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The real reasons the US refuses to go metric - YouTube
Channel: Verge Science
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- We struggle with units of measurement
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all the time on our channel
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and it's something that we
get a lot of comments about.
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- [Woman] Pro tip: use the metric system.
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- [Man] Why don't you
use the metric system
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man, so annoying.
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- [Woman] Metric please.
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- [Man] Just use the
(bleeped out) metric system,
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for god's sake
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- We interview scientists,
engineers, and other researchers
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but they live in a metric world.
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We then have to turn
around and make a video
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but around half of our
audience is American.
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So if we say something in
centimeters or kilograms
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it could trip up a lot of our viewers.
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We've tried going back and forth.
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We should make an executive decision
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about using Fahrenheit or celsius.
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Um, its like three, isn't
it three something feet?
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We should know this.
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We've put conversions
in parentheses on screen
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but it's a mess and we want to know why.
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Almost everyone on the
planet uses the metric system
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but why has the United States held out?
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Well, there are a ton of
reasons both big and small
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but here are three reasons
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that we've never considered before.
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Reason number one: US measures are dumb
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but they make sense.
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Officially, the United
States uses a system
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known as the US customary measures.
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It's adapted from the imperial system
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that we inherited from
our British forefathers
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and we've clung to their
feet and ounces ever since.
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The UK is now officially metric-based
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but in practice, imperial units
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are sticking around there, too.
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- I'm in such a quandary.
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I wake up in kilograms,
I go to bed in ounces.
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I, you know, do I measure
things by meters or feet?
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I don't know, it's actually,
no it's fine, it's fine.
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- That's James Vincent,
a reporter for The Verge.
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- James lives in the UK but writes
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for a US-based publication.
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So, he's pretty familiar
with the headaches caused
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by juggling two systems of measurement.
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- I put it along as a prop
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but now I haven't had
a chance to use it yet.
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- James says feet and
ounces might be clunky
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but the US and the UK haven't ditched them
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because they just work.
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- A foot, for example, is
more relatable than a meter
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which was originally
defined as one ten-millionth
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the distance from the
equator to the North Pole.
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A foot is what it sounds like.
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An inch is about the
width of an adult thumb.
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If you have a body, you
can use these measures.
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- Some people argue and I
think there's the decent
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case to be made that they
are sort of on a human scale.
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- And while many European
countries ditched their
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old measures because they
were irregular or confusing,
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America's units were just
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more consistent right from the get-go.
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US has started on a stronger footing
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than many European countries did.
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They have had good, consistent
weights and measures
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and consistency matters far more
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than what unit you're actually using.
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- The point is, the US
system has always been
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a little more accessible than metric.
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Sure, stacking up 12 thumb
widths to make a foot
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that's still kind of weird
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but it's not so weird that
we're clambering to change it.
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Reason number two: Americans
can't be bothered to switch.
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Adopting the metric
system is something that
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a majority of Americans
would have to get behind.
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There'd need to be a popular movement
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and very recently, one man
tried to make that happen.
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("Yankee Doodle")
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We took a trip to Rhode Island
to talk to Lincoln Chafee.
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He's a former senator,
Rhode Island governor,
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and presidential candidate in 2016.
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And he had a grand vision
for taking the US metric.
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- I think America should
be behaving a little more
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along with the other civilized countries
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and it just makes sense when
our two closest countries,
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Mexico and Canada, both have metric
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so it's an international,
forward-looking way
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of where America's going
is how I got interested
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in promoting the metric system.
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- [Cory] Lincoln ran on his Prosperity
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through Peace platform
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which focused less on military spending,
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and more on infrastructure, education,
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and generally making friends
with other countries.
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But he tacked one extra
point onto his platform
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that seemed pretty fated to backfire.
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- Earlier, I said let's be bold.
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Here is a bold embrace
of internationalism.
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Let's join the rest of
the world and go metric.
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I just kept saying Stephanie was right
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and my wife was right.
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Never should have brought it up.
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I remember exactly when I
was reading over the speech
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right near where we're sitting right now
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and she said don't put
the metric in there.
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It's gonna be misinterpreted.
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But I wanted to test.
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Can America, can we have a conversation
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about some controversial things?
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- [Cory] Unfortunately for Lincoln,
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his test was pretty conclusive.
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- Cafee said an important
part of his platform
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is getting the US to finally
adopt the metric system.
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- [Narrator] Lincoln Cafee, he'll be
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out of this race in .2 nanoseconds.
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- [Reporter] Lincoln Chafee's
odds of getting the US
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to finally embrace the metric system are
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probably about as low
as Lincoln Chafee's odds
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of getting to be the next
president of the United States
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- But my wife was right.
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It was totally
misinterpreted and ridiculed
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and mocked and nobody ever asked about
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any of the other issues.
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- [Cory] Lincoln withdrew
from the race in 2015.
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- I have decided to end my
campaign for the president today.
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- [Cory] And with him went any hope
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of conversation around metric.
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Though Lincoln still holds out hope.
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- Ultimately, people have
an affection for America
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and it's still there and
we should be building on it
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instead of driving a
wedge into our differences
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with countries around the world
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and metrics is part of it.
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It's a good symbolic part of it.
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- The moral of the story,
don't hold your breath
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for a metric uprising in America.
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- Almost every nation on Earth
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has fallen under the yoke of
tyranny, the metric system.
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- But for what it's worth,
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we might actually be in the middle of
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a much sneakier metric takeover.
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Reason number three: The US
is secretly already metric.
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The US may not be officially metric,
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but meters and kilograms
have found their niches.
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First, US scientists do not
mess around with US measures.
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- Metric was designed by
scientists and who primarily
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you know they were annoyed
about inconsistencies
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within the systems they
were currently using.
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- [Cory] The metric system
uses standard, consistent
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prefixes based on powers of ten.
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So if you know your prefixes,
you can measure a lot
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or a little of anything
using one base unit.
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- Whether you are doing
very precise measurements
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in chemistry or you're looking
at astronomical differences
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that's where metric is useful
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because you if you wanna move the unit
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you just, you know,
move the decimal point.
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- Industry is largely on
board with metric, as well.
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In 1988, Congress passed a bill
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which required federal agencies
to use metric measurements.
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Another bill in 1992, required
businesses to use metric
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for consumer goods, too.
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Ever wonder why your soda can
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lists both ounces and milliliters?
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And last but not least,
imperial units are now
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technically based on metric definitions.
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An inch is defined as 25.4 millimeters
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and a pound is .45359237 kilograms.
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Metric really is everywhere.
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- You've got the scientific standards
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at the heart of the scientific community.
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You've got the companies, they're metric
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and you might have as we do in the UK,
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certain examples where
other units are used
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in day-to-day life but where
it counts, America is metric.
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- There you have it.
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The US is one big measurement gray area.
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We haven't officially switched to metric
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but we haven't shunned it either.
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It's a compromise between
science and industry
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which benefit from metric,
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citizens who feel no reason to change
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- Kilograms
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- And a government that's
trying to keep everyone happy.
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- Ultimately, there's
only one way that James
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thinks this story ends.
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- As you know, the US is already metric
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essentially it just has
this facade of measures.
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The thing to do is just
to wait for that facade
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to slowly crumble away and
that will happen with time.
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- When that change happens,
you can be sure that
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we at Verge Science will
accept it with open arms.
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Until then, please be patient
with us in the comments
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and don't forget to like
and subscribe, thanks.
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