Will the U.S. Adopt the Metric System?

Why didn’t the US switch to the metric system? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice breakdown how Americans are sliding closer to using the metric system, what measurements would change, and which will stay the same. What if time was metric?

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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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Timestamps:
00:00 - Metric in the US
6:56 - Soda, Electricity, & Engines
12:55 - Do We Keep Celcius?
14:30 - Why Don’t We Like The Metric System?
16:00 - Getting the Units Wrong

[darrenchapman]

I'm 55 years old, and growing up in Australia in the 1970s, I can remember Dad buying stickers for the speedometer and road signs having numbers changed. It didn't take long for everyone to start talking metric. All the children were already taught only metric at school, most people were intelligent enough to see the benefits.

[peccimabel]

Curious fact: In Puerto Rico (USA territory), we fill our vehicle tanks using liters instead of gallons, drive in miles per hour, and the roads are measured in kilometers.

[nicholashenderlong]

I live in the US and wanted to personally make the switch. Best way to do it is to switch your phones, GPS app (mine is google maps) to metric and switch your phone's weather app to °C. After about a week you really pick it up and it becomes more natural.

[jehanr]

Sadly If Americans tried to go metric it would instantly be politicized.

[philipoosthuizen]

From an engineering perspective, the math is just so much easier using metric units. Was a great show. 👌

[ginnyjollykidd]

The kitchen is the one place where change is greatest. Not only do you change from fluid ounces to liters, when you measure flour or peanut butter, or other mass that in American kitchens are measured in volumes, metric kitchens will say, "200 grams" or similar, not a cup (or whatever) of flour.

Metric mass is a whole lot more accurate, too. When you get a cup of flour, how you get it affects the amount you get.

Take the measuring cup and dig it into the flour, you compress the flour. For bread makers, I was taught to fill a cup with flour by sprinkling it into the cup measure and don't compress it. The consistency makes a difference.

If you put a container on a scale and tare it out, and you put flour into that bowl, then you can measure out your 200 grams of whatever, because the scale doesn't care if your flour is packed or loose. But the amount is an absolute mass.

[rkalle]

Fun fact the today inch is "Swedish" not even American. It was metric guy Carl Edvard Johansson from Sweden who defined the inch to its actual size of exact 25.4 mm back in 1912 with his gauge blocks aka "Jo blocks". Before it was 25.4000508 mm. The reason behind was to make British and US inch equal in size in his Swedish gauge block production company. Both Britain and USA adopted this size as standard many years later.
In the end imperial tape measures are just odd metric tape measures with lines every 25.4 mm and counting up to 12 every feet.

[ads]

Aussie here. We have the metric system and have had for my entire life (I'm 48). However, because I grew up in an era not long after the conversion, I learned imperial weights and measures from older people around me. I think of certain things in imperial weights and measures, and others in metric. I think of fuels and beverages in metric, but when cooking, everything is in cups and teaspoons (or tablespoons). I think of structures and objects in metric ("that table is about 180cm"), but the height of people in feet and inches ("he looks about 5' 10"). Then we get to tools. I know exactly what a 5/8th spanner is but would have no idea what it is in metric. As for temperature, I have absolutely no idea where to start with Fahrenheit. What I do know is that on hot days my parents often used to say "wow, it's 100 degrees outside", which to me means the ambient temperature has reached the boiling point of water 🤣

[Silversmok]

If Americas drug dealers can use the metric system, so can the rest of us!😊

[algrithm]

Neil and Chuck are an amazing combo. Love learning and laughing

[ElanorLily]

Anyone noticed the labels on the milk bottles? In brackets they already adding the metric value as well. Same on the measuring spoons... there are the milliliter amounts 😄

[stevenvanhulle]

About the engines: it's not the space for the boreholes for the pistons, it's the piston's displacement (volume difference between its lowest and highest position)

[capnmark]

Being in High School during the Carter Administration (with plans for an engineering career), I was happy to see the move to metric and extremely disappointed when it was "abandoned".

Another area that has been metric for as long as I can remember is pharmaceuticals.

[atlehassum]

I’m European and have always used the metric system. I tried to build a box in imperial measurements, and I have to hand it to you, Americans, it’s impressive how you keep track of so many different ways of dividing one whole into parts

(foot is 12 inches, bolt heads with crazy non-intuitive increments, inches divided into 8ths, 16ths, 32ths, 64ths, thou and ten-thou)

My box was never finished, and the materials were used to make god knows what other things, all because my comprehension of numeral increments is restrained to thinking in base ten.

Great explainer as always, love to learn and laugh!

[Robidu]

One famous instance of a conversion fail between impeerial and metric is the Gimli glider (a Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel half way on its voyage).
What happened here was that the crew operating the pump read the weight of the required fuel in lbs instead of kg in which it had been calculated so the plane only had about half the amount needed on board.

Hopefully this mishap didn't turn out to be fatal thanks to the outstanding skill of the cockpit crew.

[eeyou]

Mistake at the kWh slide at 9:56. It's not 1000W/hour, it's 1000W*hour, hence shortened version is "kWh" and not "kW/h". kWh unit tells amount, not rate.

[kelvinlee]

My late father used to sell fabric in Malaysia and people were so used to using yards. When the conversion to metrics happened, he was having a hard time explaining it to the general public. And then he did something rather ingenious. Instead of converting to meter and listing the higher price (for example $5.00/yard is now $5.47/meter), he would list the price as $5.00/0.91m. That way he was not breaking any law! Brilliant! R.I.P., Dad.

[beltrangarrote]

I’m a Metric human from not USA and you had me cracking 😂😂😂😂😂. The French impersonation was spot on.
You forgot to mention that UK (Imperial) and USA (Customary) measures are different which makes is even more confusing.

[Faboc_]

As an architect outside U.S. We use both metric and imperial, depending on the material we can use them at the same time, for example we say 10 meters of metal railing witch 3/4 of an inch of diameter😂 it works for us

[eddiecampbell]

Chuck and his many personalities he impersonates cracks me up every time.. and sometimes even Neil encourages him to pull a voice out of his many hats for the galactic gumbo and the cosmos grab bag.. 😂😂❤