I was shocked by how EASY it was to use, so intuative, no random ass numbers to remember. 5280 feet my ass...
It is all based around water which makes certain things easier, 1L=1kg=1dm³ and 1ml=1g=1cm³ and temperatures are the same, 100° boiling point 0° freezing point, not 32°F or whatever it is
6:21 Not to really bug you but you forgot to add an extra one layer of bolts after the division of intervals to cater for the end of the 1 mile bridge. So that'll be 881 instead. Amounting to 1,762 bolts.
Before engineering school: "ehh both have their pros and cons" After engineering school: "if I see another slug, BTU, or horsepower I'm gonna break some Nico Nico kneecaps"
lol. I had a non-serious explanation for what the likely units were for measuring the performance of a cooling system, and I used metric units... Someone felt the need to tell me that I missed the 'most important' unit - the BTU... Had to double-check that, but no, it's not important. I had my units right the first time. XD Plus they talked about it as if everyone used that to specify cooling capacity, yet I'm fairly sure I've never seen an Air conditioner or cooler/heater of some other kind (car radiator or whatever) specified using BTU... Still, they insisted... Go figure...
One of my most frusterating moments in engineering school was realizing that my course work required the use of imperial units. Ranking and slugs are the bane of my existence.
That's a good argument. BUT. There are 3 skyscrapers that are about that tall (4.20 football fields). Guess where they are? Russia, Vietnam and China. Two are communist, one is former communist. Opposite of america. Hence, this completely refutes your argument that america is dank because they use the imperial system.
Sadly they use "fußballfelder" in the metric germany as well. You have morons in every country. At least Fußball is a game where you use your foot to kick a ball unlike american football where you use your body to takle opponents while protecting an EGG.
The most ironic part of this is that the US tried switching to metric directly after the metric system was invented and only failed because the guy that was supposed to carry the kilogram to the US got killed by pirates.
@uncletigger When half of your comment is in all caps, the intended effect of each usage diminishes. It's a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" situation, but with emphasis instead
For me its the ability to do stuff like 'oh i dont have a 1L measure' but i have a scale so i can measure out 1kg of water and thanks to the metric system its 1L of water. I actually had to do that once!!
Keep in mind that it's only true for pure water. If there's impurities like ions or calcium (which is likely, unless you're using distilled water), 1L of water won't weigh exactly 1kg, but rather slightly more. Another thing to keep in mind is that 1L of water only weighs 1kg at ambient pressure at sea level (i.e an elevation of roughly 0m), so there's that too. Still, should be pretty accurate for most purposes
for real. for every líquid similar to water (roughly same density), say milk or apple juice; I just weight a kilogram of it or any fraction for cooking. slight differences on density and pressure wont make It a 1:1 match but a few mililiters of difference don't matter for most things
"There are 2 kinds of countries -- Those that use the Metric system and those that used the metric system to go to the moon and later crashed a probe into mars because they were confused by metric units" -Scott Manley
They didn’t crash a probe into Mars. They covertly carried out an excavation of the Martian surface. They’ll go back later to look for signs of past Martian civilization. Joke’s on them though... they happened to excavate an area the past civilization had set aside as a nature preserve. There will be no signs of civilization there.
I remember at the beginning of my chemical engineering curriculum, we’d receive some easy mass and energy balancing problems that would have mismatched units. One pressure in psi, another in kPa, and one in mmHg for good measure. The purpose of this was to ensure we understood dimensional analysis and could deal with any units, but of course this was always frustrating for us students because it was usually unrelated to the course content. Eventually once the classes got a lot harder and the equations got longer, we never strayed from the metric system. However, when I entered industry I realized exactly why my earlier professors gave us those annoying problems… many industries cling to the imperial system for dear life. There are definitely some newer start-ups and facilities now that are being smart about their units because its much easier to keep everyone on the same system if you’re starting fresh. However, basically all the old plants religiously use the imperial system; its deeply engrained and difficult to transition because it certainly does cost a lot of time and manpower to replace all of the necessary instrumentation and train the operators and technicians. The benefit to investing in a complete overhaul of the instrumentation, SOPs, manuals, training, etc. to use the metric system is often going to be negligible for day-to-day operations. It can even be detrimental if it isn’t done properly, leading to the same errors discussed in this video that occur when transitioning between two unit systems. So really, you can’t blame American engineers. It’s just not our fault, we’d prefer to use metric because we’re one of the few demographics that appreciate it’s ease of use. However the people that run the businesses and are down on the ground don’t think that way. They’ve gotten along fine with their imperial units and as such require us to produce products and services that utilize them. In academia and highly scientific and technical industries it is different because a great percentage of the working population in those fields do understand the value to the metric system.
@@ArruVisionif im not mistaken, the US automotive industry once lobbied against changing to metric because the lobbying costs were cheaper than retooling costs.
Ah yes, Murrica the land of the money god. If the money god says it's cheap, the Muricans can do it, if the money god says they won't be able to buy 17 yachts that year but only 16, the smart and intelligent Muricans will not do it. Wouldn't want to make the big money priest unhappy, would be
Canada switch to the metric system in the mid 70’s, when I was a teenager in the sciences, so I am quite familiar with both. However, when it comes to people’s height (and to a lesser extent, weight), I still calculate metric to imperial for comparison. Everything else I prefer metric.
Well but I think that will phase out, in Germany we never use imperial units. The only thing I know is my grandma using the German pound (Pfund) from time to time (it's exactly 500g), but if only old people use something it will cease to exist
@@haselnuss43 Wow, that's really interesting. I'd never heard of a Pfund and didn't know that metric pounds were a thing. I've only ever encountered imperial pounds, which are approximately 454g
Yep. I learned how to do it - commit some things to memory and figure out weird relationships because I had to. I also learned the metric system. I have been waiting for over 50 years for America to just change already... if I learned how many feet are in a mile and how to calculate that back to inches (why???) I think I can adapt to figuring out how many liters I am going to put into my 20 gallon gas tank. :P
@@I-am-EmJay Why would you ever want to learn that? You never run your gas tank dry anyways. So you are always topping it off instead of adding a fixed amount. You just wait till the pump stops 😉
@@Galm_1 Again, what for? Whatever the result of those calculations might be is irrelevant. The tank is full when it's full, not when some pre-calculated number is reached. You usually don't know exactly how much is actually left in the tank and the pump is measuring how much it puts in until it stops. So you only know for sure how much was missing once you actually filled the tank. For a rough estimate on the other hand I need no calculations. I'm not saying you should never do that. All I'm saying is, that this is a task I never need to perform because filling a tank doesn't work that way. I can certainly see some use when working machines you usually don't drive to a fuel pump. But there again I don't need to calculate nothing. A rough estimate rounded to the closest number of fuel cans will be sufficient. Which is why I'm wondering why he would do that. If you really need that, the gallon->liter conversion is pretty straight forward. As long as you are only doing estimates: multiply by four and you're done ...
At least it follows the Imperial logic. 12 inches in a foot but football is 11 inches long. Is mainly played by holding it in your hands and while you can call prolate spheroid a ball, it's still the weirdo in the family of soccer ball, tennis ball, basketball and the likes.
My favorite crazy measurement has to be automobile tires. For example, 235/35ZR19. "235" is the width of the tread, in millimeters. "35" is the height of the tire, as a ratio of the tread width. "Z" is the speed rating where letters of the American alphabet correspond to increasing ranges of speed, except that they aren't in strict alphabetical order. The series ends with "STUHVZWY". "R" means radial, and "19" is the wheel size, in inches.
There’s another point: when converting imperial one hardly use all significant digits, so there’s always some error which can accumulate. That doesn’t happen with metric: 1 km is exactly 1000 m, not only the conversation is easier to make, it is always precise.
I love that we can hear in his voice how he's just trying to remain chill and calm but deep inside wants to scream and shout on how stupid the Imperial system is LMAO
@@one9752 For the sake of argument, let's just say, that the USA is the greatest country (whatever you're basing that on). Best doesn't mean perfect, and as you see in the video, the imperial system is very flawed. But really, what are you basing that on? The titles of happiest, safest and most equal countries go around in the nordic countries (no, I am not from there).
@@unkreativity1596 I basing this on very simple things, it’s also telling that most internet users and people who watched this video are American, it’s simply the best run country in the world, no other country has done better for society.
My wife (American) and I (Australian) argue about this all the time. After watching this video I heard something I never though I would hear her say: ‘fine, I admit it, metric is better’. I can now die happy (and just may!)
We Brits hate the metric system because we are Imperialists For some obscure reason Johnny Foreigner is absolutely obsessed with the number 10. We, in the more civilised world, have no such fixations. We just instinctively know that there are 45 inches in an ell and 198 inches in a rod (or pole, or perch). Similarly there are 320 rods (or poles, or perches) in a mile. And also, since there are obviously 5280 feet in a mile, and 12 inches in a foot, there are 1,760 yards and 63,360 inches in a mile - which is also 80 chains since there are 22 yards in a chain, 10 chains in a furlong and 8 furlongs in a mile (which, for completeness is also 190,080 barleycorns). All very simple. The acre is even easier: just a chain by a furlong. So 4,840 square yards, 160 square perches or 56,453,760 sq barleycorns. Logically there are 112 pounds in a hundredweight (not a hundred obviously) and 160 stones or 35,840 ounces or 15,680,000 grains in a ton. Luckily we know all this because, obviously, we are smarter. And, of course, we can actually multiply (and divide). In God's Own County - Yorkshire, (naturally), we used to have a large silver coin that was called "Half a dollar". This was more formally (and formerly) referred to as "Half a Crown". Or 2 and a half bob. Or 2 and a kick. Or 2 and 6. Which translated is 2 shillings and 6 pence. And yes there were 12 old pence in a shilling and 20 shillings or 240 pence to the pound (that's pound money not pound weight of course). All this was pre-decimalisation (which was basically just an excuse to put up prices). The half dollar coin no longer exists but if it did it would be worth 12.5 new pence or 30 old pence. Hope this clears it up.
I'd like to point out that the "eagle scream" used when making fun of 'merica is acutally a red-tailed hawk. It's a common conversion used in video because actual eagles sounds kind of silly.
You obviously haven't been listening to Eagles. I witnessed a young bald eagle on its first successful hunt for sturgeon on the Snake River happen less than 30 feet from me. And as it hoisted is prize into the air it shrieked a piercing cry that echoed throughout the canyon. Then from high above its mother approved.
When I was learning to fly it seemed crazy that the (American) planes we were flying measured aircraft, passenger, baggage and fuel weights in pounds, but they measured fuel volume in US gallons (which bizarrely are not even the same as an Imperial gallon!), and we purchased our fuel in litres - lots of room for error there, even in light aircraft! Fortunately some light aircraft owners have been sensible enough to have the aircraft weights converted to kg and the fuel dipsticks to litres, removing most of the potential errors.
We think the Imperial gallon is bizarre. In olden times, “gallon” was not a fixed volume. It was a container for liquids and there were different gallons for different liquids. The US gallon was the British wine gallon. When the British formulated the Imperial System, half a century after the United States had left the Empire, they chose to standardize on a different gallon. Why they didn’t check with the USA first I can’t imagine.
Excellent. When we were taught the metric system in high school (1969) it shocked me that it was so easy to learn. The difficulty and what they focused on was the conversion from one to another. Don't convert! Just move to metric. It's so easy!
I grew up with metric, and as an engineer i grimace at time… 60seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24hrs per day…. Why??? It’s so painful to have been left out.
I have engineering degrees. Every place in the world uses the same system of timekeeping. If you think it is difficult, imagine the difficulty of having two different systems. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. Try switching to Swatch time and find out directly for yourself.
Hex wrenches in millimiters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.... (some set may include 1.5 and 2.5 mm) Hex wrenches in imperial: 0.05", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32", 7/64", 1/8", 9/64", 5/32".... are you fu**ing kidding me?
@@Locke99GS They are certainly more complex than whole numbers, and a bit too unwieldy for day to day mental maths. Also, like I said, why add the needless complexity? if you already have a nice, standardized system which gives you a result in more understandable whole numbers, why would you want to willingly subject yourself to a system which displays the same result but in a more convoluted way? Is it just a matter of pride then?
@@dragonlord1935 1) "They are certainly more complex than whole numbers" In the same way that decimals are more complex than whole numbers. 2) "and a bit too unwieldy for day to day mental maths" They're not. American children do them. Americans in general do mental maths with fractions several times a day, every day, without issue. Because Europeans are uneducated or mentally unexercised in doing those mental maths does not mean that it is in any way difficult or cumbersome for those that are educated and mentally exercised in doing those mental maths. 3) "Also, like I said, why add the needless complexity?" It's not complex. It is _different_ . 4) "if you already have a nice, standardized system which gives you a result in more understandable whole numbers," The imperial system is standardized. The imperial system uses just as many whole number as metric. Decimal is not a whole number. Decimal is a restricted form of fraction. 5) "why would you want to willingly subject yourself to a system which displays the same result but in a more convoluted way?" It is not more convoluted, it is _different_ . The result is, as you mentioned, the same. Because something seems more convoluted to Europeans does not mean that those familiar with it find it convoluted. The same argument could be made with language, religion, law, political system, etc... 6) "Is it just a matter of pride then?" It is a matter of casual practicality. Since Europeans won't listen to Americans telling them why Americans are choosing to continue to use the US customary system, see youtube video v=N0U-XEmKPKg which is presented by a Brit, living in Britain. He explains why.
Yes, I can feel the disappointment when they say as big as an tennis court or Olympic swimming pool. Once did read where a newspaper mentioned a crater formed on a road as big as 4 refrigerator.
@Samuel Guo No, nobody's heard of American football. There's rugby league, rugby union, AFL, soccer, and that weird game they play in the US, where people dress up like oompa loompas and roll over each other with a football, and the 'world series' has one country.
Thermodynamics was developed in both English and metric units, because the principles are independent of units. Real scientists know that units are arbitrary.
@@GH-oi2jf I know that principles are independent of units, you are talking to an Engineer buddy. But anybody who has taken thermodynamics courses knows how things can get complicated really quickly when you are dealing with multiple properties or processes, now imagine adding the difficulty of English units to this.
Had to learn compressible fluid flow in both unit systems. Most foolproof option for me was to convert to metric at the start of a problem and convert back at the end. Otherwise I would usually have to include units in my equations with unit conversions, whereas in metric you don't have to if all of your units are the standard ones. (This gets crazy in some of the more complicated equations) Also lb-mass, horsepower, and BTUs are garbage units
I'm in quality control at a CNC shop and I can tell you that it makes almost no difference which system you use. It's easy to convert, and usually you would just work in metric instead of converting as literally nothing changes except you hit the metric button on your caliper, CMM machine, etc... This video is hilarious at how much it blows out of proportion something that nobody in in the industry even cares about.
Unless the customer drawing doesn't specify any units, those are fun days. Also converting AWG items to real numbers that can measured in either SAE or metric, (mild sarcasm) that's very fun.
The thing is, the US has a very big stick, with which they can force others to tolerate their imperial system and adapt to it - at present, most of the world can't afford to just plainly refuse to do business with them until they switch. And they won't, because internal politics and the voters' support and all that :D To be honest, I can't imagine an intellectual, educated US citizen having any problems leaving imperial system behind. But the dumb ones, too lazy to learn something new, still make up too big a chunk of this nation's population... enough that if one party wishes to abandon it and the other promises not to, we'll know in advance that Republicans are going to win.
@@NaqrSeranvis The problem is that the country’s measurements for roads and other things are measured and have been measured for years. Switching to metric means that they’ll be reverted to decimal values which don’t look nice. Also, it’ll be kinda expensive adjusting all of those signs throughout the entire nation. It’s just cheaper for people to just be aware of both of the systems and not spend potentially hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to transition everything to metric. It’s not a matter of laziness as it is a matter of practicality. Also, I don’t see how the point of bringing politics into this. You know, there is no need to think that half of the country are stupid. It kinda makes you sound like a person that likes to looks down on people.
Actually it's the least flawed of the imperial units. Yeah, Fahrenheit's defining points are really weirdly established, but in the end Celsius is just another arbitrary scale as well (though it is more scientifically defined). Fahrenheit doesn't have any inconsistent relations between several units, unlike all the other Imperial units. Though that probably is just because Imperial system doesn't have multiple units of temperature.
@@wombat4191 Hmm... Celsius is just a practical scale for me. If I hear it's 0 degrees Celsius outside, I know it's freezing, and slippery. If my water boils, I know it's 100 degrees. That are neat rounded values based on practical values. I don't disagree with you about Farenheit being the least flawed of the imperial units, but it feels weird for me that when everything outside is frozen over, the Farenheit scale still gives a positive value.
@@jclosed2516 Yeah I agree with you, Celsius at least feels more convenient as I'm used to it. That being said, people who are used to Fahrenheit will say the exacts same, arguing the normal "0 = really cold weather, 100 = really hot weather, and 100 is also the limit of fever". I don't really blame them, because it is a rare imperial unit that is not objectively inferior to its metric counterpart (except for scientific use). It's just a matter of how you view the temperature scale for everyday use. Celsius users see it as the area around 0, while Fahrenheit users see it as a scale between 0 and 100.
Given that Celsius isn't in the IS (the unity for temperature is Kelvin, where 0K is the minimum possible temperature: -273.15°C and +-1°C = +-1K): Fahreneit who was the best at making thermometers at the time and Celsius (whi didn't invent Centigrade: the actual Celsius scale has 0 and 100 swapped) made a scale to measure in a specific range without needing negative temperatures for the field of application (respectively meteorology and medicine)
Seriously? When you tell a Brit that it's 32 degrees outside, instead of bringing a jacket and earmuffs they get dressed in shorts and flip-flops. Weird people.
Not really. Engineers use decimal fractions. The calculations using feet with a decimal fraction are the same as when using meters with a decimal fraction.
When I first saw this video 3 years ago I was all for ‘murica and got slightly offended by this video. Now that I’m in my junior year of mechanical engineering when I’m given a problem with imperial units it pisses me off. It’s so much more needlessly difficult
That's because the British measurements changed after American independence, kind of like how the Frenchies metric system changes its definition of a meter every so often, the meter was originally 1/10,000,000th the distance between the equator and the north pole assuming a perfectly round earth, then redefined as the length of a brass stick in Paris, then the stick was replaced with a platinum stick, which was replaced with a platinum-iridium bar suspended on 2 10mm cylinders spaced 57.1cm apart symmetrically in a 0°C room, then that was replaced by 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in a vacuum, which was replaced with the speed of light emitted from a Helium-Neon laser in a vacuum (however it is only practical to use an inert-gas atmosphere and estimate the refractive index to get an approximation of a meter)
I am a very old man I was taught imperial and thought nothing of it. In 1971 Britain started to go over to metric, there was panic. However the metric system is a totally integrated system and is simple to use in fact it is beautiful
You say that but its shadows are still around. Milk and beer still gets sold in pints, and speed, height, and weight is still measured in imperial by many. Pretty sure the speed limits are still in miles to? Its a mess.
@@AshleyBlackwater I agree. In this day of age my kids at school only learn metric (kg, km...), but when asking about their weight with the school matron, she would still use stone! And one day my older boy came home asking how heavy is a stone. And I replied, give me a stone I will weight it for you...
@@AshleyBlackwater Milk isn't actually sold as a pint, the bottles are in litres, just with odd numbers. Pints are measured in mls by trading standard, who will allow a 5% error, which is why you pint is often only 540ml
Ashley Blackwater I agree but it is still a beautifully simple, logical and integrated system. And what is left of the imperial system is defined by the metric system
@@BiW1nning WRONG! Milk is packaged in whole units of pints or in whole units of litres. It's one of the most curious examples of EU legislation. Look here for instance: groceries.asda.com/search/semi-skimmed%20milk I can't though remember the rules: but there are some! Weirder still though, if a unit is packaged as a pint, the cost has to be shown as pence per litre. I think that it was done this way for the grannies of the 1970's buying 'staple' goods. Same with eggs too. Sold in dozens, half dozens but also in say, 10's or 15's. The important thing though is that the units are clearly displayed on the containers. And let's not try to understand Market Traders!
Democratic countries prefer Metric becouse it is simply a better system of units than imperial The metric system is a consistent and coherent system of units. In other words, it fits together very well and calculations are easy because it is decimal. This is a big advantage for use in the home, education, industry and science.
Architecture and civil engineering is still done in Imperial. At my job, sometimes we will get a job in metric. That sucks, because it's usually in CM which means to do every little simple thing requires a calculator.
@Khaffit Destin supports facts and truth.. So you can guess if he would support a totalitarian regime. He did work in the defense industry as a full time Missile Flight Test Engineer at Redstone Arsenal, so I guess he did support regimes that would be willing to kill millions if needed.
@Khaffit I think that you should probably question the regime that chose to turn a blind eye and not put him on trial. Instead they relocated him and put him in a top post to get to space. Proud moment for them if I recall correctly built on the backs of the same regime that killed millions.
'these units are the language of the universe' is only partially true, its the relationship between properties that are important rather than the specific units used to represent those relationships - this to me says that there is something more fundamental to relative representations than decimal numeric representations.
You may be familiar with the inch mm conversion of 25·4 ? Well, that inch is a metric inch, not an imperial one ! An imperial one is shorter 2.5399....
There’s nothing funny about it. It makes perfectly good sense to tie the systems together. It would be a nuisance to have to adjust the conversions every time metric units were adjusted, and expensive to duplicate standards activities.
@@GH-oi2jf what's funny is the fact that "the 'murica measurements" are defined by non murica measurements. I didn't say it isn't practical, it's just funny to me
@@treborngoochdelamarxvi9775 i politely disagree. Metric is better for a bunch of reasons that are listed in the video (and many more). I'm not from the US and believe me that it's really fucking annoying when those useless measurements come out of NOWHERE just because someone in the US was too lazy to make the conversion. If you are comfortable using it because you have always used it, that's totally fine, but outside of the US there's this thing called "rest of the world" in which the imperial system is just there to bother. So yeah, that's why it's so funny to make jokes about it
He wasn’t encumbered. Most of his work would have been done in one unit of length - feet with decimal fractions. It is no different in complexity than working in metres. Units are equivalent.
@@GH-oi2jf I agree . The direction of this video was that imperial measures were ludicrously difficult - which would have made the achievements of our great engineers even more impressive.
I hope some Americans will realize that their system is not the best in the world. It says a lot tho, about their feeling of superiority that they are litarally the only country holding on to their obsolete way of thinking. Pretty ignorant...
“Best” doesn’t mean anything. All systems of units are equvalent, but they are optimized for different purposes. US Customary units work well for many things and Metric units for many things. We use both. There are often advantages to sticking with legacy systems, and sometimes advantages in making a change. We (in the USA) have decided to be bimetral, so that’s the way it is.
Sure, but 'Better' is subjective. Scientifically, and maybe in your field, metric is better, but for every day use the english system is more intuitive and easier.
@@welove2134 I believe volume measurements are all simpler in metric. But things such as length, temperature, speed, fuel economy, tire size, rim size, air speed, and nautical distances and speed are all FAR SUPERIOR not in metric. Then there are things which go either way, such as time in 12vs24 hours, wire gauges, things like bolts size or thread pitch and bolt strength, and things such as lubricity measurements. At the end of the day, we have computers that can do these conversions for us, so the conversation of standardizing measurements on a global scale is moot.
@@rickyhall1772 what can be easier than multiplying/dividing by 10 to achieve any conversion inside the same measure system? you feel imperial is more intuitive because you are used to it, metric is the easiest to learn and to use. Give it a SERIOUS try.
@@rickyhall1772 Uh....nope. The Metric System is superior. Saying that the imperial system is more intuitive and easier is absurd. You could teach someone the Metric System in a few minutes. Try that with the imperial system. When I build things I use the Metric System. It is so much easier than remember inches, feet, yards and also working with fractions. Just because you are more familiar with one system doesn't make it easier to teach for the masses, or more intuitive to use. There is a reason everyone else uses the Metric System. There are about 195 countries. 190+ countries didn't get it wrong, and the US along with a couple of other countries got it right. We use the Metric System at work-in medicine. We don't do conversions because mistakes can kill people. Some of the most dangerous and expensive medications are usually dosed in milligrams per kilogram. I weight about 172 pounds, and I'm about 5 feet 9 inches tall. That's about 78 kilograms and about 175 centimeters. Once I know that everything else becomes notoriously easy to estimate just like you'd estimate in pounds, feet and inches. BTW, get those units wrong either with relaying a measurement to a third party or converting erroneously and you'll gravely under dose or over dose the patient.
I am a simple private pilot and one thing that has always intrigued me is that in aviation we use notations that mix the metric and imperial systems. In the same sentence, it is possible to read an indication of visibility in meters, altitude in feet, and speed in knots (nautical miles per hour). No doubt created by some drunk guy.
The mix is to prevent errors and mistakes. If you hear meters you think visibility, hear feet you should think altitude (or height), hear knots it is speed (airspeed if it is a message from atc). No, I don't fly, not after they nicked my medical.
Drives my a bit crazy as well. feet/gallons/pounds/pounds per square inch - pure pain (for me) to calculate and "think" in this crude system. But I'doubt ICAO would ever switched to a system the Americans are not familiar with. I'm fine with nautical miles and knots because they are based on the grid system. Although I plan simple VFRs in metric over here.
Actually, the ICAO wants to implement the metrical system since a couple of years already. It's just really difficult to do and, quite frankly, absolutely unnecessary in the aviation, so that's why they leave it as it is. Speeds and distances are in nautical miles, height/altitude in feet and visibility/runway length in (kilo)meters (at least in Europe - US uses statue miles for that). However, you don't need to convert these units to each other, so it works out pretty well. I can assure you that, because I'm working in aviation.
That confusing convention comes from the historic nautical world, ... then there were flying boats who adopted nautical conventions. (including the uniform!) . Altitude is an anomaly in the nautical world, but they did measure depth in feet on occaision.
@@adamgonzalez7450 The beauty of the metric system is that i could use arbitrarily humongous prefixes, like megameters, so it could always win. megameters >> miles
![[UNCUT] “อภิสิทธิ์” ครม.อุ๊งอิ๊ง แย่งเก้าอี้กันฝุ่นตลบ “ทักษิณ” บงการเอง Iคนดังนั่งเคลียร์I 21ส.ค.67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/a_b-kItw2jY/mqdefault.jpg)
America is moving towards the metric system, one inch at a time
or better one milimeter in a century
Please show your working.
The milli-furloung could solve all this.
* 3 centimeters at a time
Classic quote
Imperial and metric have something in common: They're both incompatible with imperial
Gold
This.
Hilarious 😂
L O L
Absolutely!
As an engineering student, with the metric system I was able to find formulas I'd forgotten out of nowhere with a simple dimensional analysis, no arbitrary coefficients, everything is elegant.
Elegant? Its just easy as easy can be.
@@evobsm2328 yes, there is elegance in simplicity but you probably wouldnt know
which is elegant...@@evobsm2328
@@evobsm2328 THAT is what makes it an elegant system.
As a cnc programmer and machinist who works in an R&D machine shop, engineers need some manufacturing experience because they usually dont know how things actually work and we constantly have to correct their designs and show them better ways of doing whay yhey are trying to accomplish.
There are 2 types of countries - those that use metric, and those whose units are federally defined by metric
I actually read this comment while he said it in the video. That was a brainfuck
@@genertec😂
Which is in turn defined by light...
So you mean there are Tier1 countries and Tier2 countries?
@@AngraMainiiu Any unit of length can be defined in terms of the speed of light in a vacuum, this doesn't make the meter special in any way.
There's a reason nobody's using plank lengths as their primary unit of measure.
''I aimed for the stars, but sometimes hit London.''
Wernher Von Braun
Pretty cursed
:D
Oh that's gotta be one of the best comments I've heard, if only my friends had the same sense of humour to share it with. Well done 😎
@Simon Read works better if you write 10
There are two kinds of people. Those who classify everything in 2 categories and those who don't.
I came here to see the imperial system get roasted and I was NOT disappointed
Thanks for the spoiler. I'll definitely watch the video then
Same here
Yessssss
Rodrigo Rex lol
Pew Pew! 😂
"He despised british units so much so he designed a rocket to fly to england to show them how great the metric system was" i'm dying over here 😂
If you're British quite literally...
Not so bad for a gap year project. I'm sure his friends were happy.
I’m confused. Didn’t the British use the metric system?
@@lordpengz16not at the time (and in a few ways we still don't), we invented the imperial system and used it for century's and as such it's taken us a while to shift off from it.
@@matthewmac5787you brits generally do some weird things.
But what annoys me the most is that i cant find any new shows with the typical british humor i loved so much during my youth. Heck, you can measure lenghts with your spitting distance if thats what floats your boat, as long as you bring out anything comparable to little britain
Hey, fun fact about the temperature in both systems:
In Celsius 0°C is the temperature, at which water freezes at sea level. 100°C is the temperature, at which water evaporates.
In Fahrenheit 100°F is the body temperature of a sweating horse of a very specific breed, at a very specific time, at a very specific spot in Germany. 0°F is the coldest temperature detected at the winter of 1708/1709
Just saying
Where in the heck did you dig that up? That's awesome.
And to avoid any confusion with the pressure-dependency that the freezing and boiling point of water have, you can even further simplify this by saying that the triple point of water is exactly 0.01°C or 273.16 Kelvin.
@@Mis7erSeven I think that's how Kelvin and Celsius scales are defined...
100 degrees is impressive for me meaning in Texas life is going to suck. 30.255334 is worthless to me. I dont care when water boils. Don't bother me with that. 32 is easy for freezing. 0 means death might be imminent. Same goes for speed 100 kmph not far 100 miles per hour fast and dangerous. The average person isn't a scientist no one cares.
that's not true
96F was defined as the human body temperature, and 0F as the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture at an arbitrary point in time
"He designed a rocket to fly to England to show how great the metric system was." Oh god!
When the members of the British Rocket Society, sitting in a pub in London, heard the explosion of the first V2 to reach London they cheered, realising that the sudden explosion, with no pre-ceeding engine noise meant that a supersonic rocket had just landed.
U Estonian? Your pfp has nature in it and is Blue black white basicly, so it seems so Estonian.
Well he was German.
Was this rocket named V2 ?
@@helloWorld-dd2yc jes
1 foot is legally defined as the distance a 9mm bullet can travel through a monster truck and 3 cheeseburgers inside a complete Vacuum
You mean submerged in Frying oil
Ovbiusly du'h *
Super👍😁
9mm? You mean 0,354 inch bullets...
How paradoxical - in this case their guns makes the most sense...
over the flat earth
It's even more connected than you say.
1 metre was set at 1/10,000,000 the distance from the equator to the poles. (They have since then measured the distance more accurately and it's slightly out.)
Also, a cube 10cm x 10cm x 10cm has a volume of 1 litre.
1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram.
At sea level water boils at 100°C and freezes at 0°C.
There are a ton of cool definitions of the meter. They also thought about having it defined as the length of a pendulumn that has frequency 1 with a weight of 1 kg attached to it. That's why earths acceleration is roughly π^2
Even energy units are defined by metric and even used in us... for example Calories and Joule are based on the metric system (1 calorie needed to heat 1 gramm / 1 millilitre of water 1 degree)...
@@georgigeorgiev891the mass doesn't change the frequency of a pendulum....
T=2π√(l/g)
The meter has an old definition as the lenght of a pendulum with T = 2 seconds.
Also 1 Metre is a 10000 Part of the distance between Paris and Barcelona
It's all the question how to measure all those zeros ....
I grew up in South Africa and learned in the Imperial system until I was 12. When we changed to metric everyone in my class cheered! No more adding 33'9 and 3/8" to 21'8 and 25/64"!
Totally agree. I started my life with Imperial and with 3/16 and 8/32 and I still don't have a clue of what they are. Please give me a ratchet set and drill bits in metric!!!
to me always metric those number seem like a shitpost compilation lmao
That’s exactly why the imperial system is crap. Those ridiculous fractions of an inch.
People that were taught the Imperial system usually are slightly better at multiplying fractions. That's possibly the only positive 😂
@@arnolddavies6734 Some fields use tenths of an inch instead of fractions.
You guys are too harsh towards US. They've been using 9mm in schools for a while now.
Tolga Ekiz I just laughed way too much at that
LOL WHAT
at least something
I find this gun joke very funny, while knowing that I shouldn´t do that.
See you in hell, buddy. You'll be there for writing this joke, I'll be there for shittin' myself laughing
"He designed a rocket to fly to England to show them how great the metric system was". LOL :-)
Wouldent be the first time a German tried to launch a rocket at England.
@@TheGrimPeeper, apparently the English didn't get the message about the metric system being superior - perhaps it was the Alabama accent :-). So the American on his gap year in Germany needed to keep sending them rockets until they understood it. That's why Britain is (mostly) metric now.
Spoken like a true Irishman...
@@TheGrimPeeper I see the reference went right over your head.
Well it wasn't that great because the bloody things kept crashing.
There's just a few things you can watch with great satisfaction:
Waterfalls, fires, and someone shitting on the imperial system
I'm British and the problem with this video is that the US doesn't and has never used the British Imperial system, as that system was established after the founding of the US. USA uses 'United States Customary Units'.
I love a tiny error, the voiceover says "a lb is 0.435 kg" (9:12) which is just a perfect little example of how easy it is to make mistakes in such a silly conversion system.
but that's correct, a pound is 0.435kg
@@freshrockpapa-e77990.454kg or so I was taught?
@@jase_llan Yepth, it's 454 grams in Canada.
“So great, that he designed a rocket to fly to England to show them” shows a picture of a V-2 rocket lmao this had me rolling
Great at taking off, not so good on the landing ;P
@Anant Tiwari e
Wernher von Braun is seriously one of the greatest men of history just in terms of the roasts people make of him. Tom Lehrer's song on him alone is legendary.
Ari Rahikkala Any controversial historical figure will have their fair share of roasts
Jerry Rupprecht calling him controversial would be an understatement lmao
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: Still yes
short answer: yes
long answer: y e s
longer answer y e s
shorter answer ye
@@randomperson1955 shorter answer: si
Usa girl: i only date 6 foot guys!
The exchange student from chernobil:😏
@@denifnaf5874 lmao underrated
@@randomperson1955
Short answer: yes
Long answer: definitely
Longer answer: See the above
Most efficient answer: JA!
I'm a French engineer. And We tolerate only one none metric measure : the pint of beer !
Rack-mounted instruments around the world use the 19-inch rack.
Huh. I never thought of that. Are there any other niche places where imperial carries on?
Then again, if it's like here in Italy, we use the term without even any clear grasp of what's supposed to be.
For how many of us are concerned, a "pint" is just a kind of glass you use for beer rather than an actual unit of measurement.
There are several things used worldwide which are designed using inches. The ones most commonly used are automobile wheels, Schrader valves to inflate tires, threads to mount cameras to tripods, and square drives for socket wrenches.
I have learned that there is a Metric alternative to the 19-inch rack. I think it is a little larger, so any equipment designed to fit in a 19-inch rack would fit in the Euro rack with a suitable face plate.
Even the ordinary 19-inch rack was partially Metricized. The original design had threaded mounting holes built in. Current ones can be used with either US or Metric hardware.
@@josephwodarczyk977 Diagonal of tv's.
I've lived my whole life using the metric system and can't physically comprehend why would someone use Imperial other than for cultural reasons.
Unfortunately those cultural reasons are stronger than sound logic
I'm British and the problem with this video is that the US doesn't and has never used the British Imperial system, as that system was established after the founding of the US. USA uses 'United States Customary Units'.
Every time I come the US I have to get used to inches, miles, ounces, liquid ounces, gallons, Fahrenheit... And every time they ask or mention time, I get surprised that they use hours and minutes!
LMFAO
You do know most of the world uses the same the time system practically no one uses metric time
@@liamswiderski8978 , am I supposed to add #sarcasm to every sarcastic / ironic comment of mine? 8))
Besides, second _is_ a metric unit, as well as minute, hour etc. Whether you’re in the US, Europe, Asia or on the ISS, you use _metric time._ The meter is defined as the distance covered by light within 1/299792458 of a second in vacuum.
Funnily, inches and gallons are metric, too, cuz they’re defined through metric units: one inch is officially defined as 25.4 mm. There’s no other definition of the inch that is absolutely independent from the metric / SI units. Otherwise, international trade and science would be impossible.
@@SummerThyme-ye5rd Oof, burns.
@@SummerThyme-ye5rd Minutes, hours ect aren't metric. Metric time is measured in seconds, kiloseconds, megaseconds ect. starting from some arbitrary t=0.
The "so, on his gap year, he built a rocket that flew to the UK to show them how great the metric system is" made me lmao
Me too, just remember who won that argument!
@@gregjewell4356 Well, the British DID switch to metric so...
Greg Jewell Russia?
@@darcyryan9693 Everyone knows the USSR steals the technology from the USA just like China...duh!
@@TripleCZ so... their mistake! Alfa Romero, Mini's,
As a graduate Electric Engineer, ALL my studies were in Metric as all electrical units are metric- UN Standard (MkSA). Using the archaic "Imperial " units is quite simply ridiculous.
Everybody uses the same electrical units, so there is no issue at all, is there?
@@GH-oi2jf yup. Though I remember taking some Mechanical engineering courses. I had such a fun time getting accustomed to imperial units, the difference between lbm and lbf certainly messed with my mind.
@@GH-oi2jf no, the cgs system uses different stuff
@@GH-oi2jf the thing is: With metric all units are connected to each other. And electrical units like Volt are defined by metric units (1 Volt is 1 (kg*m^2)/(A*s^3). You see the meter and the kilogramm will show up here too. So when analyzing problems you can really play around with the units and use these metric definitions to draw connections from electrical problems to mechanical designs, physical behaviour or chemical requirements using all those metric laws and equations developed by all those clever scientist celebrities in the past. The possibilities are endless.
I only use two non metric units, the nautical mile and the knot. they work well in navigation because they easily convert to angles on our planet.
Yes. This makes sense.
I'm here to watch "YES" being stretched to 13 minutes.
yes, actually the video could have been one second length...
Same here!
lol
@@elvisdorkenoo Or as we say here, the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom at a temperature of absolute zero.
So a channel to avoid then. As that's a simplistic view. Then again, what do you expect from something with "engineering" in the title.
Alternative title “ Roasting Imperial System for 12 mins straight “
*complaining about occasionally doing basic math for 12 mins straight
Skerples yeah but doing basic math IS where the mistakes happen. Not everyone is going to be able to simple math 100% of the time correctly. At some point you will make a simple mistake.
@@Z0DI4C you're missing the point, it all about efficiency
@@Z0DI4C the simple math is even simpler while dealing with factors of 10
@@Z0DI4C basic math errors are waaaaaay
more frequent than anything else, a good engineer would tell you to triple check a simple sum even if you do it with a calculator
What's half of 2322mm?
What's half of 7' 7 27/64"?
Teacher's waiting...
This is a contrived problem, typical of the sort of thing Metric monotheists use to try to make some obscure point. The first problem with it is that the precision is biased. A mm is only about 1/25 inch. We don’t use 64ths much. The second problem is that we don’t necessarily express fractions as ratios. The third problem is using multiple units to express the length. The number in US units would be better expressed as 91.4 inches, where the precision is .04 inch. One half of that is 45.7 inches, which is as easy to do in your head as half of 2422.
Carpenters, who do express fractions of inches as ratios, have other ways of finding the center than arithmetic. The diagonal method is a common way.
@@GH-oi2jf just stop it. this system is indefensible
@@GH-oi2jf Where do I find a tape measure that's marked for said 91.4 or 45.7 inches? All I could find in any hardware store ore those marked with 1/2, 1/4, 1/8/, 1/16, ....
The biggest advantage of all in SI metric system is that most scientific formulae don't have extraneous constants in them. F = ma just works. F = g m1 m2/r^2 so I don't have to remember a heap of random constants! I tend to do calculations in basic units: m, kg, s etc. that way I don't have factors of 1000 and stuff complicating my calculations. Unfortunately some scientists still hold on to old cgs (not SI) metric units. I wish they would get with the strength and go pure SI but at least they aren't using poundals and slugs... :)
cgs is the worst "system". When I first learned they even used it for electromagnetic units and even have various cgs systems like esu or emu I went crazy. I had to read a old book with some measurements of ferroelectric transition in TGS and saw the units. I wanted to cry knowing I had to convert these to compare them with my own measurements.
cgs proves useful when doing calculations especially in physical chemistry. chemists generally deal in masses of grams and not kg. volumetric measurements are also in mL and so it proves useful to have gm and mL instead of the 10^-3 factors everywhere
Best thing ever in real life: 1 liter of water = 1 kg.
Oh yeah well 1 fluid ounce of water equals 1 ounce of water.
@@joiseystud Both are different measurements. It's about a relation between a volume of water (Liter or cubic decimeter) and an amount of its mass (kg).
@@joiseystud Well, but what about a cubic inch? But maybe it just takes a bit. Decifoot for decifoot, you will fin a way to use another completely weird system.
@R. Schowiada71 And if we wanna piss everybody off we throw in that the density of water alone varies due to its temperature etc. which would mean even bigger differences :P
But yeah, you're completly right though.
Well, that's only true if your water's temperature is 39.2 Fahrenheit :), (just kidding, I meant 277.15 Kelvin or if you insist, 4 degrees Celsius).
Metric system
mm- millimetre
cm- centimetre
m- metre
km- kilometre
Imperial system
- Inch
- Feet
- yard
- size of Football field
- size of Texas
Don't worry, "size of ..." is pretty universal. In Germany we like "size of soccer field", "size of Saarland" ...
Since a century is a hundred years a centimeter should be 100 meters? 100x vs. 1/100th ?
Yes. Here in America a football field is common. It's easy to visualize. Trip most people that don't have to deal with it to visualize land area in English or metric and watch the stupid look.
Imperial system:
-inch: in
-Feet: Ft
-Yard: Yd
-Mile: mi
Metric is great for tiny measurements, because god knows there's a metric tonne of them you can use for that purpose. Imperial is more focused on larger measure, but can be broken down using fractions of a whole inch.
Break the cycle.
Change the norm.
Use the Nautical system.
@@captbiptoe 1. the "centi" in centimetre doesn't come from "century", but from the latin "centesimus", wich means a hundredth, 100 meters is called hectometre
2. technically football fields can have different sizes
It would be also nice to have similar video about different types of power outlet sockets in different countries.
British are the safest, unless you happen to step onto one at Night. Tom Scott made a good Video explaining why.
@@Genius_at_WorkThe Brazilian default is the safest. Half of each pin is plastic, only the tip of it is metal (which is more than enough to make contact), In addition to the connector having a format of a type of hexagon, which is mirrored in the socket so that it is impossible to get shocked unless you stick something in there by purpose. This shape also makes it much more difficult to cause accidents with water, no matter if there is ou isn't anything connected.
@@gn4sty731I believe the British also follow the semi plastic plug style.
@@gn4sty731 That design only came into Brazil in 1998. The UK design was established in 1947.
The imperial system isn't one system, it's 3 or 4 separate systems that were forcibly bolted together by creating conversion equations.
And that's just the system for measuring length, all the other stuff was also just haphazardly applied with zero consideration.
Kinda like the English language, it isn't a language, it's several languages in a trench coat that randomly mugs other languages for random parts.
That's why English spelling is such as mess: English adopts words from other languages without altering the spelling. As an example, the word "colonel" is spelled via one language but spoken via another language.
Omfg the roasts. I started using metric in my chem class and I was shocked by how EASY it was to use, so intuative, no random ass numbers to remember. 5280 feet my ass...
That's a lot of feet for an ass
Welcome to the wonders of the metric system
YES! like, everything you just have to divide by 10. It's really, really simple.
It is all based around water which makes certain things easier, 1L=1kg=1dm³ and 1ml=1g=1cm³ and temperatures are the same, 100° boiling point 0° freezing point, not 32°F or whatever it is
@@matthewirvine1361 you got an error there. 1L=dm^3
m^3 would be a ton
World: *uses metric system*
America: Cheeseburgers per freedom eagle with gun
Football fields per war crimes
Russia's is bears per corrupted politician
Charlie day put it best, “Rock, Flag, and Eagle”
hot dogs per school shooting
War crimes per corporate bailout
I agree. I'm an American, and I don't use mixed units. METRIC ONLY!! I even intentionally use metric units around other people to expose them to it.
I guess you don’t use a socket wrench, because the square drive is inch-based worldwide.
I remember when I was young, back in germany, TVs were measured in inches, and at some point that changed to centimeters.
@@mrxmry3264 actually not... display diagonals are still messured in inches... there are always some exceptions
Coming from a scientist: thanks for what you are doing.
you are right. how can a species with a brain use the imperial "system"
6:21 Not to really bug you but you forgot to add an extra one layer of bolts after the division of intervals to cater for the end of the 1 mile bridge. So that'll be 881 instead. Amounting to 1,762 bolts.
Before engineering school: "ehh both have their pros and cons"
After engineering school: "if I see another slug, BTU, or horsepower I'm gonna break some Nico Nico kneecaps"
lol. I had a non-serious explanation for what the likely units were for measuring the performance of a cooling system, and I used metric units...
Someone felt the need to tell me that I missed the 'most important' unit - the BTU...
Had to double-check that, but no, it's not important. I had my units right the first time. XD
Plus they talked about it as if everyone used that to specify cooling capacity, yet I'm fairly sure I've never seen an Air conditioner or cooler/heater of some other kind (car radiator or whatever) specified using BTU...
Still, they insisted...
Go figure...
that got a good laugh out of me, thanks
Bajur?
One of my most frusterating moments in engineering school was realizing that my course work required the use of imperial units. Ranking and slugs are the bane of my existence.
Same bro, thermodynamics was hell for me because of that crap.
the mix of units is the absolute best way to guarantee a spectacular failure
all hail the metric system!!!!!!!
Is the metric system actually better?
Us: that building 4.20 football fields tall
That's a good argument. BUT. There are 3 skyscrapers that are about that tall (4.20 football fields). Guess where they are? Russia, Vietnam and China. Two are communist, one is former communist. Opposite of america. Hence, this completely refutes your argument that america is dank because they use the imperial system.
@@nottsoserious I cannot argue with that. Indeed, America is dank.
Sadly they use "fußballfelder" in the metric germany as well. You have morons in every country. At least Fußball is a game where you use your foot to kick a ball unlike american football where you use your body to takle opponents while protecting an EGG.
@@markusosterle3958 oh yeah ? In France, we use the area of paris, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Oh and also we measure liquids in Olympic pools.
@@nottsoserious I'm from Vietnam and I can tell that we don't use Football fields as a measurement like at all.
The most ironic part of this is that the US tried switching to metric directly after the metric system was invented and only failed because the guy that was supposed to carry the kilogram to the US got killed by pirates.
...and now we can figure what the One Piece is.
More ironic still, it was British pirates
And the pirates used YARRRRds! :D
Well pirate and privateer are used interchangeably because apart from one being legal and one being illegal they do the same job.
@uncletigger When half of your comment is in all caps, the intended effect of each usage diminishes. It's a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" situation, but with emphasis instead
For me its the ability to do stuff like 'oh i dont have a 1L measure' but i have a scale so i can measure out 1kg of water and thanks to the metric system its 1L of water. I actually had to do that once!!
Keep in mind that it's only true for pure water. If there's impurities like ions or calcium (which is likely, unless you're using distilled water), 1L of water won't weigh exactly 1kg, but rather slightly more. Another thing to keep in mind is that 1L of water only weighs 1kg at ambient pressure at sea level (i.e an elevation of roughly 0m), so there's that too. Still, should be pretty accurate for most purposes
@@nocturn9x approx.. it works ( way better than trying to fill it up from just the looks of it)
@@user-eo2wl4ku5v Yes, which is why I said it works in most cases. Definitely better than eyeballing it
@@nocturn9x wai../ wah how did i not read that even tho i read the whole cmnt .sry.
for real. for every líquid similar to water (roughly same density), say milk or apple juice; I just weight a kilogram of it or any fraction for cooking. slight differences on density and pressure wont make It a 1:1 match but a few mililiters of difference don't matter for most things
The fact that as an european i have to learn the imperial sistem to work in aereonautics angers me on a substomic level
So seek anger management counseling. Anger is bad for your health.
'Is The Metric System Actually Better?'
Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
Yes ^100
How many inches long was that yes?
@@augutusiroh3836 about the length in centimeters*2.54
Maybe divide a meter into 3 parts. So .3333333333333333333333333333333333333 of a meter divide a yard into 3 you get one foot.
Wrong:
Short Answer: milliYes
Normal Answer: Yes
Long Answer: kiloYes
Very Long Answer: megaYes
:)
real engineering ur a legend. "he designed a rocket just to show the British how much he despised it" *V2 launches*
Short answer - Yes.
Long answer - Yes, it is.
If we want to stick to decimal number system, then the units should be commensurate to 10. That is why metric makes sense, and imperial doesn't.
Sees title: this is gonna be a fun one.
And wasn't disappointed
Exacly hahahaha
Sees title: Oh, I know this one!
"There are 2 kinds of countries -- Those that use the Metric system and those that used the metric system to go to the moon and later crashed a probe into mars because they were confused by metric units"
-Scott Manley
Scott Manley here!
@@wilhellmllw3608 Fly saf- oh dear
Measure safe! 😁
They didn’t crash a probe into Mars. They covertly carried out an excavation of the Martian surface. They’ll go back later to look for signs of past Martian civilization.
Joke’s on them though... they happened to excavate an area the past civilization had set aside as a nature preserve. There will be no signs of civilization there.
@@CarFreeSegnitz Mission failed succesfully
I remember at the beginning of my chemical engineering curriculum, we’d receive some easy mass and energy balancing problems that would have mismatched units. One pressure in psi, another in kPa, and one in mmHg for good measure. The purpose of this was to ensure we understood dimensional analysis and could deal with any units, but of course this was always frustrating for us students because it was usually unrelated to the course content. Eventually once the classes got a lot harder and the equations got longer, we never strayed from the metric system.
However, when I entered industry I realized exactly why my earlier professors gave us those annoying problems… many industries cling to the imperial system for dear life. There are definitely some newer start-ups and facilities now that are being smart about their units because its much easier to keep everyone on the same system if you’re starting fresh. However, basically all the old plants religiously use the imperial system; its deeply engrained and difficult to transition because it certainly does cost a lot of time and manpower to replace all of the necessary instrumentation and train the operators and technicians.
The benefit to investing in a complete overhaul of the instrumentation, SOPs, manuals, training, etc. to use the metric system is often going to be negligible for day-to-day operations. It can even be detrimental if it isn’t done properly, leading to the same errors discussed in this video that occur when transitioning between two unit systems.
So really, you can’t blame American engineers. It’s just not our fault, we’d prefer to use metric because we’re one of the few demographics that appreciate it’s ease of use. However the people that run the businesses and are down on the ground don’t think that way. They’ve gotten along fine with their imperial units and as such require us to produce products and services that utilize them. In academia and highly scientific and technical industries it is different because a great percentage of the working population in those fields do understand the value to the metric system.
Well said. I'm an engineer and metric does provide easier math, but I don't know what the result means until I convert it to imperial 🙂.
I’d have thought industry would jump on it just as quickly as science, but guess not, and you outlined the reason (cost of change) very well.
@@ArruVisionif im not mistaken, the US automotive industry once lobbied against changing to metric because the lobbying costs were cheaper than retooling costs.
Ah yes, Murrica the land of the money god. If the money god says it's cheap, the Muricans can do it, if the money god says they won't be able to buy 17 yachts that year but only 16, the smart and intelligent Muricans will not do it. Wouldn't want to make the big money priest unhappy, would be
@@LudwigVaanArthans 🤨
Canada switch to the metric system in the mid 70’s, when I was a teenager in the sciences, so I am quite familiar with both. However, when it comes to people’s height (and to a lesser extent, weight), I still calculate metric to imperial for comparison. Everything else I prefer metric.
The uk also tends to do height using imperial and often weight as well. We also use miles for distance, because why be reasonable
I’m a 90s Canadian kid and I use imperial and metric interchangeably… though I can’t convert anything in imperial.
Well but I think that will phase out, in Germany we never use imperial units. The only thing I know is my grandma using the German pound (Pfund) from time to time (it's exactly 500g), but if only old people use something it will cease to exist
@@haselnuss43 Wow, that's really interesting. I'd never heard of a Pfund and didn't know that metric pounds were a thing. I've only ever encountered imperial pounds, which are approximately 454g
The question is : Do you like to convert some units with completely weird definitions or do you prefer to just add or remove some zeros ?
Yep. I learned how to do it - commit some things to memory and figure out weird relationships because I had to. I also learned the metric system. I have been waiting for over 50 years for America to just change already... if I learned how many feet are in a mile and how to calculate that back to inches (why???) I think I can adapt to figuring out how many liters I am going to put into my 20 gallon gas tank. :P
@@I-am-EmJay but that would take time
@@I-am-EmJay Why would you ever want to learn that? You never run your gas tank dry anyways. So you are always topping it off instead of adding a fixed amount. You just wait till the pump stops 😉
@@brag0001 Uhm. Maybe some people like to calculate how much fuel they need to put in?
@@Galm_1 Again, what for? Whatever the result of those calculations might be is irrelevant. The tank is full when it's full, not when some pre-calculated number is reached. You usually don't know exactly how much is actually left in the tank and the pump is measuring how much it puts in until it stops. So you only know for sure how much was missing once you actually filled the tank. For a rough estimate on the other hand I need no calculations.
I'm not saying you should never do that. All I'm saying is, that this is a task I never need to perform because filling a tank doesn't work that way. I can certainly see some use when working machines you usually don't drive to a fuel pump. But there again I don't need to calculate nothing. A rough estimate rounded to the closest number of fuel cans will be sufficient. Which is why I'm wondering why he would do that.
If you really need that, the gallon->liter conversion is pretty straight forward. As long as you are only doing estimates: multiply by four and you're done ...
Me from Myanmar finally figuring out why physics was so hard at school.
Ask the government to make some changes .
What's your country's reason for not using metric?
@@KriaeWe use both metric and imperial and we even have our own burmese measurement system...Too much systems and students get confused
@@ankeytimestein6423 Its still not the kind of goverment you like to ask for something.
@@ankeytimestein6423 in Myanmar, I think they'd prefer a new government. A change of system of measurement can come later...
Is The Metric System Actually Better?
Long answear: Yes.
Short answear: Ye.
Even shorter answer: Y😂😂😂
You forgot another important unit in the US measurement system: "the football field" but of course not the football game every other country plays 😁😁
Underrated comment
Size of Texas.
At least it follows the Imperial logic. 12 inches in a foot but football is 11 inches long. Is mainly played by holding it in your hands and while you can call prolate spheroid a ball, it's still the weirdo in the family of soccer ball, tennis ball, basketball and the likes.
Are you talking about handegg ?
The "football" that the Americans play is basically discount Rugby.
Whole world: density of gold is 19.3 g/cc
America: gold is about 20 times denser than a duck
I saw that Kurzgesagt meme. I love it!
Wtf 😂
I see that you watch kurzgesagt
*wheeze*
And we all know how dense a duck is
My favorite crazy measurement has to be automobile tires. For example, 235/35ZR19. "235" is the width of the tread, in millimeters. "35" is the height of the tire, as a ratio of the tread width. "Z" is the speed rating where letters of the American alphabet correspond to increasing ranges of speed, except that they aren't in strict alphabetical order. The series ends with "STUHVZWY". "R" means radial, and "19" is the wheel size, in inches.
There’s another point: when converting imperial one hardly use all significant digits, so there’s always some error which can accumulate. That doesn’t happen with metric: 1 km is exactly 1000 m, not only the conversation is easier to make, it is always precise.
Give me a third of a meter.
@@wta1518 talking about unit conversions within the same system
@@bearcb Metric doesn't have unit conversions.
@@wta15180,3333 m
@binkobinev2248 Why would you need a centimeter?
I love that we can hear in his voice how he's just trying to remain chill and calm but deep inside wants to scream and shout on how stupid the Imperial system is LMAO
If the imperial system is so bad how come the greatest country in the world doesn’t use the metric system?
@@one9752 For the sake of argument, let's just say, that the USA is the greatest country (whatever you're basing that on). Best doesn't mean perfect, and as you see in the video, the imperial system is very flawed.
But really, what are you basing that on? The titles of happiest, safest and most equal countries go around in the nordic countries (no, I am not from there).
@@unkreativity1596 I basing this on very simple things, it’s also telling that most internet users and people who watched this video are American, it’s simply the best run country in the world, no other country has done better for society.
@@one9752 so baseless 🤦♂️
@@one9752 "best country in the world" America is falling apart bruh
My wife (American) and I (Australian) argue about this all the time. After watching this video I heard something I never though I would hear her say: ‘fine, I admit it, metric is better’. I can now die happy (and just may!)
you sound bigger in metric 😏
Big W bro
you may now Rest In Peace or at least get a good night's sleep...
You married a keeper, she told you that you were right. Try to replicate that result in different contexts.
Ok where's your addres and house
When my friend Miles traveled to Europe, he preferred to be called Kilometers.
We Brits hate the metric system because we are Imperialists
For some obscure reason Johnny Foreigner is absolutely obsessed with the number 10. We, in the more civilised world, have no such fixations. We just instinctively know that there are 45 inches in an ell and 198 inches in a rod (or pole, or perch). Similarly there are 320 rods (or poles, or perches) in a mile. And also, since there are obviously 5280 feet in a mile, and 12 inches in a foot, there are 1,760 yards and 63,360 inches in a mile - which is also 80 chains since there are 22 yards in a chain, 10 chains in a furlong and 8 furlongs in a mile (which, for completeness is also 190,080 barleycorns). All very simple. The acre is even easier: just a chain by a furlong. So 4,840 square yards, 160 square perches or 56,453,760 sq barleycorns. Logically there are 112 pounds in a hundredweight (not a hundred obviously) and 160 stones or 35,840 ounces or 15,680,000 grains in a ton.
Luckily we know all this because, obviously, we are smarter. And, of course, we can actually multiply (and divide).
In God's Own County - Yorkshire, (naturally), we used to have a large silver coin that was called "Half a dollar". This was more formally (and formerly) referred to as "Half a Crown". Or 2 and a half bob. Or 2 and a kick. Or 2 and 6. Which translated is 2 shillings and 6 pence. And yes there were 12 old pence in a shilling and 20 shillings or 240 pence to the pound (that's pound money not pound weight of course). All this was pre-decimalisation (which was basically just an excuse to put up prices). The half dollar coin no longer exists but if it did it would be worth 12.5 new pence or 30 old pence. Hope this clears it up.
The Alabama Rocket man story killed me as a german 🤣
DIESER TEIL DES CHATS IST EIGENTUM DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND ALS RECHTSNACHFOLGERIN DES DEUTSCHEN REICHES.
Absolut. Das war einfach heftig
Nine, Nein, NEIN! 😂
@@warphole0369 Haben wir ihn schon besetzt?
Exactly what your rockets did to Londoners... ahahaha just joking.
I'd like to point out that the "eagle scream" used when making fun of 'merica is acutally a red-tailed hawk. It's a common conversion used in video because actual eagles sounds kind of silly.
Why would you do that? In this case, ignorance is bliss. now I will be forever annoyed.
Thank you man of culture, I didn't know that.
The eagle really sounds inofensive btw
yeah, bald eagles are just a over rated seagulls
you can tell Bald eagles are lip syncing lol
You obviously haven't been listening to Eagles. I witnessed a young bald eagle on its first successful hunt for sturgeon on the Snake River happen less than 30 feet from me. And as it hoisted is prize into the air it shrieked a piercing cry that echoed throughout the canyon. Then from high above its mother approved.
holy crap it is
When I was learning to fly it seemed crazy that the (American) planes we were flying measured aircraft, passenger, baggage and fuel weights in pounds, but they measured fuel volume in US gallons (which bizarrely are not even the same as an Imperial gallon!), and we purchased our fuel in litres - lots of room for error there, even in light aircraft! Fortunately some light aircraft owners have been sensible enough to have the aircraft weights converted to kg and the fuel dipsticks to litres, removing most of the potential errors.
We think the Imperial gallon is bizarre. In olden times, “gallon” was not a fixed volume. It was a container for liquids and there were different gallons for different liquids. The US gallon was the British wine gallon. When the British formulated the Imperial System, half a century after the United States had left the Empire, they chose to standardize on a different gallon. Why they didn’t check with the USA first I can’t imagine.
This is not even a question, but let's whatch the video to learn the obvious answer
"Nein! Nein! Nein! Nine friends, a popular man!"
5.2k americans got triggered...
Is this even how they count people? Like, isn't someone 0.85632 feet or something?
the world: this video has 1 million views
american: "the people who watch this video is 4 "footbalfield" dense of people when they watch usain bolt"
as a non american i can definitely confirm that
It's like 0818 Yard Eagles per Cheeseburger with 76 Guns per War crime
.85856 hot dogs per school shooting*
@@subatenome yooooo
Excellent. When we were taught the metric system in high school (1969) it shocked me that it was so easy to learn. The difficulty and what they focused on was the conversion from one to another. Don't convert! Just move to metric. It's so easy!
I grew up with metric, and as an engineer i grimace at time… 60seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24hrs per day…. Why??? It’s so painful to have been left out.
I have engineering degrees. Every place in the world uses the same system of timekeeping. If you think it is difficult, imagine the difficulty of having two different systems. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. Try switching to Swatch time and find out directly for yourself.
Hex wrenches in millimiters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.... (some set may include 1.5 and 2.5 mm)
Hex wrenches in imperial: 0.05", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32", 7/64", 1/8", 9/64", 5/32".... are you fu**ing kidding me?
You never learnt fractions?
@@Locke99GS Why add complexity when it isn't needed?
@@dragonlord1935 Fractions aren't complex though.
Children learn fractions. In elementary school. Because they're easy.
@@Locke99GS They are certainly more complex than whole numbers, and a bit too unwieldy for day to day mental maths. Also, like I said, why add the needless complexity? if you already have a nice, standardized system which gives you a result in more understandable whole numbers, why would you want to willingly subject yourself to a system which displays the same result but in a more convoluted way? Is it just a matter of pride then?
@@dragonlord1935
1) "They are certainly more complex than whole numbers"
In the same way that decimals are more complex than whole numbers.
2) "and a bit too unwieldy for day to day mental maths"
They're not.
American children do them. Americans in general do mental maths with fractions several times a day, every day, without issue. Because Europeans are uneducated or mentally unexercised in doing those mental maths does not mean that it is in any way difficult or cumbersome for those that are educated and mentally exercised in doing those mental maths.
3) "Also, like I said, why add the needless complexity?"
It's not complex. It is _different_ .
4) "if you already have a nice, standardized system which gives you a result in more understandable whole numbers,"
The imperial system is standardized.
The imperial system uses just as many whole number as metric.
Decimal is not a whole number. Decimal is a restricted form of fraction.
5) "why would you want to willingly subject yourself to a system which displays the same result but in a more convoluted way?"
It is not more convoluted, it is _different_ .
The result is, as you mentioned, the same.
Because something seems more convoluted to Europeans does not mean that those familiar with it find it convoluted. The same argument could be made with language, religion, law, political system, etc...
6) "Is it just a matter of pride then?"
It is a matter of casual practicality. Since Europeans won't listen to Americans telling them why Americans are choosing to continue to use the US customary system, see youtube video v=N0U-XEmKPKg which is presented by a Brit, living in Britain. He explains why.
I spilled my noodles when you counted
"6..7..8 *NEIN* *NEIN* *NEIN* *NEIN* *NEIN* "
😂😂
he was so excited during the buildup that he couldn't hold his giggle
Timestamp?
@@winchesterchua3311 just watch the vid, it's just 12 minutes long. Or are you from the US?
@@sepg5084 Nah I found it.
just gonna let this comment stay at 420 likes... someone's gonna f*ck that up in like 10 minutes :(
The US is inching towards the metric system.
Good one.
Yes, I can feel the disappointment when they say as big as an tennis court or Olympic swimming pool. Once did read where a newspaper mentioned a crater formed on a road as big as 4 refrigerator.
Yeah, it's truly unbelievable to what length USAsian are going to avoid using the ISO system.
One time I saw mine mention a crater the size of a small crater, and another time they said it was half the size of a giraffe
WHICH HALF
@@aryapatel1932 Hmmmmm, maybe the left half? 🤔😏
@@aryapatel1932 lol, they are really funny...
Nobody:
TV reporters: "A lightyear is 9461000000000 metres"
*"That's more than 5 football fields"*
And they call a game football
That’s not even football
And they call football, Soccer
Like, Grow a Brain
@@nabeelshariff6006 wut
@Samuel Guo the game where people run around with the "ball" in their hands?
@Samuel Guo No, nobody's heard of American football. There's rugby league, rugby union, AFL, soccer, and that weird game they play in the US, where people dress up like oompa loompas and roll over each other with a football, and the 'world series' has one country.
Samuel Guo
That’s not football idiot
Imagine learning thermodynamics in imperial units, goddamn...
Thermodynamics was developed in both English and metric units, because the principles are independent of units. Real scientists know that units are arbitrary.
@@GH-oi2jf yeah but there is something called 'engifuckineering"
Noooo...don’t gimme nightmares pls
@@GH-oi2jf I know that principles are independent of units, you are talking to an Engineer buddy. But anybody who has taken thermodynamics courses knows how things can get complicated really quickly when you are dealing with multiple properties or processes, now imagine adding the difficulty of English units to this.
Had to learn compressible fluid flow in both unit systems. Most foolproof option for me was to convert to metric at the start of a problem and convert back at the end. Otherwise I would usually have to include units in my equations with unit conversions, whereas in metric you don't have to if all of your units are the standard ones. (This gets crazy in some of the more complicated equations)
Also lb-mass, horsepower, and BTUs are garbage units
Short answer: Yes
I'm in quality control at a CNC shop and I can tell you that it makes almost no difference which system you use. It's easy to convert, and usually you would just work in metric instead of converting as literally nothing changes except you hit the metric button on your caliper, CMM machine, etc... This video is hilarious at how much it blows out of proportion something that nobody in in the industry even cares about.
Unless the customer drawing doesn't specify any units, those are fun days.
Also converting AWG items to real numbers that can measured in either SAE or metric, (mild sarcasm) that's very fun.
As far as I know, Liberia and Myanmar have begun final transition to metric. So the U.S. are finally alone.
Myanmar has basically transitioned and liberia has started
Any sources please?
The thing is, the US has a very big stick, with which they can force others to tolerate their imperial system and adapt to it - at present, most of the world can't afford to just plainly refuse to do business with them until they switch. And they won't, because internal politics and the voters' support and all that :D To be honest, I can't imagine an intellectual, educated US citizen having any problems leaving imperial system behind. But the dumb ones, too lazy to learn something new, still make up too big a chunk of this nation's population... enough that if one party wishes to abandon it and the other promises not to, we'll know in advance that Republicans are going to win.
@@NaqrSeranvis The problem is that the country’s measurements for roads and other things are measured and have been measured for years.
Switching to metric means that they’ll be reverted to decimal values which don’t look nice. Also, it’ll be kinda expensive adjusting all of those signs throughout the entire nation. It’s just cheaper for people to just be aware of both of the systems and not spend potentially hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to transition everything to metric.
It’s not a matter of laziness as it is a matter of practicality. Also, I don’t see how the point of bringing politics into this.
You know, there is no need to think that half of the country are stupid. It kinda makes you sound like a person that likes to looks down on people.
@@NaqrSeranvis Donald Trump is no more so maybe US will transfer to it in some years
Don’t even get me started on FAHRENHEIT...
Actually it's the least flawed of the imperial units. Yeah, Fahrenheit's defining points are really weirdly established, but in the end Celsius is just another arbitrary scale as well (though it is more scientifically defined). Fahrenheit doesn't have any inconsistent relations between several units, unlike all the other Imperial units. Though that probably is just because Imperial system doesn't have multiple units of temperature.
@@wombat4191 Hmm... Celsius is just a practical scale for me. If I hear it's 0 degrees Celsius outside, I know it's freezing, and slippery. If my water boils, I know it's 100 degrees. That are neat rounded values based on practical values. I don't disagree with you about Farenheit being the least flawed of the imperial units, but it feels weird for me that when everything outside is frozen over, the Farenheit scale still gives a positive value.
@@jclosed2516 Yeah I agree with you, Celsius at least feels more convenient as I'm used to it. That being said, people who are used to Fahrenheit will say the exacts same, arguing the normal "0 = really cold weather, 100 = really hot weather, and 100 is also the limit of fever". I don't really blame them, because it is a rare imperial unit that is not objectively inferior to its metric counterpart (except for scientific use). It's just a matter of how you view the temperature scale for everyday use. Celsius users see it as the area around 0, while Fahrenheit users see it as a scale between 0 and 100.
Given that Celsius isn't in the IS (the unity for temperature is Kelvin, where 0K is the minimum possible temperature: -273.15°C and +-1°C = +-1K):
Fahreneit who was the best at making thermometers at the time and Celsius (whi didn't invent Centigrade: the actual Celsius scale has 0 and 100 swapped) made a scale to measure in a specific range without needing negative temperatures for the field of application (respectively meteorology and medicine)
Seriously? When you tell a Brit that it's 32 degrees outside, instead of bringing a jacket and earmuffs they get dressed in shorts and flip-flops. Weird people.
If you do any engineering calculations metric is much easier.
Not really. Engineers use decimal fractions. The calculations using feet with a decimal fraction are the same as when using meters with a decimal fraction.
Every craftsman does too, when he tries it out and sees how much time he saves.
When I first saw this video 3 years ago I was all for ‘murica and got slightly offended by this video. Now that I’m in my junior year of mechanical engineering when I’m given a problem with imperial units it pisses me off. It’s so much more needlessly difficult
British and American gallons are different sizes. INSANE!
The British measurement is wrong
America is using the original British one lmao
That's because the British measurements changed after American independence, kind of like how the Frenchies metric system changes its definition of a meter every so often, the meter was originally 1/10,000,000th the distance between the equator and the north pole assuming a perfectly round earth, then redefined as the length of a brass stick in Paris, then the stick was replaced with a platinum stick, which was replaced with a platinum-iridium bar suspended on 2 10mm cylinders spaced 57.1cm apart symmetrically in a 0°C room, then that was replaced by 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in a vacuum, which was replaced with the speed of light emitted from a Helium-Neon laser in a vacuum (however it is only practical to use an inert-gas atmosphere and estimate the refractive index to get an approximation of a meter)
And Canadian gallons
I believe that nautical and aviation miles, etc are also slightly different?
I am a very old man I was taught imperial and thought nothing of it.
In 1971 Britain started to go over to metric, there was panic.
However the metric system is a totally integrated system and is simple to use in fact it is beautiful
You say that but its shadows are still around. Milk and beer still gets sold in pints, and speed, height, and weight is still measured in imperial by many. Pretty sure the speed limits are still in miles to? Its a mess.
@@AshleyBlackwater I agree. In this day of age my kids at school only learn metric (kg, km...), but when asking about their weight with the school matron, she would still use stone! And one day my older boy came home asking how heavy is a stone. And I replied, give me a stone I will weight it for you...
@@AshleyBlackwater Milk isn't actually sold as a pint, the bottles are in litres, just with odd numbers. Pints are measured in mls by trading standard, who will allow a 5% error, which is why you pint is often only 540ml
Ashley Blackwater
I agree but it is still a beautifully simple, logical and integrated system.
And what is left of the imperial system is defined by the metric system
@@BiW1nning WRONG! Milk is packaged in whole units of pints or in whole units of litres. It's one of the most curious examples of EU legislation.
Look here for instance: groceries.asda.com/search/semi-skimmed%20milk
I can't though remember the rules: but there are some!
Weirder still though, if a unit is packaged as a pint, the cost has to be shown as pence per litre.
I think that it was done this way for the grannies of the 1970's buying 'staple' goods. Same with eggs too. Sold in dozens, half dozens but also in say, 10's or 15's.
The important thing though is that the units are clearly displayed on the containers.
And let's not try to understand Market Traders!
Democratic countries prefer Metric becouse it is simply a better system of units than imperial
The metric system is a consistent and coherent system of units. In other words, it fits together very well and calculations are easy because it is decimal. This is a big advantage for use in the home, education, industry and science.
The video: "Is The Metric System Actually Better?"
Short answer: "Yes"
Long answer: "Yes but in 12 minutes and 52 seconds."
As an American engineering student, I’m just here for the roast on imperial units lol
So do you guys have to calculate in imperial or metric? Thought maybe unis still believe in science...
@@ankitkasi5595 I think they do their calculations in metric, and give answer in imperial. I could be wrong tho.
@@silverhusky7993 sounds practical
Ok
Architecture and civil engineering is still done in Imperial. At my job, sometimes we will get a job in metric. That sucks, because it's usually in CM which means to do every little simple thing requires a calculator.
"Alabama rocket Man". That's Destin from Smarter Every Day.
Destin is smartish, von Braun is a genius. Big difference.
@@manickn6819 Destin may be smart-ish, but at least... he is smarter every day! quite literally
@Khaffit Destin supports facts and truth.. So you can guess if he would support a totalitarian regime. He did work in the defense industry as a full time Missile Flight Test Engineer at Redstone Arsenal, so I guess he did support regimes that would be willing to kill millions if needed.
@@Kiwjtastic aren't we all getting smarter every day ..... at least till our memory starts to fail.
@Khaffit I think that you should probably question the regime that chose to turn a blind eye and not put him on trial. Instead they relocated him and put him in a top post to get to space. Proud moment for them if I recall correctly built on the backs of the same regime that killed millions.
Quick and easy answer for everyone: Yes
'these units are the language of the universe' is only partially true, its the relationship between properties that are important rather than the specific units used to represent those relationships - this to me says that there is something more fundamental to relative representations than decimal numeric representations.
By the sound of his voice, i can tell he is pissed when people say imperial is better
And with a reason
who isnt?
That is very funny
@@arnefehm4926 Many Americans aren't, sadly.
Zing/on
"The imperial system is defined by law using the metric system"
That was hilarious
You may be familiar with the inch mm conversion of 25·4 ? Well, that inch is a metric inch, not an imperial one ! An imperial one is shorter 2.5399....
There’s nothing funny about it. It makes perfectly good sense to tie the systems together. It would be a nuisance to have to adjust the conversions every time metric units were adjusted, and expensive to duplicate standards activities.
@@GH-oi2jf what's funny is the fact that "the 'murica measurements" are defined by non murica measurements. I didn't say it isn't practical, it's just funny to me
@@treborngoochdelamarxvi9775 my man can't take a joke
@@treborngoochdelamarxvi9775 i politely disagree. Metric is better for a bunch of reasons that are listed in the video (and many more). I'm not from the US and believe me that it's really fucking annoying when those useless measurements come out of NOWHERE just because someone in the US was too lazy to make the conversion. If you are comfortable using it because you have always used it, that's totally fine, but outside of the US there's this thing called "rest of the world" in which the imperial system is just there to bother. So yeah, that's why it's so funny to make jokes about it
It makes Brunel's achievements even more spectacular when you think how he was encumbered by imperial measurements !
He wasn’t encumbered. Most of his work would have been done in one unit of length - feet with decimal fractions. It is no different in complexity than working in metres. Units are equivalent.
@@GH-oi2jf I agree . The direction of this video was that imperial measures were ludicrously difficult - which would have made the achievements of our great engineers even more impressive.
I hope some Americans will realize that their system is not the best in the world. It says a lot tho, about their feeling of superiority that they are litarally the only country holding on to their obsolete way of thinking. Pretty ignorant...
“Best” doesn’t mean anything. All systems of units are equvalent, but they are optimized for different purposes. US Customary units work well for many things and Metric units for many things. We use both. There are often advantages to sticking with legacy systems, and sometimes advantages in making a change. We (in the USA) have decided to be bimetral, so that’s the way it is.
@@GH-oi2jf So the 'best' country in the world suddenly doesn't mean anything, either? BTW you're not bi, don't be a wannabe.
Is metric better?
Me, who is an american electrical engineer: YES.
Sure, but 'Better' is subjective. Scientifically, and maybe in your field, metric is better, but for every day use the english system is more intuitive and easier.
@@rickyhall1772 in the US only, I moved to us 5 years ago and I still don’t understand why there are 12 ounces in a cup and not 10.
@@welove2134 I believe volume measurements are all simpler in metric. But things such as length, temperature, speed, fuel economy, tire size, rim size, air speed, and nautical distances and speed are all FAR SUPERIOR not in metric. Then there are things which go either way, such as time in 12vs24 hours, wire gauges, things like bolts size or thread pitch and bolt strength, and things such as lubricity measurements. At the end of the day, we have computers that can do these conversions for us, so the conversation of standardizing measurements on a global scale is moot.
@@rickyhall1772 what can be easier than multiplying/dividing by 10 to achieve any conversion inside the same measure system? you feel imperial is more intuitive because you are used to it, metric is the easiest to learn and to use. Give it a SERIOUS try.
@@rickyhall1772 Uh....nope. The Metric System is superior. Saying that the imperial system is more intuitive and easier is absurd. You could teach someone the Metric System in a few minutes. Try that with the imperial system. When I build things I use the Metric System. It is so much easier than remember inches, feet, yards and also working with fractions.
Just because you are more familiar with one system doesn't make it easier to teach for the masses, or more intuitive to use. There is a reason everyone else uses the Metric System. There are about 195 countries. 190+ countries didn't get it wrong, and the US along with a couple of other countries got it right.
We use the Metric System at work-in medicine. We don't do conversions because mistakes can kill people. Some of the most dangerous and expensive medications are usually dosed in milligrams per kilogram. I weight about 172 pounds, and I'm about 5 feet 9 inches tall. That's about 78 kilograms and about 175 centimeters. Once I know that everything else becomes notoriously easy to estimate just like you'd estimate in pounds, feet and inches. BTW, get those units wrong either with relaying a measurement to a third party or converting erroneously and you'll gravely under dose or over dose the patient.
I am a simple private pilot and one thing that has always intrigued me is that in aviation we use notations that mix the metric and imperial systems.
In the same sentence, it is possible to read an indication of visibility in meters, altitude in feet, and speed in knots (nautical miles per hour).
No doubt created by some drunk guy.
The mix is to prevent errors and mistakes. If you hear meters you think visibility, hear feet you should think altitude (or height), hear knots it is speed (airspeed if it is a message from atc).
No, I don't fly, not after they nicked my medical.
Drives my a bit crazy as well. feet/gallons/pounds/pounds per square inch - pure pain (for me) to calculate and "think" in this crude system. But I'doubt ICAO would ever switched to a system the Americans are not familiar with. I'm fine with nautical miles and knots because they are based on the grid system. Although I plan simple VFRs in metric over here.
Actually, the ICAO wants to implement the metrical system since a couple of years already. It's just really difficult to do and, quite frankly, absolutely unnecessary in the aviation, so that's why they leave it as it is. Speeds and distances are in nautical miles, height/altitude in feet and visibility/runway length in (kilo)meters (at least in Europe - US uses statue miles for that). However, you don't need to convert these units to each other, so it works out pretty well. I can assure you that, because I'm working in aviation.
Right, but it's just information using different types of measurements. But don't you dare make calculations by mixing them up.
That confusing convention comes from the historic nautical world, ... then there were flying boats who adopted nautical conventions. (including the uniform!) . Altitude is an anomaly in the nautical world, but they did measure depth in feet on occaision.
You guys are too harsh towards the US. They have been using 9mm in school for a while now.
9mm?
@@maleficent3333 yes alongside 5.56
There are two kind of countries : the ones that stubbornly decided to stay in the middle ages and the ones that use logic and common sense.
The metric system is kilometers ahead.
You can say streets too, it's neither metric nor imperial ;)
streets ahead
Imperial is miles ahead.
Miles > Kilometers
A Yottameter ahead
@@adamgonzalez7450
The beauty of the metric system is that i could use arbitrarily humongous prefixes, like megameters, so it could always win.
megameters >> miles
I thought the "football fields" units is the most superior...
...and "Olympic swimming pools" is the preferred unit of volume.
You spelt Popes per square mile wrong
Borna Siroki - And don't forget the popular "Furlongs per fortnight" unit of speed!😃 Extensively used at CERN.
@@julesdomes6064 Washing machines for smaller volumes
Toyota Corolla is the ultimate measurement