WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: Why isn't the U.S. on the metric system? 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.160 Hey everyone, it's me Josh, and this week for s 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.960 Y s K Selects, I've picked why isn't the US 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.600 on the metric system? The big spoiler is this kind 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:18.840 of is, so check it out. Welcome to stuff you 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:27.760 should know room House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.920 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.920 Chuck Bryant and since we're together and there's some microphones present, 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.800 and Jerry's in the other room, this is stuff that's right. Yeah, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.960 I learned musty, dusty little whole. I'm glad to be 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.879 back in this room. Actually me too, because we did 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.040 these in another room for a little while. Again just 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.280 moving us around. Yeah, like we're like, we don't have 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.360 a process or something. Yeah. They what they do is 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.640 they tie a yarn around one of the microphones and 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:57.200 they just sort of drag it through the building and 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.720 we just chase after it like a little dumb puppy. Yeah. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.360 It works with dollar bills to dollar bills and microphones. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.280 So you're doing okay, I am sleepy. Well that's good 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.600 because we'll see what happens when I might put you 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.559 all the way to sleep. I was up all night Um, yeah, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.679 this is gonna be fun. Are you hallucinating at all? 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.920 I'm a little funky, So yeah, this should be good numbers. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.080 This is history though, really, yes, it is more than history. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:28.000 Culture anger. Yeah, Napoleon for god's sakes. Yeah, yeah, we're 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.000 talking about the metric system. Hey, hey, that makes sense 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.760 to say that. Um, you chuck. We've got like this 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:40.240 kind of meme that's run through our podcast where we 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.920 kind of make fun of the metric system, and but 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.679 we also go to the trouble of calling out the 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.760 metric equivalence of whatever we're talking about with feet. Usually 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.520 sometimes we're sort of it like, if we feel like 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.960 doing it, we'll do it. Yes, but we've done it 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.120 enough so it's become a thing. Yeah, right, the metric 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.920 system and US has become a thing. I thought it 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.360 was high time that we got to the bottom of 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.800 this whole big problem, which is the US is the 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.240 only industrialized nation that isn't on the metric system right 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.839 fully on the metric system as a nation. You did 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.040 a great job with that, man. That is absolutely true. Like, 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:23.000 we're the only industrialization that doesn't have compulsory metric system usage. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.600 It's voluntary, but it's still pretty widespread. And if you 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.440 go back and look at our lawbooks, you know, the 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.000 law of the land, you will find that the metric 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.160 system is very much entrenched in the US. And so 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.040 all these people who say the US is on the 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.080 metric system, you're wrong largely. Yeah, look at your ruler 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.600 there in your little three ring binder probably says centimeters 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:49.480 and millimeters. That's metric. Uh right, But that's if you're 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.000 in the U s. If you're if you're elsewhere outside 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.079 the US, they just have centimeters and millimeters. They don't 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.880 throw the engine there. The inches so clean, that would 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.680 love the inch. It is clean and it is a 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.120 rep resents this legacy from so long ago when you know, 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.200 people used the width of a human man's thumb as 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.519 a measurement and that was an inch. And apparently there's 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.960 some languages out there where inch and thumb or the 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.680 same word, they're interchangeable. Yeah. I wondered about if you know, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.200 obviously the article points out in the early days, like 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.920 you said, they would use body parts like you know, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.680 what was the wouldn't like a formalm palma a foot 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.040 is what you think it is? Yeah, like people that 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.480 had smaller of these did they get ripped off in transactions? Slightly? 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:33.480 Like I had a small thumb, like what are we 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.680 gonna do? Right? Or do you bring along your buddy? 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.640 Do you hire the guy with the big thumbs be 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.280 like you're working for me? And transactions that's what they 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.160 call the master blaster technique. That's where the heavy hitter 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.000 came from. But yeah, so there's a certain kind of um, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:52.040 earthy colloquialism to the to the the US customary system, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.400 which is what we use the inch, the foot, an 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.560 acre and acre did you know is the average amount 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.200 of land that a human with the team of oxen 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.800 could plow in a day. That's where we got the 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.200 acre from. It's cool, it all makes sense that it's root. 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:13.560 The problem is it's extraordinarily unscientific. Um, yeah, true, which 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:18.200 is what the meter is. These the metric system is 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:23.000 extremely scientific, but it's got its roots, um, fairly far 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.679 back itself. It goes back to like sixteen seventy. Should 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.640 we get into this. Let's let's talk about this. That's 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:34.359 a great robust intro. You're feeling good? Yeah, okay, good? Thanks? Alright, So, 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.120 like we said for many many years, as man evolved 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.800 in two smaller societies and two bigger and bigger ones. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.440 The thumb and the foot and the forearm and things 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.560 like that. Was like, it's getting a little a little 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.080 crazy to handle all this, right, especially if you're using 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.320 a forum over here, but this guy's using a neck 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:58.919 and you both have swords. So as we formed larger societies, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.440 we thought, you know, is getting really confusing. We got 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.600 commerce going between various lands. We gotta like codify this, 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.960 right or do you say codify? I say codify? How 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:16.320 you do good? Um? Well we agree on pronunciations. So 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.200 in France things were just as confusing. And by the 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.560 time the French Revolution came around, they said, you know 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.040 what everything is all wha I could do. Charlemagne here 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.080 has had a pretty good system in effect for a while. 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.440 Let's just dive into this system that Paris uses. Well, yeah, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.039 the problem is is um. Paris Is wasn't any more 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.520 um scientific than anybody else's. But it was Paris. It 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.960 was um and that was I think Louis the sixte 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.400 that ordered some people to start looking into how to 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.320 standardize measurements because France had it worse than anybody. Well, yeah, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.119 because they they they thought it was a good idea, 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.120 but he got more pushedback than he thought from the 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.039 noble folk, and so so much so that they overthrew him. Yeah, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:02.960 and he said, well yeah, and he said, you know what, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.760 let's convene here the Estates General, which was supposedly a 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.280 group of UH, an assembly of people from various classes 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.640 to be all represented, and let's figure this out once 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.920 and for all. UH. And again they overthrew the king. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.720 But along the way they also adopted us a systematized 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.800 standard of measurements which is based on this um, this 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:31.400 stuff devised by a monk back in sixteen seventy Mouton. Well, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.400 matrique was the system, right, but matrique um comes from 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.480 the Greek, which means um to measure right, that's right. Um. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.080 So Muton came up with this idea that you should 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:47.839 um take you should be able to create a standard 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.640 unit of distance of length based on something that has 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.880 to do with the earth. To take it away from 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.200 the humans. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. You 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.640 need something that's going to be persist tint. And let's 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:06.240 say say I persistent, like not only is it always there, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.800 it's in your face too. So he was saying, let's 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.440 let's use some sort of measure of a degree of longitude, right, yeah, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.120 which makes sense because that what had already been established. Yeah. 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.000 So he kind of put this fourth heel said, and 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:19.760 by the way, you should you should make it up 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.960 based on a decimal system, very smart a UM ten 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.320 ten base system base ten system um, which is very 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.960 easy to divide and multiply by. And um, it's not arbitrary, right, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.239 and base it all around this length like everything like volume, mass, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.000 all this stuff. Make sure it's around this one length 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.000 and um. He went and died, but his ideas lived on. 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:48.480 And so when the National Assembly really started to look 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.200 into this system of measurement, they found, um, Mouton's ideas 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.440 were alive and well and pretty practical. Yeah, and they 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.720 said let's do this. Um. And then they said, all right, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.920 if we're gonna do this, let's form a mission. Formed 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.320 the commission and said, let's base it on these three 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.240 principles that were established by Mouton, who I don't think 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.560 we said it was a mathematician. Obviously here was a 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:14.080 mathematician and astronomer, weren't they They kind of went hand 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.040 in hand. They made beer yeah, exactly, which meant they 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.640 are also mathematicians and astronomers. Um, so they had the 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.680 three basic principles should be equal to a portion of 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.640 the Earth's circumference, which is I get what they mean, 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.480 but that would be any unit of length that's smaller 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.040 than the Earth's or conference. Yeah, I get what they're saying, though, 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.840 you know what I'm saying. Like anything, you could just 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.040 arbitrarily pick any length and you could say it's based 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.719 on the Earth's or conference. You could. But what they 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.320 were saying was it has to be a portion measured 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.600 off of an already extant like something we already know, right, 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.520 take a portion of it could have been eighty miles, though, 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:55.920 sure it could have been, but that would have made sense. 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.640 I digress. Number two. Volume of mass you said would 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.360 be derived from length. So everything's gonna be related to 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.160 each other and you could figure it out mathematically, and um, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.080 everything's got to be multiplied or divided by ten if 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.520 you want to get something smaller or larger a decimal system. Um. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.360 This is just brilliant genius stuff for a guy in 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.000 sixteen seventy to be coming up with and for it 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.760 not to have been adopted right away. Um. But the 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.520 French when they really started looking at it, they figured out, okay, 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:28.920 this is a pretty good system. We're gonna go with this. Uh. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.920 And those two guys started measuring from um Barcelona, Spain 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.000 to dunk Kirk, northern France, and they measured along this 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.840 one line and they came up with a quadrant of 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.960 the circumference of the Earth, basically the this meridian that 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.640 ran through Paris from the north pole to the equator, 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:52.880 so it's a quarter of the circumference of the Earth. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.520 And they figured out that a meter could conceivably be 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:02.360 a one ten million of that quadrant, So it's one 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.679 ten million of the meridian that runs through Paris as 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.360 it goes from the north pole to the equator. That's 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:09.920 the fact of the show for me. That's a meter, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.720 and also the fact of the shows that they decided 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.200 how to do it and to call it a meter. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.520 And then they went, well, I guess we need to 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.920 figure out how long this thing is, right like I 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:22.480 would have thought it would have been the other way around. 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:23.880 But I guess it doesn't make sense. Like I said, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.600 it's arbitrary. Let's come up with a system and then 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.360 say all right, that base unit of measurement, how long 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:33.360 should that be? And it it also it's pretty nationalistic too. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.679 It's this meridian that runs through Paris, you know, So 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:42.040 it's the metric system is an extremely French invention, that's right, um, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:43.960 which is kind of one of the reasons you can 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.360 go back and say that the US doesn't have it. Um. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.320 It's also one of the reasons a lot of the 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.920 world does have it because after the French Revolution, UM, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:58.600 Napoleon came to power, and Napoleon UM conquered a lot 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.760 of lands, and he brought the metri system with them. Yeah. 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.319 I mean at this point it was it was solid. 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.599 I think it took five years for them to completely 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:11.240 adopt it or officially adopt it. And once you had 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.800 the meter in place, you had everything else because it 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.200 was all based off the meter. So they're homing along 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.079 and then, like you said, Napoleon says, I'm going to 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:24.560 take the meter with me and conquer Europe, and now 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.360 everyone all of a sudden is gaining traction the meter, 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.000 and so across the pond. In the US. At about 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:35.720 the same time, right the you, the federal government was like, 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.200 you know what, we we need to you can't have 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.280 a country without a uniform system of measurements and weights 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.160 and all that, because the commerce that's the basis of 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.520 this whole thing. Right. If you're just a little hunter 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.440 gatherer band and you're getting your own food, you need 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.040 virtually no measurements or weights or anything like that. If 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.760 you start trading with another band you wanted to be fair, 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:00.440 you suddenly need a system of measurements and white. And 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.200 then as that trade increases more and more, the need 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.720 for that system of measurements and waits to be uniform 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.840 around the world increases tremendously, right, agreed. So the US 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.679 assembles the colonies into states and says we need to 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.760 have some sort of uniform system of measurements. So Thomas 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:19.920 Jefferson was the first guy to pick that up, right, 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.679 I mean it's in the Constitution. Yeah. Previous to that, 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.000 they obviously, because they were came from England, they used 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.200 the British standard um and the British imperial system, which 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.400 was pretty antiquated. Yeah, but it still looks a lot 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.800 like what we're using it today exactly. And like you said, 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.160 they put it in the constitution. What was it, uh, 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.000 Article one, Section eight and then t J said, you 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.199 know what, I like this decimal system. I think it's 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.560 a good idea. But that means we gotta send these 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.120 dudes over to France and we gotta find out. They 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.319 gotta bring out their meter stick and show it to us, 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.400 and we gotta bring one back with us, and it's 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.800 really expand So so let's just keep what we got 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:03.920 for now. And can we trust the French? Do we 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.360 need to have our own surveyors go make the same 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.480 measurement and make sure that this isn't somehow like French centric, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.680 Franco centric, you know. Um, So he kind of backed 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.640 off of the whole thing. There was also a big 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.120 fear that, like once Napoleon uh died down, that there 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:23.199 was gonna be a there was metric backlash. Yeah, that 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.360 it was just kind of fallow the wayside. Maybe we 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.720 should wait and see. Let's they thought it sort of 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:32.760 like investing in Napoleon. You know, who wants to do that? Nobody? Nobody, 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.439 um round About the same time, also, the French had 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:41.040 supported the US during the Revolutionary War, and then after 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.600 the Revolutionary War, the enemies um Great Britain and the 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:49.760 United States established a treaty called Jay's Treaty in and 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.679 basically it said, hey, let's let's chill out a little bit. 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.120 Let's see if we can get along. We're gonna withdraw 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.960 our troops from the Pacific Northwest. We the Brits, you 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.640 Americans can start trading in the West. Standis And the 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.480 French was like, what the heck? I thought we were 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.000 in bed together? Yeah, so what's going on? So all 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.080 of a sudden there's hostilities between the French and the Americans, 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.560 so much so that when the French held this big 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.600 metric extravagance that like debut it to the world. Yeah, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.240 it was pretty funny. I thought, what just you know, 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.520 I mean, it was necessary, but it just I could 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:26.960 picture Convention Center with like various styles of meter sticks 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.040 and here it is. But the U S didn't get 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.400 an invitation. Yeah, they get snubbed. So let's let's let's 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.480 point that out again. The U S didn't get an 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.520 invitation when France was like, the metric system works. We're 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.400 going to introduce to the rest of the world. Everybody 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.640 come adopt this, except for you guys, because we're mad 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.400 at you. Yeah. So I guess the ultimate question that 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.680 we're answering in a roundabout way over this whole podcast 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:52.480 is why isn't the U S one of those countries 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.080 chalk this up as one of the early reasons. Well, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.560 they didn't want us to, they didn't invite us. Yeah, 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.280 he said, screw you, guys, we'll go Matrique. Can you 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.400 do whatever you want with your little ruler right in 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.040 the U S said we will, we will, guys, we're 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.320 gonna By this time, I think eighteen twenty one, John 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:14.160 Quincy Adams order to survey um of all of the 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.160 the states and all the measurements and weights used in 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.280 the States, and they he said, you know what, this 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.320 is uniform enough. We're gonna stick with this. We're fine. Yeah, 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.880 we don't need this frenchie invention. Paul Giamatti said, no, yeah, 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.400 that was he. He was John Adams, right, yeah, okay. Um. However, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.560 as we said, the metric system throughout the rest of 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.520 the world, despite the fact that Napoleon went by by, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.960 the metric system caught on enough and it wasn't just 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.560 tied to him, and the US was like, man, you'rpe. 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.000 You know, everyone has really gotten on this metric thing. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.880 We might have missed the boat a little bit. Uh, 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.080 and is that a problem? So in eighteen sixty six, Uh, 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.040 Andrew Johnson said, you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.840 sign into law that is lawful in the United States 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.360 to employ the weights and measures of the metric system 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.160 and all of our contracts and dealings and court proceedings 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.240 like the government standard, right exactly. And he said, like, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.480 if somebody uses the metric system and a contract with you, 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.560 that's that's legal now. So right there, the US just 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.640 legally adopted the metric system. The big the big loophole 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.160 was it's not compulsory right there, It's just if somebody 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.240 wants to, it's legal, right, that's right, um, Which is 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.000 kind of funny because that added to this already cluster 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.080 of the U s customary system where there's like three 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.440 different units. A lot of stuff are the same, they 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.400 have the same name. There's nine different kinds of tons. 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.280 Did you know that? There's the short ton, the which 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:49.880 you never want to get your hands on if you're 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.960 looking for a full ton, the displacement ton, the refrigeration ton, 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:59.080 the nuclear ton, the registered ton, the metric ton, the 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.680 essay ton, and a ton of coal equivalent, chuck, that's 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.720 a ton of tons. It is, UM. But now the 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.320 metric system has just kind of poked its head in 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:15.560 under US law and it's now entrenched. It's made, it's made. 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.240 It's first four A into the US. That's right. Flash 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.359 forward another nine or ten years, eighteen seventy five, another 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.400 special Assembly in Paris said we're gonna bring together seventeen 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.480 nations and you know what, us, get your butt over here. Yeah, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.719 come on. They're like, all right, well, come come on, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.600 you don't be mad, and they said no. So they 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.000 went over and UM signed the Treaty of the Meter, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.960 which is a real thing, set up the International Bureau 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.560 of Weights and Measures UH and a General Conference on 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.920 Weights and Measures to consider an adopt changes over the years. 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.760 And also said, you know what, if we're gonna establish 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.840 this meter, we need to set up a lab where 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.800 they keep all this stuff in their official form in 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.679 case I guess, I guess, like the seed vault, in 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.800 case the world ever goes to pot. We got that 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.480 meter stick in this in this closet here, right, And 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.720 they actually did have a meter stick. It was the 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.879 International Prototype Meter, so funny, and it was a it 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:23.119 was had to do it though. This is the meter, 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.280 and this is the one that all are measured from, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.000 and it's housed in this area, this um, this office 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.240 in seven Yeah. I thought it was buried beneath the 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:39.439 crypt in the catacombs of the Is it No, I'm 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.280 just kidding um, because it seems like something the French 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.280 would do with the media. Tom Hanks would have found 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.240 it though. Um, oh, I got you. Yeah, uh so 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.480 they did have that. They had the meter. They also 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:58.520 had the International Prototype kilometer. Yea, the kilogram yeah, um, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.440 and that's made of already him and platinum's kept in 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:06.159 an air tight jar and it is um the kilogram. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:08.320 Everything else is measured off of. So they make copies 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.440 of all these and all the um. All the countries 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.520 that ratified the Treaty of the Meter got copies of 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:16.960 their own, and the US got their own in eight ninety. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.240 So the U S is going like metric crazy now, 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.960 especially because of this guy named Mendel right uh t C. 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.680 Menden Hall. Menden Hall. He was the Superintendent of Weights 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.760 and Measures, and the menden Hall Order of three said, 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.200 you know what, We're gonna establish our fundamental standards for 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.000 LinkedIn mass on this these metric units, we'll call it 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:45.600 a yard, but yard is Eventually they settled on uh 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:50.720 point zero point nine, right, and a kilogram or a 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:56.160 pound equals zero point four five three five nine two 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.560 three seven kilograms. So think about this. This is huge 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.320 TC men in Hall changed everything with this men in 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:09.680 Hall order. We still use the the pound inch system, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.119 the U S customary system, but it's defined by the 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.840 metric system, the s I system, right, I don't think 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:17.480 we mentioned that yet. Well we haven't got they haven't 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.400 changed it over that yet, they haven't changed their name. 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.600 We're still in the metric system of this just gave 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.400 it spoiler alert. But but think about that. That's that's huge. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.440 So it's kind of like, all right, everybody's talking here, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:28.760 but if you if you go beneath the surface just 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.600 one more level. The US is operating on the metric system. 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.320 That's that we define everything years to screw you rest 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.159 of the world. We are on the metric system. We 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.760 just call it. Right. So about this time, um, there's 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.760 like this kind of metric fever that's sweeping the US, 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:47.399 and then Men in Hall dies and it kind of 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.600 dies with him. Metric fever might be overstating, then you 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.959 know they were. There were pennants and t shirts all right. 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.800 Um no, actually that didn't come until the seventies. But 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.160 before so inn Hall dies metric fever kind of dies 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.919 out a little bit. And then, um, part of that 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.399 Treaty of the Meter, Chuck, was that, uh, there was 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.040 a conference established, a conference on this metric system where 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.920 they would meet and like adopt changes and measure things. Yeah. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.320 It was It's cool because they weren't like, this is 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.960 a perfect system, it never needs to change. They figured 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.639 out ways to improve it over the years, and in 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:28.440 nineteen sixty huge change came down, um, where they stopped 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:34.560 tying and defining the metric measures of the metric units 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:40.920 of measure to the original things like the meridian timillion um. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:45.040 Instead they tied it to immutable laws of the universe 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.679 that made it even more precise. Man. Yeah, and this 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:52.960 was mainly done for because of science. Science demanded uh 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:58.040 tighter and more refined system, right exactly. Um, So now 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.040 a meter is no longer you're defined as one ten 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.600 millionth of the meridian that runs through Paris as it 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.480 travels from the north pole to the equator. A meter 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.679 is the distance traveled by light in a vacuum and 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:15.560 one two hundred nine nine million, seven hundred nine two thousand, 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.320 four hundred fifty eight of a second, that's a meter, right, 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:21.919 or they just say a meter is this thing and 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:24.199 they hold out the meter stick. Well, they still have 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.760 the kilogram. It's the mass of the International prototype kilograms. 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:29.960 Still that is still that's the only one that's still 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.960 tied to it. But like, um a second, that's another 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.159 metrics standard that we use here in the US. You 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.560 didn't notice. So the time it takes an atom of 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.439 seas M one thirty three to vacillate nine billion, one 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.720 nine two million, six hundred and thirty one thousand, seven 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.960 hundred and seventy times between two hyperfine levels of its 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.480 ground state, that's pretty good. So basically what they did 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.520