American Reacts to "Is The Metric System Actually Better?"

In Australia we changed to the metric system in the 1970s when I was in high school. It wasn’t easy, always needing to convert. Went to uni to do engineering, the metric system made calculations so much easier. And it’s all related: 1 litre of water has a mass of 1Kg, it freezes at 0C and boils at 100C, and has a volume of 1,000 cm^3 (cube measuring 10cm x 10cm x 10cm).

Even a gallon is a different amount from US gallons to UK gallons. That's where things spiral right out of control. He didn't even touch on that madness.

As a good Brazilian who always used metric system I never got so angry as when I was in UK and decided to make a dessert, found a recipe, and realized everything was in ounces, pounds, whatever, and after converting everything, and trying to be a good girl, I failed miseribly and my cake was uneatable. So I realized how much I really hate the imperial system. 😂 I wasn't trying to build a rocket, I was trying to cook. Edit: you guys saying that must have been a very old book, the recipe was found actually on internet 😂😂😂

What I really like about the way they defined the base metric units (the last being kg in 2019) is that they made it reproducible. Even if you are not on Earth, and all human artifacts have been destroyed, and the only thing left is the description of how to acquire the base units. You can still recreate the metric system. You do need some non trivial instruments for most of them, but it's nothing compared to needing the foot of a human king who has been dead for centuries.

Every country had in the past its own measurement system. In Germany even every town had an own definition of length. My gandfather still counted in this crazy units. I am so happy that we changed to the metric system 150 years ago.

As an Aussie I am lucky. Because I am Gen X I was taught how to use BOTH systems and BOTH are very familiar to me. However, when I compare both systems it is VERY clear the metric system is much easier and simple to use.

@ItsJps There's another video of a man designing houses in Australia. He explained that when he used to build a house using imperial, because of the imprecision, there's a full truck of wasted construction materials. Now he switched to metric, he mandated all his workers to get rid of their dual and imperial rulers, only use metric, and the volume of waste has been reduced to a single wheelbarrow for the same house

I’m a Brit living in Germany. I grew up with both but am now much more accustomed to and prefer metric. In 2002 we changed from the Deutsch Mark to Euros along with many other European countries and it wasn’t that difficult. Sure it took time and supermarkets and shops had to display both prices for some time, but as I recall it didn’t take that long to get used to it. I’m sure if the US wanted to then it could be easily done, it’s just a matter of the older generation accepting it.

As a retired engineer the Metric system is miles better ( see what I've done ). Also I was fortunate enough to be educated in both Imperial and Metric.

I was in year 4 primary school in Australia when we converted. I found it so much easier. I went on to become an electrical engineer (telecommunications) and found it a breeze. I worked in the US for 6 months on exchange and my peers in the US wondered why I was so quick and accurate. I told them I work in metric and converted to imperial right at the end so our US cousins could understand the solution!

Hi there! I'm an airplane and helicopter pilot in Brasil and we use metric system. I've been flying aircraft made in US and Europe and it's quite a bit hard and dangerous to deal with those conversions all the time.

I'm from Canada, now living in Portugal; both countries metric. Canada converted to metric in 1975, many people were upset and confused, mostly the older people. Me, in school it was easier, we were taught metric, but still there were many items/systems in imperial where I had to convert to imperial. I find metric is more exact. A problem in Canada is that we are too close to the U.S so we have to abide by their ways. If Canada can do that then the U.S. can and so can the UK. A lot of people are afraid of change, they're set in their ways. Sometimes change is good.

I work in a Supermarket in the UK, it is all metric throughout, especially on the counters, the prices are in Kilos, and the majority of customers ask for things in grams, which is so much easier, I weigh a piece of meat, for example, it weighs 1kg, they want 250g, easy to work out, love the metric system, time we said goodbye to the imperial system, for our safety, and comprehension

I’m also an Aussie who went through the conversion. It was the best thing the country did to get rid of that ridiculous system. Nothing had a standard form so you had to remember how many ounces made a pound and a pint let alone rods, perches, furlongs, hundredweights, acres etc.🥺🤪

As an English engineer (retired) my schooling was initially imperial standard, however the last 30% of my school time was taken up with the newly introduced metric standard...thank god it was much simpler to understand!! However we hung on to both standards, does cause some issues but with common sense and experience very few!!

Im an Australian 40yr old aviation engineer. Was taught both in school and use both daily. Metric is superior in its simplicity absolutely but the imperial system is fun when you’ve got time to wast 😆

I was a draftsman when the UK went metric I think every engineer breathed a sigh of relief but it still took a while to get to think metric - but we managed it.

My Dad was a yacht designer/surveyor for almost 50 years. We had bunch of charter boats called the Hylas 65. Sadly their masts kept falling down, which is rather dangerous. No one could figure out why, so Dad sent for the drawings from America and the construction plans from Taiwan. The US design was in imperial and, you guessed it, the Asian ones in metric. Someone had made a boo-boo on the calculations and he spotted the cock-up. Every boat had to have the masts pulled out for rectification, it cost them hundreds of thousands.

The United States does not use the Imperial System. We use the US Customary System.

Here in the UK, our tape measures have both inches and mm on them. The last inches only tape measure I saw in real life was around 45 years ago and it was my Grandad's ! I was amazed to spot an inches only tape in a US based Youtube video recently. I personally just use both systems. If I measure a thing and it's 2" then it's 2" but if it's just under that, then it's 50mm. If I had to choose one system it would be metric. Because it's sensible.