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