Why didn't the USA ever adopt the Metric System? (Short Animated Documentary)

The USA is famously one of the few countries on Earth that doesn't use the Metric System. So why doesn't it? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

A special thanks to my Patreon Supporters below:

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Øystein Alsaker
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Tony Belmonte
Adrian Marine
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Joshua Schneider
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Alex Teplyakov
Jamie van Brewen
Andrew F
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Dr. Schtnizel
Peter Marino
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Brooks Woolson
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Evan Ellingson
Zhao Liu
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HelloAgain
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Igor Stavchanskiy
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Phil and Lisa Toland
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Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
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Isabel Harrison
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[timmccarthy]

Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson did have one major success in metrifying the USA: decimalized currency. The American dollar was one of the world's first currencies to be divided in 100 parts.

[ChessedGamon]

Since the US still uses metric for teaching physics, it's put me in the weird position where I use things like Fahrenheit to talk about the weather but intuitively switch to Celsius to talk about how hot it would be if you were a kilometer away from the core of the sun

[kimberlyperrotis]

As an elementary and middle school student in the 60s and 70s, we constantly studied for the “big conversion to the metric system”. Then, one day it was dropped and never mentioned again. I learned as a young adult, that it was the high cost of industry retooling that killed it. I became a scientist, using mainly American Practical Hydrologic Units for work and could well believe it, every day was a crazy mix of systems and units from here, there and everywhere. We all wasted a lot of time converting quantities all the time to use them in equations.

[JackClayton]

I had an argument with my American instructor in the late 80’s as to wether or not a quart was just larger or just smaller than a litre. As a Canadian in the sciences, I was familiar with both and we were both adamant that each of us was correct. It was only after I realized that Canadian (Imperial) and US quarts were not the same size. So yes, we were BOTH correct.

[OmegaTaishu]

"Went the extra 1609 meters"
This channel is pure gold

[blueseercontent]

Your friendly reminder that the Brits still very much use "miles" all the time. In fact, the signs going from Kmh to Mph is one of the few ways you can recognize you've crossed from Ireland into Northern Ireland.

[briane]

When I was in a U.S.Junior High School in the early 1960's, we were given a lot of instruction in the Metric System, being told that somewhere in the near future we would be switching over to it. Obviously that did not happen. However, When I was in the Army National Guard, all measurements were in Metric: Weapons, Bullets, Maps, etc.Our medicines that we are prescribed are also in the Metric System. And we also have a Decimal Feet measurement used by engineers in site planning. When I was an Architect I use to wish we were using the Metric System, which would have avoided fractions when writing dimensions.

[annadupont]

I grew up in the 70's in the US, and we did a bit of trying to learn Standard to Metric conversions, which as you might imagine, didn't stick. But when I became a scientist, I learned metric pretty flipping easily because that's what's used 100% in science - you learn by doing. After 35 years of using liters and meters at work and cups and feet at home, I can easily use both. One area where metric is far superior: trying to describe the length of something small - millimeters are perfect!
The argument that switching to metric would require new package labeling is laughable, as the vast majority of our packages are labeled in both ounces and grams.
But the most amusing was my mom's argument against converting to the metric system: she said she didn't want to have to throw away her old measuring cups and buy new ones for cooking. I had to remind her that she could still use her old ones for her recipes - no one was going to come into her house and confiscate her measuring cups! 🙄

[davidmitchell]

I'm British and 70 years old. In the days of £ (pounds), S (shillings) and D (pence) every school child had to learn by rote the times tables of 1x1 through to 1x12, as there were 240 pence to the pound, and of course calculators just didn't exist back then. (£1 = S20, 1S = D12). On Monday 15 Febuary 1971, we changed to decimal currency (£1 = 100NP). About a week later I found the old currency almost impossible to calculate!

[anttibjorklund]

"This is when president Gerald R. Ford went the extra 1609 metres...."

I bloody love your humour.

[siriosstar]

i'm terrible in math so when i started to learn carpentry i had a very difficult time seeing and understanding what i was seeing on a tape measure .
eventually i saw the fractions as visual size differences and could easily navigate the tape layout but this took a longtime .
Then later in my life i moved to europe and was working on the house i helped build . i went to buy a tape measure and immediately panicked thinking i would never be able to figure this out. But after about ten minutes, i realized everything was in
multiples of ten and it's been easy ever since .

[johndoyle]

I graduated in the UK as an Engineer. I started Uni in 1969 and we adopted the SI units, Metric in other words, but also had to learn a bit of BTUs and cubic inches etc.
When I got a job in industry, I had to relearn FPS. We still have our pint and cars do MPG(but not the US gallon), petrol is sold in Litres, so you have to convert to UK gallons to get MPG.

[maw]

The White House interior sets that change to reflect the building’s complete gutting/rebuilding during the Truman era were a nice touch. Well played, HM.

[angiki]

If only James Bisonette had been there to implement the metric system.

[travisspicer]

Thank you for the effort put into the newspapers. Make my day

[AlRoderick]

They do use the metric system extensively in the US military, presumably because almost everywhere the service is expected to be fighting is going to have road signs marked in kilometers

[gdbyemisterA]

The articles on the newspaper at 1:40 are just amazing, hats off to your history matters, hats off

[eriknystrom]

It’s not just about decimals like
Distances : mm - cm - dm - m - km
Mass: gram - kg
If you intend to study physics you should set your mind to the metric system because all physics units are derived from the metric system.
Force : 1 Newton (N) is the force that gives an object with the mass 1 kg an acceleration of 1 meter per second square
Energy: 1 Joule (J = Nm) is the unit of energy, equal to the force of one Newton acting through one meter. 1 Joule is ALSO equal the electric energy unit Ws (Watt second) !!!!
Power ( Energy/ time): The unit of power is Watt (W) which is the same as joules per second (J/s).
So the electric units are nicely connected to the mechanical units with the added unit Ampere for current !!!
If you intend to study science you must get used the units defined as SI (MKSA = Meter, Kilogram, Second, Ampere )

[rcatyvr]

As a mid-century atavistic Canadian I use the following measures. Volume: Litres, gallons (US & Imperial), cups, quarts, fl ounces & dry ounces, grams kilograms, ton and tonne, millilitres, barrels, cubic feet and metres, yards, the tun, boxcar, 20 & 40 foot containers. Lengths: Metre, centimetre, millimetre, kilometre, mile, yard, foot, inch, furlong, rod, hand, span, fathom, cubit.

Now how to use some of these measures. Some of these are specific to my form. My thumb ~1 inch wide, foot ~0.75 feet, my little finger tip ~1 centimetre wide, sternum to fingertip just shy of a yard, fingertip to finger tip just shy of a fathom, fingertip to fingertip to far wrist=10 feet, 1 hand~6 inches, 1 mile ~ the distance that 20-20 eye sight can distinguish left truck headlights from right ones

[therwfer]

"Nerds told 'no'" is a headline that could still pop up on a weekly basis.