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Is The Metric System Actually Better? - YouTube
Channel: Real Engineering
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this episode of real engineering is
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brought to you by brilliant a
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problem-solving website that teaches you
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to think like an engineer the time has
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finally arrived
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the comment section demanding imperial
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and metric units
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has gone on too long there can only be
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one measurement system
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the british imperial system like
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everything british is based on
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antiquated
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units of measurement like measuring your
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country's importance by counting the
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number of countries you have invaded
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and pillaged a measurement that made
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sense 100 years ago but
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it's time to move on weirdly the british
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have mostly moved on
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from this method of measurement and it
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is instead
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americans who insist on holding onto it
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well america liberia and myanmar a
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prestigious trio
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now i can already hear the people who
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refuse to wear masks in the comments
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there are two kinds of countries those
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that use the metric system
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and those that landed on the moon you
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know who led the design team for the
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saturn v
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this guy listen to that deep alabama
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accent
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this weight dictates the amount of fuel
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and the numbers of motors
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an american through and through ignore
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this photo of him
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those are just some german friends he
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made while on gap year in europe
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look at all his friends let's count them
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one
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two three four five
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six seven eight
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[Music]
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nine friends a popular man this alabama
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native
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used metric in fact he despised british
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units
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so much so that he designed a rocket
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during his gap year to fly to england
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to show them how great the metric system
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was the saturn v
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was designed like nearly everything in
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nasa at the time
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with a mixture of both metric and
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imperial units
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just read the mission reports for apollo
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11 for proof of this
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it switches between inches and
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centimeters constantly
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it's a mess anyone working with this
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report
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would have had to be hyper aware of what
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unit of measurement
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they were using most of the design and
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science work was done
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in metric before being converted to
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imperial for the manufacturing and
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operational staff
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one of the most mind-boggling examples
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of this is the guidance computer
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it was coded in metric meters and
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kilograms
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are the language of science but to
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ensure the astronauts could intuitively
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understand
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what those calculations meant the
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displays inside the lunar module
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had to be displayed in british imperial
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units
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so even back then when computer power
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was extremely limited
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the engineers had to waste precious
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computational time
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and power to conversion this isn't just
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a waste of computation power
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errors in conversion have led to an
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insane number of accidents through the
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years
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some of the most notable being in nasa
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in december 1998
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the mars climate orbiter took off from
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cape canaveral
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aboard its delta ii rocket over the
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course of its nine and a half month
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journey
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the orbiter needed to complete
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trajectory correction maneuvers
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to bring it into an optimal orbit
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insertion altitude
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of 226 kilometers however
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as the time grew closer calculations
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showed that the orbiter was entering
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mars orbit
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in a far lower altitude so low that it
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was likely going to strike the
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atmosphere
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and violently tear itself apart this is
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exactly
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what happened so what went wrong
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the orbiter was coated with metric units
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so
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the thruster control unit was working
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with the metric unit for impulse
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newton seconds but the controller was
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being supplied
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with pound four seconds which differs by
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a conversion factor
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of 4.45 a massive discrepancy
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a discrepancy that destroyed a 328
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million dollar project
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in 1983 an air canada flight departing
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from montreal
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ran out of fuel halfway to its
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destination in edmonton
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why the ground crew knew 22 500
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kilograms of fuel
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was needed for the flight they however
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needed to calculate how many liters were
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needed
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to be pumped so they used the density
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ratio to convert the weight measurement
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to a volume measurement but they used
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the 1.77 density ratio
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which was pounds per liter instead of
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the correct ratio of 0.8 kilograms per
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liter
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resulting in less than half the required
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fuel load being pumped aboard
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luckily the pilot managed to glide the
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plane down to an abandoned airfield
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but that little boo-boo of a conversion
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error could have resulted in a
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catastrophic loss of life
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these are two cautionary tales with
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disastrous consequences
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but it tells you nothing of the silent
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screams into the void
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every engineer in the world lets out
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when they are forced to work with both
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units
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it's just an unnecessary pain in the ass
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we could all do without
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this is the reason we need to choose one
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measurement system mixing units
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not only is tempting fate with
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conversion errors but it cost an
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untold number of hours for scientists
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and engineers around the world
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banging their head against tables when
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they could be using that time for
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something more productive
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i could end the video there but we need
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to really hammer home why metric units
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are the superior units so
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why is it better well let's start with a
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fundamental unit of measurement
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there are seven base units of
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measurement and with these seven
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we can measure everything in the
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universe think of them like the three
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primary colors of light with these three
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colors we can create
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any color in the universe by mixing them
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in just the correct proportions
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we can do the same with these
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fundamental units of measurement
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they are time length mass temperature
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electric current chemical amount and
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luminous intensity
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with these measures we can describe our
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universe
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velocity is a combination of length and
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time volume
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is length cubed density is volume
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combined with mass
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these measurements are the language of
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the universe
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so let's see how the imperial system
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handles a very simple one
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length an inch is a standard unit of
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measurement for length
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in the imperial system let's imagine a
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scenario
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you are designing a railing for a one
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mile long bridge
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you as a skilled and knowledgeable
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engineer
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know that two half inch bolts are more
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than enough to secure the railing down
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the posts of the railing are six feet
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apart alright
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how many inches are there in a foot 12
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so that's 72 inches every 72 inches we
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need two bolts
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our bridge is one mile long how many
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feet is that
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i don't know off the top of my head and
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a quick google search tells me it's 5280
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feet
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what's 12 inches by 5080 that's 63
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360 inches divide that by 72
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that's 880 so we need to order 1760 half
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inch bolts
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that felt cumbersome why do i need to
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remember all these numbers
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because imperial is a convoluted mess of
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measurement units
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invented by people who married their
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cousins that's why
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now let's see how much easier that is in
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metric
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how many millimeters are there in a
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meter it's in the name
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milli one thousand now how many meters
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are there in a kilometer
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once again it's in the dam name kilo
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1000
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given a measurement in kilometers but
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want meters
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just shift the decimal place over three
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places no calculation needed
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there is no room for error it's a simply
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better system
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even within imperial you have to
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constantly convert your units
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ounces to pounds pounds to imperial tons
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which for some reason
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differs from a metric ton by 1.6
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again in metric there are 1000 grams in
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a kilogram and 1 000 kilograms in a ton
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in imperial there are 16 ounces in a
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pound and 2
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240 pounds in an imperial ton why
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you aren't even following the same
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conversion conventions
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as your other units this is insanely
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cumbersome
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the chances of converging errors even
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within your own damn system is high
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never mind having to convert to metric
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you know what's even more insane
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the word for mass and weight in the
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imperial system
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is the same why because the pound was
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invented
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before we knew what gravity was that's
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why
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we just assumed mass and weight were the
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same thing
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when they aren't so we have to specify
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in imperial
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whether we mean pound mass or pound
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force
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i haven't been this confused since i
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watched magic mic
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the most ridiculous thing about all of
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this every single one of these imperial
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measurements are legally defined
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by the metric system america is already
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using the metric system
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and most of the population is oblivious
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to it
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freedom murica guns pew pew
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ura the foot is legally defined
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as 0.3048 meters the pound is illegally
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defined
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by 0.435 kilograms why
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because the metric system is run by the
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international bureau of weights and
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measures
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a neutral international organization
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whose sole mission is to create
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a global language of science who america
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is a member of and they have succeeded
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in an awe-inspiring way
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in 2019 the final metric base unit the
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kilogram
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stopped being defined by human artifacts
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and is now
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like all other metric units defined by
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the laws
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of physics in 2019 it ceased being
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defined by this hunk of metal
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and began being defined by planck's
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constant which is defined as 6.6
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to 6 by 10 to the minus 34 kilogram
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meter squared per second
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of course to use this as a definition we
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need ways to define the meter and second
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the meter is defined as the length of
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the path traveled by light
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in a vacuum in one divided by 299
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million
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792 458 of a second okay
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so how do we define a second a second is
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defined by the hyperfine transition
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frequency which is the frequency of
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radiation which will cause an electron
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to jump from two
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closely spaced low energy states in a
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cesium-133 atom
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each of the base units are defined like
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this
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using the unchanging language of the
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universe
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as its yardstick or should i say meter
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stick
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it's a beautiful and inspiring language
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that transcends the realm of humans
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and for that reason alone you should
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strive to use the metric system
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understanding the language of the
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universe is a superpower
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and there is no better place to become
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fluent in that language
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then brilliant did you know that you can
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measure literally
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anything you can even measure what you
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don't know which is something i learned
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knowledge and uncertainty you
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the result of a roll of a dice
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and a roll of the dice is more uncertain
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than a coin flip
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but why we can't physically measure them
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with a ruler or scale
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being able to quantify uncertainty and
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know how to decrease it with information
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is an incredibly valuable skill and this
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course will teach you
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everything you need to know or if this
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course is not your flavor
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you could learn math with the people
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that invented it with their other brand
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two of many courses on brilliant
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as always thanks for watching and thank
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you to all my patreon supporters
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