Why I will NEVER use the Metric System

How Americans Missed out on the Metric System

The US decided not to join the rest of the world to go metric. Here’s why.

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Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.

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[hm]

As a physicist, I shrink in horror from the thought of using imperial units for calculations.

[displaychicken]

Metric System supporters: “its perfect, it’s logical, it’s easy”

Imperial System supporters: “USA! USA! USA!”

[rolletroll]

The fact that there is a "debate " just because one country on earth doesn't want to be rational is astounding

[LucasRodmo]

You guys do decimal* with money. Imagine a world where a dime is 12 pennies, a dollar is 23 dimes, 10 dollars is 12.5 unit dollars, etc. See how we see it?

Edit: changed metric to decimal

[bad_money]

Imperial and metric have something in common: They're both incompatible with imperial.

[danieltakawi]

Fun fact: The way all imperial units are defined now is through the metric system. An inch has no definition other than 2.54 cm.

[unacuentadeyoutube]

Short answer: because you're stuck with imperial and never learnt the better alternative from the start

[xenobarbital]

I've been using metric my entire life. I was aware about existence of all those inches, feet and pounds, but those meant as much for me as something like old Roman league. Then I got more proficient with English and I started reading British and American literature. That made me memorize some conversion coefficients to roughly recalculate all those into metric. And believe it or not, I got there. Well, kind of. A mile? About 1.6 km (1609). A nautical mile? About 1.8 km. A pound? Slightly less than half a kilogram (0.454). And inch? 2.5(ish) cm.
Then I got into woodworking and started watching all those youtube videos, mostly by American and British craftsmen. Vast majority of them use inches. And when they go "oh, this is 3/16 of an inch, that one is 5/6, the other one is 3/4 etc, etc, etc. This is when my neural system shuts down. I freaking hate this. Metric is orders of magnitude more convenient. All you have to care about is decimal fractions. That's it. Sorry (not really).

[jsveiga]

Hey, as a metric person and engineer, I feel the urge to point out that the official SI abbreviations are case sensitive, so for example from 21:15 on you use "M" instead of "m" for meters, then "KM" instead of "km" (but correctly use "cm", why?). Case is very important, as you don't want to confuse MW (megawatt) with mW (milliwatt) or PV (petavolt) with pV (picovolt)!

[HCkev]

"I will never use the metric system!"

Drug dealers: "So how many grams do you want?"

[LucasRodmo]

I honestly wanna know how you guys do physics at school. Calculating volumes, distances, speed, etc. Must be torturous.

[aa-tows]

I love the imperial system in medieval RPG's.
It really gives it a sense of immersion into a primitive society where nothing makes sense.

[MrMattie]

9:30 40.075km is the distance arround the equator. The distances arround the poles is only 40.008km.
Which does match the error you mention.

[TWood]

I don't get it. You fought the British for independence and you kept and glorify this monstrosity of the system? Stockholm syndrome right there.

[timothysands]

As a mechanical engineering student in America, I can firmly claim that myself and all students in my major beg on their hands and knees for metric based problems and never imperial unit based ones.

[elpana]

As a foreigner that moved to America I’ve found their measurement system just plain crazy, thank goodness for the internet and my phone.

[secondphoenix]

Better title: Why I prefer to remain dumb

[mattes]

What you don't realize is that it doesn't matter what length, weight or volume you take. The metric system is not about what size but about the way of calculating. A meter can also be longer or shorter as long as you divide it by ten. So it's not the size but the way of calculating.

[bassiebe]

There is a reason why all the standard formulas in science are using the metric system… BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE 🤣

[EustaH]

The trick in getting used to metric is not to start using metric in your head - it's to stop using imperial. And it can be done. It's like learning a new language - at first you're translating everything in your head until eventually something clicks and you just think in a new language. But yeah, probably not feasible to do it alone - you need everybody else doing it to keep you going.