For Europeans, the American system makes no sense at all and is just too grotesque unnecessarily complicated.

@arturobianco848

Ай бұрын

Do they have a system?

@willswomble7274

Ай бұрын

@@arturobianco848 I think they use 'cups' BUT I don't know how big her cups are......

@niarkozzy

Ай бұрын

When you need to find "a bit bigger" than a 1"-7/16 wrench in the toolbox.

@MarabuToo

Ай бұрын

My personal favourite: a pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of gold, but an ounce of feathers is lighter than an ounce of gold. 😂😉

@DingDongDanielReally

Ай бұрын

@@MarabuToo My personal favorite is the Bavarian beer meter that is measured at the Oktoberfest🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺A measure of beer is 1.06 liters with foam🍺🍺🍺🍺

Not a single European would say that anything like the metric system was made by god 😂 This was such a USAmerican sentence!

@pwghost

29 күн бұрын

Most american thing to say ....

@seldakaya0414

28 күн бұрын

@@pwghost, exactly. 🙃

@stefanwolosin550

26 күн бұрын

Was my first thought as well 😅

Only a american would say the metric system isnt perfect.

@SeeDaRipper...

Ай бұрын

*an

@DieGurke_

Ай бұрын

@@SeeDaRipper... Where is the Bus?

@SeeDaRipper...

Ай бұрын

@@DieGurke_ Eh?

@lillm6874

Ай бұрын

⁠@@SeeDaRipper... Is this really necessary? This person doesn’t have English as first language, so maybe you should respect that this person knows English at all! Or are you perfect when it comes to your second language (if you have one)?

@SeeDaRipper...

Ай бұрын

@@lillm6874 Ma deuxième langue est également impeccable, j'ai simplement souligné l'ironie de quelqu'un qui se moque d'un Américain mais ne comprend pas l'anglais de base.

Metric system is so easy to work with. 1kg of water = 1 litre. 1 cubic metre = 1000 litres. Imagine calculating the amout of rain water you would get off a rooftop given a 1mm of rainfall.

@KaiHenningsen

Ай бұрын

Of course, that one's just as approximate as the original meter, and not used as the actual definition (in fact, IIRC, the kilogram was the last physical-object definition to be replaced by a natural-constant one because, until fairly recently, we had no sufficiently exact measurement we could use for mass (which is why we use the speed of light for the meter, it's one of the precisest speed measurements we have and we already have a precise measurement for the second)). Essentially, for the new definitions, the whole point is to find _something_ in nature we can measure very precisely, and find a way to derive a unit from that - it should both be an improvement over the precision of pre-existing definitions and independent of actual physical objects. For some units, this was not so hard, but for some, it turned out to be a hard problem to solve.

@neuralwarp

Ай бұрын

It's 10×10×10 cm = 1000 cm³

@allangoodger969

Ай бұрын

@@neuralwarp A palacon is a 1000 litres, it is a cubic metre and it weighs 1 ton.

@kaelon9170

Ай бұрын

@@KaiHenningsen Even then the rule that 1kg of water is 1 litre and 1 cubic metre is 1000 litres of water still holds. The new standard definitions aim to provide *better* precision for very precise scientific measurements, not to redefine how these units relate. If anything these natural constants uphold these conversion rates, while providing more precision so that scientific processes can measure even more precisely.

@Shoomer1988

Ай бұрын

@@kaelon9170 That only holds at 4°C. For example, 1 litre of water at 20°C weighs approximately 0.998 kg. Pressure also changes the situation.

The US customary system is definded by metric in US law..

@nedludd7622

Ай бұрын

All American youtubers on this subject get it wrong. They don't even know what system they use in the US as they call it "imperial system" that current one was established after the US customary system.

@igormatkowski5488

Ай бұрын

​@@nedludd7622 good to know

@neuralwarp

Ай бұрын

Do they spell it Meteric?

@gregorygant4242

Ай бұрын

But they don't use it , only in scientific , technical fields do they use it anywhere else they use the modified imperial system , yards, feet , ounces, fahrenheit .

@nicoladc89

Ай бұрын

@@gregorygant4242 nope, they use the International System of Units converted into strange numbers. All those units are defined using the International units. For example, the definition of yard is 1 yard = 0.9114 meters. The definition of meter is " the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 seconds". The Farenheit scale is defined on the Kelvin scale. The avoirdupois ounce is exactly 28.349523125 g. And I think this is enough to understand which of the two systems is better. As an Italian I am forced to admit that the French did it better.

1 metre = 100cm, 1 yard = 91.44cm, he was definitely holding a metre stick, not a yard stick! 😂

@jaketzi8816

Ай бұрын

And it is divided in 10 sections, how to do it with yard stick? 9 times 1/3 foot and add 1 for "good measure"??? (and you get 1.016m!)

@Llyd_ApDicta

Ай бұрын

@@jaketzi8816 I was about o comment exactly that. The guy in the video so confidently how that was not a meter... :]

@LooKingG00d

Ай бұрын

Is 1 yard at least 3 feet? I'm grasping at any sort of system in the freedom f'ing units

@Llyd_ApDicta

Ай бұрын

@@LooKingG00d Yes. 12 inches -> 1 foot; 3 feet -> 1 yard; 1760 yards -> 1mile. To gewt from feet to meter easily, multiply by 3 and then divide by 10, i.e. 9 feet are 2.7 meters.

@LooKingG00d

Ай бұрын

@@Llyd_ApDicta What about backwards - 53.6 meters to inches? That's easy mental math. and if I want to convert 147.7 yards to, lets even keep it freedom units, to inches? imagine if 10 inches would be 1 ft, 10ft would be 1 yard and 1000 yards would be a mile. Gawd...multiplying everying by 10 so you just move the comma to convert would so confusing...

Doing it at the end of the 18th century by measuring triangles using only a small part of the total stretch and then be off by 0.02% is hella impressive imo.

@Anson_AKB

Ай бұрын

yes, absolutely ! ... and most important: the important part about the metric system is not the length of a meter, but to have only one single unit with prefixes for all measurements of the same type (eg meter, cm, mm, km for length, instead of inch, feet, yard, mile, and whatever else with weird ratios), and the easy relations of all the different SI-units to each other.

The old measurement errors propagating in SI units isn't an oversight or an error, it's a feature specifically chosen to exist. All the newer definitions fit inside the error bars of the old ones. That makes them backwards compatible. Technically they aren't actually different, they are simply more precise.

@igormatkowski5488

Ай бұрын

299,792,458 is not a random number, it is the speed of light in a vacuum. So it isn't error

@blechtic

Ай бұрын

@@igormatkowski5488 Sky is blue.

Weird video. I don't think anybody argues that the choice of whatever basic unit you use us ultimately arbitrary. The advantage of the metric system is that once you've chosen that unit, the rest builds on that basic unit in a systematic way. Using metrics that don't neatly build on each other makes life unnecessarily difficult and leads to unnecessary imprecision. When doing renovation projects in the US, our contractors have been half-assing measurements because ultimately stuff never stacks up if you have to work with feet, inches and fraction of inches. I've never seen that in Europe.

@arturobianco848

Ай бұрын

Yup I agree its an extremly stupid clipp at least with this tittle. Like you said its all bout the system not if the base measure unit really was "divine". And it said meter system in the titel not meter itself. If he had done that the clipp would have been fine now its basicly garbadge.

@JNCressey

Ай бұрын

Especially when they could have attacked other weakness like, despite one of the main positives is that it's easy due to being consistent, there some silly inconsistencies. examples: The kilogram being considered the base unit of mass while having a prefix, instead of the base unit being the gram or the tonne or a different base name that equals the kilogram. The kilo prefix being lowercase instead of there being a nice rule of capital letters making the unit bigger and miniscule letters making the unit smaller. The micro prefix using a greek letter.

@tonchrysoprase8654

Ай бұрын

@@JNCressey I mean, bien sûr, but as shortcomings go, these require so much work to come up with, they seem a bit self-inflicted. I don't know anybody who uses KM/h (or is second the base unit and it should be KM/H?) or notes any practical impact of what's considered the base unit. The distinction becomes relevant for mega, mili and micro which all start with an m, but on a practical level, do you want to create rules to distinguish those and in that case do you standardize so all units use 2 or 3 letters? At some point practicality and going with established patterns just outweighs the benefit of standardization.

@JNCressey

Ай бұрын

@@tonchrysoprase8654, I didn't mean the letter of the base unit would change to a capital. Mm, Gm, Tm etc would all still use lowercase m for the metres part, but the case of the k for the kilo part could have been capital so that kilometres would be Km. And instead of micro with a greek letter, they didn't need to make the word micro. they could made a different word for that scale which didn't start with m.

@tonchrysoprase8654

Ай бұрын

@@JNCressey Oh, right. I got the modifier vs base unit part wrong. As to the use of micro - I always assumed that those uses were customary before people formalized the notations. Either way, those aren't issues that tempt me to start using grain/fluid dram any time soon.

It doesn't matter how long the is, what magters is that the metrik system is logic: 1meter =100 cm=1000mm. A cube 10x10x10 cm (100x100x100 mm) = 1 liter (water freeze at 0° and boils at 100°) = 1kilogram= 1000 grams. All connected, login and very easy to work with.

@uwetheiss970

Ай бұрын

Only at 1013 hPa boils water at 100°C! And I really hate it that it isn't 1000 hPa.

@mikekelly5869

Ай бұрын

So can it work out how many cords of wood will be needed to boil a moonshine mash consisting of 200 American gallons is water and 2 bushels of wheat, at an elevation of 1 furlong,

@MrFrozenFrost

Ай бұрын

​@@uwetheiss970but as long as you don't live on a high mountain, the points boiling and melting good for a household thermometer. Better than some freezing temperature somewhere and the usual body temperature of a person.

@uwetheiss970

Ай бұрын

@@MrFrozenFrost I have no idea what you are trying to say.

@michaelsteinlechner611

Ай бұрын

@@uwetheiss970 It´s 1013,15hPa because this is the air pressure at sea level. And 1Pa is defined as 1N/m² or 1kg/(m*s²). So you can´t say it´s 1000 because pressure is defined allready and 1013hPa is only a measurement. Maybe in old day´s it was difficult to cook water under water ;-)

Americans think they understand Imperial measurements, yet have no concept of stones and have their own measurements for pints, ounces etc.

@mats7492

Ай бұрын

hogshead, barleycorn,

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

Funny how Ryan thinks we Brits don't understand IMPERIAL (the Royal clue is in the name) weights and measures considering the first Americans took them from Britain... Yanks just changed some of the figures used. So yes, we know what a "yardstick' is !? Additionally we still use miles, pints and mix up both Imperial with Metric measurments often. LOL 😂😂😂

@RustyDust101

Ай бұрын

@@sebv1086 nope, sorry, but that is wrong. British imperial pounds are identical to American customary units pounds. But once you get above that the diffinitions change quite drastically. So it's quite obvious that it's not only volume measurements. Certain lengths exist in one system but not the other. Granted they are the more 'exotic' ones and not used on an everyday basis.

@Jim-the-Engineer

Ай бұрын

The important thing to note from this thread is that the Imperial system and the US Customary system, while using a lot of the same terminology, are quite different. It's incorrect to call what the average American uses Imperial - they're US Customary units. BTW, Americans working in the sciences use SI units almost exclusively. (SI - Système international, aka International System of units - is the modern "cleaned-up" version of the metric system.)

@auldfouter8661

Ай бұрын

@@sebv1086 No , Americans use things like short tons which are 2,000 ponds instead of 2,240 lbs.

With the USA jumping up and down "WE WILL NOT GO METRIC" stupid when the USA was the FIRST to go METRIC with money.

@gregorygant4242

Ай бұрын

No that's decimal not metric big difference !

@VeniVidiVelcro

Ай бұрын

@@gregorygant4242 The metric system is a decimal system...

@frankhooper7871

Ай бұрын

@@VeniVidiVelcro Metric is decimal doesn't imply that decimal is metric; All dogs are animals, but not all animals are dogs.

@VeniVidiVelcro

Ай бұрын

@@frankhooper7871 True, but the choice to switch to a decimal currency system is the same as the choice for a decimal measurement system, i.e. easy conversions and subdivisions. So the refusal to switch to some decimal system is equally irrational and above all stubborn...

@mehallica666

Ай бұрын

@@VeniVidiVelcro Had the metric system been created by Americans, they would have switched the following day!

The real issue with the imperial system is the insistent use of fractions, when the average american apparently believe the "one-third pound burger" to be smaller than the "quarter pounder".

@JackBlackNinja

Ай бұрын

wow I just had to look that up. But for what it's worth, even if there were a peer review survey on this, which there wasn't, it would certainly find that the vast majority of people know a third is larger than a quarter

@FelixNielsen

Ай бұрын

Peer reviewed survey? It was a business idea that failed, and when people were asked, that seemed to be the reason. No one is saying that every single american is a fraction illiterate

@JackBlackNinja

Ай бұрын

@@FelixNielsen yeah according to hearsay about what a marketing firm told A&W. You’d have to do an actual study to confirm that very doubtable conjecture. Obviously Americans believing a third is not larger than a quarter is likely not the reason the burger failed

@FelixNielsen

Ай бұрын

@@JackBlackNinja That way you can just about dismiss everything. Fact of the matter is a plenty of people have trouble with fractions, and not just Americans, thus making the the story plausible. Of course it doesn't really matter as the point is that fractions, to many, are not at all intuitive, and to some they are just outright incomprehensible. It is easy to make mistakes, even for the pros, if you have and of day or something or rather.

@JackBlackNinja

Ай бұрын

@@FelixNielsen huh maybe I’m underestimating how unintuitive fractions can be to people. Never would think that would affect much or many. I certainly don’t see it being a substantial reason for the failure if the burger, at least from my current reference frame

Working when you are so sick is a very stereotypical American thing. Thanks for the content but don't forget to rest 🎆

@cathjj840

Ай бұрын

He's at home - good for resting. He's watchnig over baby/ies: not good for resting. He's young and funny: he can handle it.

@HeliouHyios

Ай бұрын

commenting youtube videos is not work. Even if he gets some money out of that process^^

What is stupid about the imperial system is not the size of the unit, it is the weakness of the conversion systems. The metric system has been adopted by all but three countries in the world because it is based on decimal and the ratio of 10 between larger or smaller units. It's so much simpler...

@HappyBeezerStudios

Ай бұрын

Yeah, and metric units roughly the length of an inch and a foot would be extremely useful. On the other hand, we've been using metric since the french invaded us but many people still refer to half a kg as a pound.

@christianc9894

Ай бұрын

@@HappyBeezerStudios In France often too for livre. But our livre = 500 grams

@Someone-dv7hw

11 күн бұрын

​@@HappyBeezerStudios if you mean adopting the metric and as colloquialisms still referring to old names... then I would suggest just going for 1/3 or 1/4 of a meter as "foot" (33 and 25 cm respectively, a foot is 30cm) and 1/4 decimeter as inch. Since one inch is 2.54 cm... make it an even 2.5 and make a foot 25 cm so its 10 times that big and both fit neatly in there as quarters of the measurements so you can neatly continue your language if you have to while still using the metric system and copying the benefits of conversion from it. A yard would simply have to merge with the meter and look at this, the colloquialism of the metric mile being 1.5 km even already exists so just nab that one which means 1500 "yards"/meters are a metric "mile" rather than 1760 yards (god why) and 1.609 km

@Someone-dv7hw

11 күн бұрын

Funnily enough... 25 cm is spot on the average shoe size 9 if you consider both men and women (if my quick google search is correct) so that would actually make more sense than the current foot measurement xD

@HappyBeezerStudios

11 күн бұрын

@@Someone-dv7hw exactly the kind of units I'm thinking about.

The important thing with the metric system is : whatever arbitrary reference was taken to define the basic unit (meter / mètre), ALL the other units would be defined as decimal variations of the base, so it makes calculations extremely easy even between different fields of measure (volumes to distance, or weight), and much less error prone than conversions even within the Imperial system ;)

It's funny how everyone in the world except the United States can do something the same way and yet we're still the ones who have it wrong.

@mehallica666

Ай бұрын

U.S exceptionalism at it's finest.

@dominikadamek2443

Ай бұрын

@@mehallica666 nah just their morbid main character syndrome

I'm a physicist and have been working in the USA. The universal rule for solving physics problem there was: convert to metric, work the problem, get a result, convert the metric result back to imperial. Trying to solve any form pf physics problem in imperial is prone to fail.

It doesn't matter what the exact length is as long as everyone uses the same !

@Not.Your.Business

Ай бұрын

it matters for calibration purposes. how can you be certain your measurement is correct otherwise?

@mikeyb2932

Ай бұрын

@@Not.Your.Business I think you should try and read what trevorkidd293 wrote, once more. If the metre/meter was defined to be a different length than it is now - then that would just be the definition and that is what we would use and that is what you would use to calibrate your instruments.

Fun thing is that the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters and a yard as exactly 0.9144 meters. So by using imperial units you are indirectly using si (metric) units

@mats7492

Ай бұрын

and an inch is 2.54cm

@MarabuToo

Ай бұрын

​@@mats7492...which, to my knowledge, is the actual U.S. length definition; a foot is therefore 12*.0254m, a yard is 3*12*.0254m, and so on.

@mats7492

Ай бұрын

@@MarabuToo instead of just using metric they defined their system by metric messurements and kept it.. classic america

@SiqueScarface

Ай бұрын

You can also phrase it like this: the Imperial system today is a funny way to name funny multiples of metric units.

@yaldenskigaming5371

Ай бұрын

yes, interesting and fun! Also IMHO how "the French" in 1795 apparently thought the metric system would be a good idea and "The British and some of their colonies" then went something like: "Yes, very amusing, thank you very much, but let's not!, let's do Pints, Pounds and Brexit instead! Would you like another cup of tea Uncle Sam?

Only for us it is metre not meter 😂

@SPACECOWBOY_Hej

Ай бұрын

its meter you britbong bozo

@Mil_bogaerts

Ай бұрын

French

@sandgroperwookiee65

Ай бұрын

Came to say the same 😄 ..only a few like the Yanks & the Phillipines spell it meter..but of course lol

@valeriedavidson2785

Ай бұрын

METRE!!

@bar-d1423

Ай бұрын

A meter is a measure of rhythm

It's weird how, for many years, the British Commonwealth countries (not sure about other countries) had pounds, shillings, and pence when I was in primary (elementary) school. There were twelve pennies in a shilling and twenty shillings in a pound. A guinea was one pound and one shilling. We also used imperial measurements. Then, in 1967, (when I was twelve), we changed to the same denominations as the United States, dollars, and cents. So we went to decimal currency and later moved to metric measurement. The United States has decimal currency all along but has stuck to imperial measurements. Please rest up and get well. I began to feel sick just watching you. 😂😂😂❤❤❤

@carolineskipper6976

Ай бұрын

Fact check- the UK actually went decimal in 1971 (the decision to do so may well have been in 1967). I had to suffer learning to do 'Money sums' which involved £/sh/p until I was 7 - never got the hang of it - then they stopped teaching us that altogether, until they taught us about New Pence when I was 9. Edit: Rereading your comment I realsie you may have been in a Commonwealth country other than the UK, and so your dates may be correct for that country.

@raetalaward9128

Ай бұрын

@carolineskipper6976 Fact check: I am from New Zealand. Our government abandoned pounds, shillings, and pence on the 10th July 1967.

@Derry_Aire

Ай бұрын

@@carolineskipper6976 I was thinking the same until I read they changed to dollars and cents in 1967 - so they're probably from NZ.

@BenjaminVestergaard

Ай бұрын

Well, 12 is really a beautiful number, divides and multiplies easily... but since our written and spoken number system is base-10 and not base-12, it gets annoying. But why the British mixed 12 and 20... I don't understand... choose one base and stick to it.

@carolineskipper6976

Ай бұрын

@@raetalaward9128 Hope you saw my edit acknowledging that I had made an assumption!

4:12 the French word for meter is "mètre". Which is why the Brits still spell the word "metre", not "meter".

@Kyrelel

Ай бұрын

A metre is a unit of measurement, a meter is a unit for measurement. It is also why it is called Metric, not Meteric ;p

@davidz2690

Ай бұрын

"still" spell it metre? what do you mean still? That's how it's spelt

@arthur_p_dent

Ай бұрын

@@davidz2690 it's the British spelling. The US spelling is "meter".

@davidz2690

Ай бұрын

@@arthur_p_dent Britain has quite a few languages, you mean it’s the English spelling.

@arthur_p_dent

Ай бұрын

@@davidz2690 we are speaking English in this comments section, yes. That other languages may have different spellings goes without saying.

This video has NOTHING to do with the title

10 million is just the division, not an indication of the number of significant numbers!

An error of 2/10 of a millimetre over 1m is pretty huge if you're navigating a ship, grinding a lens, building a skyscraper, or etching a silicon chip.

@markjones127

Ай бұрын

mm is only used for measuring distance in navigation so a 0.2mm discrepancy would make no difference, the part where errors cause big discrepancies is when following bearings which are measured in degrees and arc minutes, not mm, but even then 0.2 degrees or 12 arc minutes doesn't make a huge amount of difference unless the distance is absolutely huge like in astronomy and such, on the surface of the earth working to an accuracy of 12 arc minutes is being extremely accurate really as an arc minute is 21,600th of a full circle.

@Pakal77

19 күн бұрын

I work in semi-conductors, and we use the metric system without problems to make chips (nanometers man, nanometers).

Fun fact: the american system is defined on the metric system.

For Joe / Josephine Average Citizen, the origin of the metre really is of no consequence. It's the use / application that is important. I grew up with the Imperial system but had to learn the metric in my 20s. So simple. Water freezes at 0'C and boils at 100'C. (Not that it matters but where did 32 & 212 come from?) An acre is 43,560 square feet (208.71 ft. x 208.71 ft.), or 1 chain (66 ft.) by 1 furlong (660 ft). which was the amount of land that a medieval farmer could plough in a day using a team of eight oxen. In contrast a hectare is 100 metres by 100 metres.

@HappyBeezerStudios

Ай бұрын

If I remember right Farhenheit was defined by the freezing point of a mixture salt, water and ammonium chloride as zero and human body temperature as 100. Two very variable measurements. But the craziest measurement is the acre-foot, which is defined as a one foot by one chain (66 feet) by one furlong (660 feet) volume. Or 6 x 66 x 660 feet which comes outto 43 560 cubic feet. Who needs such an odd unit. I know americans like to measure things in football field as estimate. Let's imagine they want to set up a new military training area, those can be pretty large. Would they prefer something the size of 59 837 football fields, or something the size of 60 000 football fields...

I can't believe I missed "Les Measurables" when I watched Joe's video the first time around 🤣

As I didnt understand the term "yards", my math teacher suggested reciting a "metre measures 3ft 3, it's longer than a yard you'll see"! 👍

@willswomble7274

Ай бұрын

'Math' ?

@XMan-tu4iu

Ай бұрын

Except a metre is 3ft 3 and 3/8”.

Adopted in Australia in 1972 thats why us oldies know both and convert in our heads eg 1 mile is 1.6 kilometres or 1600 metres 25 mm or 2.5 cm is 1 inch 37.9 c is 100f

@pathopewell1814

Ай бұрын

The money was a struggle to me, to convert!

@utha2665

Ай бұрын

I always used 1km ≈ 5/8 mile. As a basic rule 25mm ≈ 1 inch, but 25.4mm is more accurate. But for me, I use it to convert back to the imperial system as I was 5 years old when we converted to metric in Australia. I still remember seeing the mph road signs but, of course have lived my whole life with decimal currency.

7:05 No Ryan. That's the effect of the lord Sauron dying in the Lord of the Rings!

@Thurgosh_OG

Ай бұрын

Well he farted big time and ran off in the smoke, too embarrassed to come outdoors again till the 3rd Age.

Get well soon, Ryan.

The platinum meter was stored in Paris, in a vacuum at 0 degrees Celsius. PS Be Smart is a great channel. I think you'll love it, Ryan.

Fun fact: In Norway, we call a folding ruler a "inch stick". It does, in fact, show measurements in cm.

@downtownwoodart3686

5 күн бұрын

In germany we do the same and call it zollstock. 1 Zoll = 1 inch 😂

„A boulder the size of small boulder“ comes to mind

The hills and mountains can be calculated out if you also determine the height above sea level for each measuring point. Just a few more triangles in the final calculation 🙂

this is the best "convert" you can get...

The remarkable thing is that, despite the inaccuracies, just how accurate it actually is, given the technology of the time. And it was never designed in a completely arbitrary way that would change over time. It actually makes sense. In the UK, we still use both systems but feet and inches are generally relegated to measuring someone's height.

Dang Ryan, you are REALLY funny when you are ill. Great reaction. I still hope you´ll get better soon, take care of yourself. :)

You can have a job walking around the countryside measuring triangles. Well, it's not triangles, and you don't always walk, you sometimes crawl through mud and bushes. The job is called a land surveyor or a geodesist. One of my mates is one, he studied in a land planning university, and he likes to play guitar and bitch about things.

I love how his reason for it being imperfect is because of such a negligible error hundreds of years ago. I'd love to see him explain why imperial units are defined by the metric system today

fun facts: - the second is currently also based on fundamental physics. As is the meter. - the current imperial system is ....wait for it....metric-based! It's just a conversion - the imperial system actually made sense to farmers, traders and craftsmen in the past. There was no great need for scientific purposes and a lot for crafting and trade. Therefor lots of imperial measurement is divisable by 2,3,4 and 6. That's handy! (There is a more detailed explanation out there but I forgot).

A meter is for putting money in when the electric runs out or the taxi has a meter running.

Wow, Ryan, I noticed you seem a little off in the first few moments of your post. Hope you are feeling better soon. Love your post! You are very entertaining, even when you are a bit under the weather.😃

@Rachel_M_

Ай бұрын

It did make him sound a bit like a Californian surf bum tho 😂

Metrum is Latin and means "measure" or "gauge". From there, the French word "metre" derived (same in British English), or the American English "meter".

@marcarrasco1692

Ай бұрын

And in spanish , italian, german......"metro"

@anacristinaribeiro9592

Ай бұрын

In portuguese is also metro.

@antoniocosta1034

Ай бұрын

In german is meter By the way it is not named from latin but from greek, see the explanation at the beginning of the video

@SiqueScarface

Ай бұрын

@@antoniocosta1034The Latin metrum in turn derived from the Greek metrón. But the word "métrer' was used in French before métre was used to define the standard of length, simply meaning "to measure". It was and is also used to describe the rhythm of a verse or a piece of music (as in "beats per minute"). In fact, it never fell out of usage in French from the time of Vulgar Latin over Old French and Middle French to Modern French. It is not as if in 1799, people went to Ancient Greek to look for a word they could use to name the new unit of length. They used a word they already used all the time and just added a new definition to it. So yes, the origin of métre is Ancient Greek metrón, but the direct ancestor is Latin metrum.

The video is missing the newest definion of the constants of the unit system because the video is 7 years old. On the 20th may 2019, a more precise unit system was introduced to match the units to nature constants😊

As you mentioned changes in temperature, the worst thing that can happen to a system of measures based on physical measures is losing the measures in a fire. So, when the Palace of Westminster burned down in 1834, the world lost the imperial yard and the imperial pound. The Weights and Measures Act 1855 is a bit wordy, so to paraphrase: some scientific experts got together that had previously compared their physical versions of the yard and pound to the physical standards, on a regular enough basis, that the differences measured between their copies and the lost standards could be reversed and averaged to recreate very close approximations of the original defining objects, and so they recreated four copies of the Imperial Standard Yard, the Imperial Standard Troy Pound, and the Pound Avoirdupois (not technically a standard measure because the lb itself was defined by the troy pound), and from the date set out in legislation the new standard measures became the original standard measures. Eventually, metric was defined by the imperial measurements in the UK, and when the metric measures were better defined the legal definitions got inverted with imperial measures being defined by metric measures, which were eventually themselves defined by universal constants. There was of course that time in the 1950s when we (UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia) had to get together to agree on how far a mile is and how much a pound weighs. Ah, America, a country where you can get all of your citizens to ditch the US mile in favour of the international mile, but NIST's surveyors and NOAA's meteorologists had to be given a little time (60+ years) to switch to this newfangled foot thing - "in the meantime, let's rename the US foot as the US survey foot to avoid confusing the American public". Edit: metre/meter literally means measure. That's why the time signature in music is also known as the metre signature or the measure signature, why the rhythm in poetry is known as its metre, why the thing that measures your energy usage is a meter, why the thing you watch to make sure your microphone isn't clipping is a meter, etc. In British English, only the distance measure and music/poetry measures are a metre, with most all other measures (and measuring things) being meters, including newer UK (natural) gas meters that measure usage in cubic metres (in comparison to the older meters that used cubic feet).

American here and I don't know what schools are teaching now, but when I was a kid in the 1980s and 1990s we were taught both the Standard system and the metric system. I think it's weird that no one else in the U.S. seemed to be taught metrics.

@infin8ee

Ай бұрын

That seems smart especially nowadays as the world is pretty small and surely it would be beneficial to know the system of others.

@tubekulose

Ай бұрын

Metric is the standard system. You mean imperial.

@Thurgosh_OG

Ай бұрын

@@tubekulose No, they mean 'US Customary Units'. The US never used the Imperial system per say, as that system was not set into agreement by the UK till after the USA was founded.

@lynnejamieson2063

Ай бұрын

As a Scottish person born in the mid 70’s, we were taught in both metric and imperial for measuring, though the calculations for converting both miles to kilometres and Fahrenheit to Centigrade were kind of skimmed over (or done in a way that they just haven’t stuck in my head) but kilometres and Fahrenheit mean nothing to me…I just know that the numbers will be higher than those for miles and Centigrade.

@guttosmile

Ай бұрын

Wow, cool, I thought that in the U.S. people studied metric system only in a college or university when going to stem faculties. I wonder when they actually stopped this practice. Doesn’t seem to be a fed initiative from what I can say and yet as it seems it happened all over the U.S. As a European it took me a while to get accustomed to converting inches, feet, yards, pounds, hogsheads, gallons and other freedom units into smth more comprehensible. Inches are somewhat widely used here, especially in construction as the wood is usually measured in inches.

Well, the Meter is based on our daily scale. Also, it´s based on 10, which allows to just move the comma (point), in order to calculate the upper or lower measurement size, like kg or metric tons -> 1000g =1kg, 1000kg =1 ton). Also, volume and weight are linked to the density/weight of water, which makes one Liter (10x10x10 cm = 1 dm³ of distilled water having a weight of 1kg ON SEALEVEL (pressure matters). In fact, it cancels out any conversion calculations, that´s why it´s used by science in general. Fun fact: When it comes to weapons, even US citizens use the metric system for some reason and there are more expamples for it, already. However, sooner or later the US will adapt this system, anyways - it´s just a question of time. But once your are on it, please make your billion the same as the european one as well, it´s so confusing to me. 🙄

What he has not stated, and he really should, was that the metre was designed to be repeatable by anyone in the universe… a universal measure one might say… and now it is, as are all of the other metric base units. We never metrified time, so the second is now retrofit into the metric system by other physical laws of the universe. It is one of the all time great achievements of mankind.

@HappyBeezerStudios

Ай бұрын

So to remeasure the meter I first need a second. I don't have a clock. But when I arrived on this strange planet, I noticed that when I go to sleep at sundown (civil twilight) and get back up, the local sun is about 34° over the horizon. How many earth seconds is a day here?

@simbob26

Ай бұрын

@@HappyBeezerStudios the metre is defined as the distance that light travels in 1/299,792,458s in a vacuum (ie speed of light). The second is defined by the hyperfine transition frequency of caesium-133 x 9,192,631,770. Just because the minute, hour or day are not actually metric measures doesn’t mean that the second has no definition in the metric system.

Ryan is exactly the type of guy Continental European men don't like even if their last name is Ronaldo or Nadal. He is polite, charming, and most of all does not get bothered if someone says something to him that is off-handed. Like many Americans, he just ignores all but the most obvious insults and moves on to the next point of conversation. He also smiles way too much for European men to feel comfortable with around their girlfriends or even wives. And, not only that, i am sure Ryan tips all sorts of service people and thanks them for a job well done, something for example someone in France or the Netherlands would be nauseated by. Ryan, you need to head over to Europe, you will be loved there ---

It's a job still in Germany. If you want that job, here you can walk around measuring and get paid for it by the community. 😅

Oh I've seen a yardstick. Felt one, too. Was one of our teachers' weapon of choice. To be fair, it was a broken one so more realistically it would have been a 'two feet stick'.

Honestly, I would love to live in a world where day is 10 hours, 1 hour is 100 minutes etc..., it would be so much simplier than now. 😀

American scientists and engineers use 'metric' (International System of Units (SI)) but the size of the American domestic market means that businesses feel that they have no need to make what they see as an expensive move to SI.

we use both in the uk had to learn both for maths and science

@Kyrelel

Ай бұрын

.. and everyday use ...

If it's a metre long, it is actually a metre stick, not a yard stick. :p

@heikosale1027

Ай бұрын

In Germany, folding yard sticks are still called "Zollstock" which literally translates to "inch-stick", not "meter-stick", although they are marked in meters and centimeters.

Fun fact: The old Egyptian cubit mentioned in the video was exactly 0.5236 meter long (52 cm, 3 mm and 6/10th of a mm). If you take a circle with the diameter of 1 meter you will have pi at 3.1416 meter (3 meters, 14cm, 1 mm and 6/10th of a mm). Divide 3.1416 meter with 6 and you get 0.5236 meter (the royal cubit)! Whats left is 2.618 meter, which is the golden ratio squared (1.618 x 1.618) or the golden ratio plus 1 (1.618 + 1).

2/10ths of a millimeter don't matter when your building a house, but 2/10ths of a millimeter on a space ship can be why it blows up instead of flies.

@arturobianco848

Ай бұрын

Not if you use it as a base unit. Thats why this clipp is so incrededably bad. The metric system is a system based on a decimale system of a base unit. It would have worked as well if they just had agreed on a yard as base unit. Even if they had been spot on its still an "invention" The size of the earth is a pretty random thing its just one of the trillion lumbs of rock in space.

@willswomble7274

Ай бұрын

Are there 'flys' in space hitting satellites, SPLAT! METRE! Merd...

@Lordoftheapes79

Ай бұрын

@@arturobianco848 so much of this statement is nonsense that I'm not going to argue with you.

As a Brit can conceptualise: Driving 5 miles. Walking 200meters To buy a pint of milk and a litre of coke That I weigh 13stone and 11lb and can squat 100kg But I can't conceptualise: Driving 2km Walking 50yards To buy a litre of milk and a gallon of petrol (gas) That I weigh 75kg and can lift...220lb 😂

@noefillon1749

Ай бұрын

That meand you have no instinctual comparison between what youo weigh and how much you can lift, that sounds so strange to me

@jgreen2015

Ай бұрын

@@noefillon1749 i can convert. 1kg = 2.2lb I can squat 1.3x my body weight. But yeh we just have certain things weighted in metric and others in imperial. Someone tells me they're 185cm tall I got no idea what that means instinctually. But 5'11 I instantly have a feeling for their height without any thought. Yet if it came to an animal like a giraffe I need that shit in meters!

@MrPolisse

Ай бұрын

2km is just 10 x 200meters so you can ^^

@Kyrelel

Ай бұрын

@@noefillon1749 WTF. You think comparison between bodyweight and physical ability is instinctive ?!

One liter of water has a mass of one kilogram and has a volume of 1 cubic decimeter. 1 milliliter of water has a mass of one gram and has a volume of 1 cubic centimeter. That nuclear explosion was from the introduction of the movie The fellowship of the ring (Lord of the rings) Remember that the earth isn’t a perfect sphere but it bulges around the equator.

@Dr_KAP

Ай бұрын

Litre, metre. Let’s not use the yanks’ spelling 😂

@UltraCasualPenguin

Ай бұрын

It's not that simple. First of all water has to be distilled.

@palantir135

Ай бұрын

@@UltraCasualPenguin yes I know it has to be distilled water and the temperature must be exactly 20°C etc. but this is to keep it easy for non metric people. Just to show that these measurements are interwoven.

Just a small point, and it may have been mentioned previously. Metre = measure of distance. Meter = a device that measures and records the quantity, degree, or rate of something. "an electricity meter"

An asteroid that passed close to Earth and had a length of 16 sea lions. That all.

@Kyk_cz

Ай бұрын

Some media measure things in football or soccer fields 🙂

2 thenth of a milimiter off? screw this im going back to lobsters per square squirel

@Kyk_cz

Ай бұрын

bullets per square child?

@Dreyno

Ай бұрын

Red squirrel or grey squirrel?

@JohnDoe-xz1mw

Ай бұрын

@@Dreyno obviosly grey so they are set appart from the lobsters

@Dreyno

Ай бұрын

@@JohnDoe-xz1mw So obvious when you think about. Much obliged.

We have meter long yardsticks here, often with the measurement in yard and inches on the other side. It's even called a 'duimstok' which translates as thumb stick and a thumb is an inch. This is NL, which has always had a lot of exchange with Britain for a continental country. Ironically a lot of bicycle measurements are still in inch.

@TheSuperappelflap

Ай бұрын

Measurements for plumbing as well, pipe diameters. And measurements for screw thickness and other construction stuff.

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

In the UK, the majority of our tape measures (even electronic devices) have BOTH options available, depending upon the mood of the user... 😂😂😂

@infin8ee

Ай бұрын

The measuring device I remember from school was the wheel that we walked around "click,click " measuring virtually everything 😅

@DenUitvreter

Ай бұрын

@@stewedfishproductions9554 Electronic devices should do Furlongs, rods, chains and links too.

@gerhard6105

Ай бұрын

​@@TheSuperappelflapin de metaalgroothandel krijg je een buis van 33,4mm als je om een 1 duims/"/inch buis vraagt. 1.1/4 is een buis van 42mm in doorsnede. 3/4 is dan dus 26,9mm.

I remember that in architecture school we could spot a 1/10 of a mm error on a drawing. For context we used .5mm .2mm and .1mm rotring markers to draw our blueprints and perspectives. So a .2 error is actually a big deal if you account for compoud errors and scale.

Thanks for this awesome video. It was super interesting! Also I'm French and had no idea about this, you made my day! Hope you get better soon ❤

In the UK we are very comfortable using yards, feet, inches and metres.

@Rachel_M_

Ай бұрын

I still like to throw in the occasional fathom, league or rod when I get the chance 👍 😂

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

Especially when going for a PINT after work - who wants to go for a LITRE??? Just doesn't have the same ring about it. 😅

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

​@@Rachel_M_ Don't forget the odd acre or chain either... 😂

@AlexGys9

Ай бұрын

I prefer using the furlong though.

@Rachel_M_

Ай бұрын

@@AlexGys9... and chains for the balance

😂…thats why we have Donald Trump 😂

Yes, you can get such a job - SURVEYOR (only walking with a fancy GPS, drones, Tacheometers, Total stations, etc..) but basics are the same...

Only an American would say that the metric system was gave to us by god and not invented, The metric system is good because it was invented

METRE

It's nice only you know a yard stick,

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

The rest of us just laugh... 😅😅😅

Americans: Metric system sucks Rest of the world: you don't say

@lichtgorgon_2221

5 күн бұрын

What?

What is the meter system?

@parshakamarsh

Ай бұрын

He means metre

@sebv1086

Ай бұрын

No, he means 'metric'. FFS 😂

why does the country of freedom uses the IMPERIAL system? 😂😂

@MarabuToo

Ай бұрын

They don't (at least not quite) - see previous comments.

Of the seven primarily cited metric distance measurements only four of them are readily used in practical applications. Nobody refers to decimeters, dekameters or hectometers. They're merely cited as 0.1 or 10x of the adjacent measurement. Meanwhile in an imperial system, an inch, a foot, a yard and a mile ALL get usage. Not every measurement in the world works best on a standard of ten. Ten has limited application as a power of two fraction before you need to get decimals involved. There are times when dividing into thirds, quarters, sixths and eighths makes more sense. I'm rather proud that I got to learn both systems and still use them both. It's like being bilingual, except with numbers.

@drakirelf

Ай бұрын

I (We in sweden) use decimeters and centimeters all the time. We don't use dekameters but I think there are people that do somewhere. We also have a "mil" which is 10 kilometers.

What shoe size is that foot?

No such thing as the meter system. Any case, it's metre.

@mats7492

Ай бұрын

not in german speaking countries.. here its Meter!

@ChristiaanHW

Ай бұрын

@@mats7492 small correction: it's Germanic, the language family of which German is just one of the many modern descendants of. German speaking would mean: only places that speak German. Germanic includes a lot other languages as well (like Dutch or Frisian)

@stewedfishproductions9554

Ай бұрын

​@@mats7492 In the UK that would be an electricity or gas METER. The mechanical or electronic measuring device, while the measurement is spelt METRE. Left over from when Britain spoke French for just over 300 years (in the ruling circles...). 😂

@rasmusn.e.m1064

Ай бұрын

@@ChristiaanHW Considering English is a Germanic language, I think this generalisation is a bit too broad, perhaps?

@ChristiaanHW

Ай бұрын

@@rasmusn.e.m1064 English is a special case. old English used to be Germanic but due to the Norman invasion a lot of Latin words entered the English language. so modern day English in more like 2 (arguable even more) languages wearing a trench-coat pretending to be one language. but yes, of course not all Germanic languages are the same. so i'm sure in some it might be called something else

but the circomference of the earth is 40010km. so they were 0.025% off. I'd say, that's a respectable low error.

@Kyk_cz

Ай бұрын

On a sea level? but...which sea?

@Nino-hi6cx

Ай бұрын

​@@Kyk_cz All the seas have the same level so it doesn't matter

@scragar

Ай бұрын

Actually they measure from the north pole, through france to the south pole. The circumference of earth is often averaged, and because of the bulge near the equator that means the circumference is actually very slightly bigger than 4× their measurement. It's not off because until very recently that measure was still used to validate things because the physical sample shouldn't be taken out of the clean environment very often to prevent damage.

@robertheinrich2994

Ай бұрын

@@Kyk_cz that's a funny thing. switzerland and germany built a bridge over a river, that was the border between them. in the middle, they found out that they were over half a meter off. reason: switzerland operates with the austrian sealevel, that was once in triest. german works with hamburg (I think). difference around 30cm. and they calculated in the wrong direction, not removing the offset, but doubling it.

Each German household has at least 1 customs rule.

The metric system is excellent. However, it does lack for a couple of things (1) Convenient measurements - like a foot is a convenient measure, and so is a pint. 0.3 of a metre, or half a litre isn't. (2) short names for measures. A yard, foot or pint are single syllable easy things to say. It's easier (for example if refereeing a rugby match) to say 'get back 10 yards' than '10 meters'. In the UK, we're all over the place. Using miles for distance and speed, and miles per gallon for fuel consumption, yet buy fuel in litres. We buy some building materials in 8ft x 4ft sheets (like ply), and others in 2400mm x 1200mm (sheet insulation). We drink pints of beer and milk, but buy litres of fruit juice. We weigh ourselves in stones and pounds and measure our height in feet. It doesn't make sense, but it's just part of life's rich tapestry. I think now that most people accept that the metric system is the sensible default where you're measuring anything for buildings or anything scientific or engineering though.

According to my knowledge the meter was implemented by French because they discovered it during their Egyptian Expedition as it was a 5000 years old Egyptian unit of measurement (Egyptian cubit was a radian of a cirle diamater of a meter - or sth like that).

@sebv1086

Ай бұрын

Bwahahahahaha!! 🤣

@bjam27

Ай бұрын

According to my knowledge, it is hugely exagerated.

@Thunderworks

Ай бұрын

No, the Egyptians doesn't use the metric system 5000 years ago. No, there wasn't electricity in the pyramids, and no, the pyramids weren't spaceports for aliens spaceships...

Its a shame peoble in the 17th century was smarter than a random youtuber today..😂

@gregorygant4242

Ай бұрын

Well , yeah, they had to actually use their brains to survive daily not so today for many .

It doesn't MATTER what the definition is, provided it is agreed and consistent for everyone.

The real revolution of the metric system is not the new units invented during the French Revolution, the real revolution is the system of derived units, which are multiples of powers of ten, thanks to which they fit perfectly into the decimal system of writing numbers. E.g. 125 meters is 0.125 kilometers. 150,000,000 kilometers is 150 gigameters. In the metric system: the functional equivalent of an inch is a centimeter, the functional equivalent of a foot is a decimeter, the functional equivalent of a yard is a meter, the functional equivalent of a mile is a kilometer. 1 mile is 1760 yards, 1 yard is 3 feet, one foot is 12 inches. How many inches are in a mile? (1760*3*12 = (3000+2100+180)*12 = 5280*12 = 50000+2000+800+10000+400+160 = 63360). One kilometer is 1000 meters, one meter is 10 decimeters, one decimeter is 10 centimeters. How many centimeters are in a kilometer? (1000*10*10 = 1000*100 = 100000). The only thing you need to do when converting units in the metric system is to move the sign separating the integer part from the fractional part (in the case of the English, a dot - in my country, a comma).

Yes and no, there are applications where traditional fractional systems work better but at least the metric system provides a single universal standard of measure rather than everybody having their own quirks to their version of a fractional system..

@dominika3762

Ай бұрын

But you can use metric units with traditional fractions. What's your point?

@mats7492

Ай бұрын

ive yet to find a single application for non SI messurements

Metric is easier to divide or multiply but people are not totally liking or used to it when growing up with imperial measurements

@rolflin

Ай бұрын

not people, only us citizens

The meter comes form the Greek word metron, which means ‘a measure’. Something new learnt today.

It's not about the perfection or not of the metric system, it's the madness of the imperial units, that btw, are based on the metric system nowadays. The greatness of the metric system comes from 'decimation', using 10 as base for multiples and divisions. It's so simple.

Outside of the USA, METER is spelled METRE. And LITER is spelled LITRE ! A meter is a device that measures something, as in electric meter. Of course we've seen a YARD STICK !! We used them in the UK before we went metric ! Americans SAY they use the Imperial system but don't know about STONES ! Or that UK pints and gallons are different to American ones !

@mikeyb2932

Ай бұрын

No, everywhere meter is spelled meter and metre is spelled metre. Liter is spelled liter and litre is spelled litre. The world is not just USA and UK. Now if you want to *translate* the English word 'metre' to other languages, you can try an online translator and see how other languages spell their word. Here are some examples: Albanian: metër Bulgarian: метър Croatian: metar Czech: metr (yeah, no e) Danish: meter German: meter Lithuanian: metras

Hello fellow metricists.

10:03 You're right, and even iridiated platinum will expand and contract under changing temperatures. What the video is glancing over is that the platinum bar to which it keeps referring (which, by the way, has an X-shaped cross-section to avoid warping) has two marks etched upon its surface which, when the bar is at 0ºC, are (meant to be) one metre apart.

The metric system makes scaling and converting incredibly easy. But the imperial and USCS have units very practical for everyday life. A modern day (because there was much differences from region to region and even between neighboring towns) foot is 30.48 cm (or 304.8 mm), typical shelves are 30 cm deep, tables are 60, kitchen appliances are 60 cm wide. A yard is 91.44 cm long (so 0.9144 m) and much closer to the average step length than a meter, so guesstimating travel distances in yard is easier than in meters. If only there was a way to have the benefits of both systems, but that is something that should've been done when the metric system was designed. If they had made the meter 10% shorter, it would be super useful.

Little funfact: Dont you use metric already? I mean how many Cents are in a Dollar? ^^

@sebv1086

Ай бұрын

That's decimalisation not metrification. 🙄

@MarabuToo

Ай бұрын

Actually, that's DECIMAL, not metric/SI

@gregorygant4242

Ай бұрын

That the decimal system not the metric system.

@shmick6079

Ай бұрын

Also medications, engineering, sports, the army, automotive industry, soda bottles, nutritional values, jewellery, guns etc….

@heikosale1027

Ай бұрын

@@shmick6079 with guns it's really a mess. Some calibers are in mm, others are in inches and don't even get me started on shotgun calibers with their weird British "how many balls of lead from one pound of lead can you make that one of them will fit the barrel" 🤣 And by the way if you tell a gun person in Germany that you're using 0.1 grams of powder or that your projectile is 8 grams - they're gonna ask you "sorry, how many grains is that?"

US army and NASA adopted metric system in 1957. (answer to the traditional US mantra : "there are two kinds of countries, those who have the metric system, and those who walked on the moon").

Meter in Dutch means both the person who measures things (landmeter) and the unit. Meten is the verb to measure.

Your Mile is an old Roman invention, that used to be pretty accurate to measure distances for drilled legion soldiers counting 1000 double-paces (the distance of 5000 feet). Mile = Mille (thousand)

Quick reminder that it’s not just Europe that uses the Metric system and countries like Australia, NZ, some African countries and many others also use it