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I used to love the metric system because of the easy use of dividing by 10. Seemed natural, it was the same number of fingers I had before I became a woodworker.

The U.S. is going metric, but they're doing it slowly: inch by inch.

I must confess that I was not enthusiastic when we changed from imperial to metric units in the U.K. However forty years on I find I make less measuring mistakes using the metric system and relieved that I don’t need three types of spanners to work on my car! I look back and wonder what the fuss was about.

Favorite metric system quote is by Josh Bazell. In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade-which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. ... Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go f**k yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”

I prefer metric by a mile.

As a Canadian, it's even worse up here. We oscillate between metric and imperial so frequently, you'd think we were experiencing convulsions. I love the humorous approach to this subject.

Being a Brit. I drive in miles and run in km. I drink litres or water and pints of milk. I lift 12kg weights because I want to loose about a stone in weight. When I make a loaf of bread the recipe in my head is 340g(ml) of water and 3.5 cups of flour. When I buy tape measure it has meters on one side and feet on the other. I use both sides.

As an engineer, I've been waiting for the metric switchover for decades. Let's do it already! It will save us so many avoidable conversion mistakes, and save money on new machines also.

I'm old enough that converting to metric is easy on paper, but trying to re-train my mind to visualize things in anything but inches, feet, and yards is going to be a challenge.

I spent 45 years as a machine designer. The SI (System of Units), the official name for the "metric system", is by far simpler than the Imperial System (Customary Units of Measure in the USA). Using the SI System is like learning and becoming fluent in a second language. Once you understand it you can switch back and forth without too much trouble. It's really very easy to learn and way less confusing.

I'm a Brit and we officially went metric in 1972 but I was brought up on imperial measurements so I am now fully bilingual. The metric system is so much easier to use especially, since we can use calculators that all count in tens. In 1972 I worked for a contractor who was building a large slab sided office block, the lads on site couldn't set the windows out because one side of the building appeared longer than the other according to the dimensions, which were imperial with fractions down to 1/8". it was my job to check the dimensions and it took me all day adding multiple different fractions and even then having done it many times I could only come up with a consensus of what it should be. Had it been in metric it would have taken me 5 minutes with a calculator or 10minutes long-hand to have arrived at the answer. One other advantage of the metric system is the cross relationship between units such that 1 cubic metre of water = 1 Tonne (approximately 1ton), 1 litre of water = 1 kilogram, 1000ltrs = 1 cubic metre etc. It really doesn't matter what units you use so long as the result is the same, will it fit, how heavy etc? But once you start using the metric system its obvious simplicity will shine through. Those that have the hardest time are those that have to constantly translate between the two systems. Its like a language if you think in the language you are speaking then it is easier.

i know this is an old video but I'm going to comment anyway. I am 74 years old and have always been a proponent of our inch/foot measuring system. Several months ago I bought my first 3d printer. As many do I started out downloading various storage designs and printing them but I wanted to make things specifically suited to my requirements. I downloaded a free CAD program and went at it. I started using the inch as my default measuring system and soon got frustrated when trying to making small adjustments to my designs. I then switched to metric as my default and never looked back. It has made my life so much easier. I have started dong this in my woodworking shop for the same reason and have purchased more measuring tools with both systems on them.

This guy has top-tier humor. It was one blow after the other, delivered in the most matter-of-fact voice, that had me chortling. Subscribed.

As a hobbyist boat builder, most of my work is done in metric. Honestly, I have always hated adding, multiplying, subtracting, and dividing fractions. It is a serious pain and takes far longer than just learning to use the metric system.

Even fifty years ago engineering students had to learn both systems. It was immediately obvious to me how much easier metric was. Imperial gets very tricky when dealing with weight (a force with direction) and mass (a scalar quantity) because a "pound" can be either one (pound force vs. pound mass). Because of this and the sheer speed and efficiency of ten base metric most students converted the given values to metric, found the answer, then converted it back to imperial!

I had a friend who did boilermaking as an apprentice while Australia was heading towards metrication. All his learning up to then was imperial. When he had to work off German drawings he was required to convert all the measurements to imperial off a chart. One day he found a remainders bin in a surplus store with metric steel rulers in it and they were a dollar. He didnt recognise the scale but thought for the price they would be good for laying out lines. When he took them to work he discovered that the ruler and the metric drawings coincided and he no longer had to convert all measurements to imperial . He could go straight from the drawings to the layout. When his supervisor saw him using the metric rule he told him to throw it out and go back to the conversion chart.

I'm from the Czech Republic and while I got mostly used to the US lengths and weights thanks to watching all the cool American bushcraft stuff, I always felt a bit sad that you guys didn't moved to the metric system. The ease of multiplying or dividing by 10 let's my simple brain to do other things. :D

I’m from the UK & I remember our conversion to metric. It was a great move. I took my scuba instructors exam, I used metric for the physics portion, most others used imperial. I finished about an hour before everyone else (generally scoring higher).

As I don't live in USA, Liberia or Myanmar I use metrics. But when I am working with a folding ruler I can choose inch or mm. Which is good for measuring, when the hole might not be whole mm but linstead ines up with the inch side of the ruler. Almost all folding rulers in Sweden only uses mm but you can still find the ones with both inches and mm, my favourite ones. Thank you for helping with the fast reading in inches.

In the US, nails are still sold in the same way as they were before the American Revolution. We have 6d, 8d, 10d, up to 20d, where "d" is the English abbreviation used for "penny" which was formerly their small denomination Roman silver coin, the "denarius".

I grew up metric but have used inches for decades since moving to the US; years in the construction industry certainly helped that along. I now find myself using millimeters when precision is required and feet and inches for rougher work. What really has me scratching my head is decimal inches, especially rulers with sixteenths on one side and tenths on the other. A trap for the unwary if I ever saw one.

A funny thing is that although almost everything over here is measured in SI units (that's why you easily can calculate that one cubic meter = 1000 liter etc.), we also have traces of imperial. One common example is computer screens, we buy them in 15, 21, 27 inches - that's just the international standard for them 🙃 No-one knows exactly what it means but we know what screen size we're expecting.

Say SN I was raise on the metric system and when I moved to the US I had to adjust to inches, feet, yards, pints, quarts...etc. I use the metric system on my designs and also also created a metric inch which is 25.0 mm instead of 25.4 mm and I love it. it makes all my calculations easy to go back and forth.

I grew up when Australia converted from Imperial to Metric, my Mum took advantage of it (for a short while) by explaining to the police officer who pulled her over for doing 100kph (60mph) in a 60 kph zone that she was only obeying the speed sign that said 60:)

"10 dollars in the average Americans saving account", outstanding move!

I am already a staunch metric user, much to the chagrin of my family and coworkers. My car and GPS are set to metric, I do all of my work in metric (converting only at the beginning and end as absolutely necessary), and, as a bonus, I use the 24 hour clock. Despite all of the complaints I get, I can guarantee that my work is faster and more accurate because I use metric.

I’ve used inches and fractions almost forever in my workshop. But during my last project building a desk, I got real tired of adding fractions like 3/8 + 1/4 + 3/16 to get a total I need to make a cut. I whipped out my metric tape measure and almost never looked back. I reduced my scrapped cuts as well! 1:49

The irony is the US already has switched to metric, we did a long time ago. The formal definition of an inch is EXACTLY 2.54 cm. In other words, the inch is already defined in terms of the metric system. And the same applies for all the "English" units we use. We're just running the metric system with a texture pack over top of it.

Canadian here. Almost everything is in metric, but body height and weight still tends to be imperial. My daughter is learning kg and cm, but for me, it’s still Lbs and Ft. Everything else, is metric… except vehicles. You need both metric and imperial sockets and wrenches as half the bolts are metric and the other half are imperial…

It's fascinating that a country that is so proud of gaining independence from Britain is so attached to Britain's measuring system. Especially considering they were at the first international meeting where they signed up to the further development and implementation of the French metric system.

I love that I, as a Swedish bought up in the metric system, took almost the entire video to notice that he has a Sjöberg workbench. Sjöberg is an incredible swedish name, and the bench is most probably also very metric. That beein said, we sometimes actually use inches for our lumber. So I guess the imperial to inch conversion goes both ways =D

Your script writing in this video is amazing. It is ironic, smart. really good. I envy your talent.

The crazy thing is that the US was about to convert to metric back during the Jefferson Presidency (hell, he set up the US system for easy conversion to metric in the first place). The problem was that the ship carrying the prototypes for metric sank while crossing the Atlantic, and then the French Revolution happened before a new batch was completed.

Australia switched to the metric system in 1966 and after a couple of years for the transition we are fully there and have been for many decades. It's a great system where everything is tied together. Length, weight, volume, area, temperature and pressure. For example, as you showed briefly in your session, 1 cubic centimeter of water weighs 1 gram and exerts a downwards pressure of 1 pascal at sea level. 10 cm cubed of water weight is one kilogram, 1 cubic metre of water weighs 1 metric ton. 100 metres x 100 metres provides an area of 1 hectare. 1 thousand metres is obviously 1 kilometre. It takes one joule of energy to raise the temperature of one millilitre of water, which weighs 1 gram by one degree Celsius. (I'm starting to get out of my depth a bit now) but It's such a natural and flowing system. Water freezes at 0 degrees C and boils at 100 degrees C. So easy. I remember the good old days of a currency of pounds, shillings and pence, then 16 ounces to a pound, 14 pounds to a stone. 1760 yards in a mile, 36 inches in a yard.. just to confuse things further an imperial pint (600 ml) is different to a US pint (500ml) so the imperial gallon is different from the US gallon. It was fairly challenging. 640 acres in a square mile ( I think). It's all very random. I'm personally very happy with the metric system and would never go back.

I was born and raised in the US and now live in Canada. I comfortably switch between imperial and metric; sometimes within the same project. For certain though any time I need to find the center of something, I use metric. Division of whole numbers beats fractions any day.

This was the most well written content you ever produced. Straight up, 6 minutes of giggling. I guess base 60 won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

For those of us who went to college in the STEM realm, we're basically already fluent in both systems. In fact, a lot of times if I need to convert something in SAE (say how big of a box I need to hold X number of gallons) I'll convert the volume to metric, work out the volume, and then convert back to Imperial. Helpful for price checking too... just this week I was comparing prices of peat moss sold in dry quarts vs a bag in cubic feet. Why do we have two different volume measurements in SAE? Great question! But if they're both in liters, price checking is easy!

Back when I was in Pharmacy school 50+ years ago, we had to know metric, common (imperial), avoirdupois, and apothecary systems of measure and be able to convert same in our heads. Metric is by far superior and is the only system in use in medicine nowadays. I do miss drams, grains, and scruples though.

I bought a fully metric tape measure for work doing HVAC. The other guys give me a hard time about it but it's easier to divide 120cm into two or three parts than it is 47.2441 inches. I regularly need to center mini split heads on a wall or between windows and it saves so much time and mental effort. They told me all the tricks for finding half with standard but i dont even need them with metric. It's also a smaller scale so more ability to be accurate. I started using metric for 3d printing modeling. Fusion 360 was set default to metric so I tried it. I'll never go back now. I still use standard on new construction jobs because there's standards for stud spacing etc. but I use metric whenever I can.

As a Canadian who grew up using Imperial measurements and then had to learn to convert to Metric, it wasn't hard to do. I use both systems interchangeably.

As an American living in a metric country, the mental conversions aren't that difficult and the whole system just makes much more sense. I have been in the process of re-writing my recipes in metric, but in the shop I think you'd have to convert the entire thing all at once. Kind of hard to do when some of your best tools are decades old. Kind of a tough nut to crack, but computers that can convert and generate designs in either form are making it a bit easier.

As a Canadian, I have lived most my life with Metric. I was a teenager and just learning to drive when we formally adopted Metric. I prefer distance in Kilometers, for I can quickly and easily determine distance and time on the highway, by dividing by 100 (Normal speed limits in my area). So a trip of 250 km takes 2 1/2 hours. Easy. Zero is freezing! 100 is Boiling! Simple. In much of my life, I have converted. There are a couple of places that it has been more difficult. My Doctor weighs me and measures me in metric. I tried to change our scale at home to metric, but my wife kept changing it back. My family recently measure everyone, and did it in Feet and Inches. I do admit that I still build things in Imperial. Not sure exactly why. Maybe it that my tools, especially my measuring tools, have Imperial on the Right Side and I am right handed.

It's funny because here in Germany we always use the metric system but on our rulers we also had the inches (we call it Zoll which translates customs) . It was very confusing for us some of us back then. But we also got in touch with it back then.

As a flight mechanic it would be a 100 times easier if the American engines were designed for metric

Coming from a metric country (Australia), I am always amused when you find legacy imperial measurements left behind in the woodworking and engineering disciplines, most prevalent are in threads where imperial threads persist and sometimes are as common as our new metric M6 bolts. Our big box hardware still stocks both after decades in the metric system. The legacy of things that come just happen to come in 254mm (10 inches) is hilarious. Random fact, in the UK they still show miles on road signs for distance and speed limits.

We have been actively using the metric system for over 45 yrs now in manufacturing and engineering, only niche areas still use imperial units due to legacy issues. Roads and homebuilding are the the major holdouts. That being said, units are units. It doesn't really matter what you use as long as it is consistent. Both have their advantages. As and engineer, I use both depending on what is being designed. Its not hard.

Already metric and loving it! Love how it's so transferable through the other units, e.g. 10cm cube is a litre of water. Which is a kg. Oh, and science uses it, SI

I’m retired now, but I still remember the horror of starting my first job and finding out everything was done in ‘imperial’ units. Virtually my entire education (in Canada) was done in metric, and by the time I finished university all day to day measurements were in metric units. However, all my company’s customers were US, and all requirements were in imperial units, well that is to say US measurements as they were a bit different than the British measurements we used to use - just to make it even more messed up. Now that I am retired and dabbling in a bit of woodworking, I tend to stay with the US units as that’s what all the tools are. However, I am seriously considering just going all metric for future projects, I think once I get started, I will never look back. And in some ways the USA is fully metric. A inch is defined as exactly 2.54 cm and a pound is exactly 0.45359237 kg. All non metric measurements are actually defined precisely to their metric counter part, and it is the metric measurement that is related to some fundamental physical constant.

I learned both systems when I was in school. Depending on what I'm doing I'll choose one system over the other. If building a large item such as a house, shed or even a planter, I use inches and feet. When building something very small I use millimeters. With temperature I prefer Celsius. With distance, mostly Kilometers but in miles is simple too. In measuring land, I prefer Acres. When you understand both, it really makes little difference.

I am draftsman in Canada, we switched to metric measurements in the 1980s and then, sadly, we switched back to imperial measurements for many projects. However, building codes are metric. Personally, when I build drawers or such I use metric, but very few other people do.

Up here in Canada we officially use metric, but you will still find a lot of imperial units around as well. Monitors and and Tv screens are measured in inches, and you will very rarely find someone who will give their height in CM, almost always feet and inches. The weirdest thing to me though is wheel/tire sizes. Wheels are measured in inches, so tire sizes will be partially metric, and partially imperial, with a ratio of one of them thrown in there for good measure. 215/60R16 means the tire is 215mm wide, with a sidewall that is 60% of 215mm, and it fits on a wheel that is 16 inches in diameter and about 6.5 inches wide, but then the offset of the wheel is MM again. It makes perfect sense if you don't think about it at all. 😂

I’m Canadian, grew up as a kid in the SI world, adopted into the metric system when Canada flipped and am equally confident in using either system. However, I frame houses 16” on center, using 2x4s, 2x6s, 2x8s etc, do most cutting with either a 8 1/4” or 10” blade on my power tools. When I drive to the local hardware store I keep to an average posted speed of 60 km/hr over a driving distance of 12 kilometres, all the while wondering if the weight of the load of 5/8” plywood will make the trailer tongue weight exceed its maximum rating of 200lbs. Of course during the drive home my wife phones and asks if I could pick up a pound of ground beef, 2 litres of 3% milk, 150-200g of freshly sliced smoked ham. I said “of course I will, but first have to stop and get some gas - hey, did you notice gas prices dropped to 173.9 a litre today!?!?!” Her response: “ great, now we have a few extra toonies to take with us on our trip to the States tomorrow!” And, finally “Yes dear I’ll remember to drive at their posted speed limit of 60mph!” Now I ask you, do I qualify for dual-citizenship, or do I simply have to accept the fact I live in a global world.

Inches is what size a screen comes in. Not sure why anyone would think the diagonal length is relevant to screen size, but here we are.

Here in the UK we operate a mishmash of metric and imperial.Our money is metric (has been since 1971)we sell petrol and diesel in litres but we measure road distances and speed in miles and miles per hour,and we sell beer and cider from the pump in pubs in pints but bottled beer is often sold in half litres.Like i said a mishmash since we don't seem to have grasped metric fully.

In Australia we changed years ago. At the time I was a draftsman and my life became much simpler. Here all the road signs were changed in one night and you had no choice but to learn.

I already have gone metric as an American. I’ve been criticized by some people in public for using millimeters and centimeters when describing the length of something’s.

Went totally metric when about 2 years ago when I finally changed to Celsius because I did a total immersion language so I could feel comfortable in my second language. The hardest part of that was actually the fact that I needed to convert the speed and distances for when I described a road trip because I was so ueed to giving location as being the amount of time it took to get there not taking into account that I was telling that to someone was using the Autobahn which made something like its an hour away from Chicago a meaningless statement.😅

I was talking with an old American diesel engine mechanical engineer for the big ships and he said that English measurements like inches and its division is more accurate than the metric system . And from very old times the engine capacity and cutting cylinder head was based on British system .

I think the push for metric in the 70s was also hindered by the cost for retooling; it was deemed to expensive to switch over. Having used both systems the metric system is just far superior in every aspect. I don't know how anyone can think that units like: 12 inches to a foot 3 feet to a yard 5280 feet (or 1760 yards) to a mile 32F for freezing water, 212F for boiling 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon 2 tablespoons to an ounce 8 ounces to a cup 2 cups to a pint 2 pints the on a quart 4 quarts to a gallon 16 drama to an ounce 16 ounces to a pound 2000 pounds to a ton 16 pints to a peck 4 pecks to a bushel 2.5 bushels to a barrel 144 square inches to a square foot 9 square feet to a square yard 4,840 square yards to an acre 640 acres to a square mile 1728 cubic inches to a cubic foot 27 cubic feet to a cubic yard There are others, like show sizes and forces.

Dear Mr Nubs -- Thank you for your always valuable, always informative woodworking videos. We have all learned much from you. We also love your style of delivery and humor. Three years before I retired, intending to move to the Philippines, I decided to switch from US measurements to metric -- especially for temperature (weather) and distance (driving). My digital thermometer happily accomated me with a flip of the switch on the back side. (My Volvo, however, stayed locked in miles.) In the woodshop, a surprise! My Stanley tape measure already spoke metric. Never noticed that before, except when it got in the way. Here's my beef -- When my almost 70 yo eyes look down on the tape measure, I can easily see the markings for sixteenths, eighths, quarter inches, etc. The length of the dash at the edge of the tape makes it easy to determine. The metric side (and my other metric-only measures) shows each mark with a dash of the same length, except for the half centimeter dash which is longer. Problem is, the mm marks are closer together than sixteenths. And with my astigmatism and trifocal lenses it's really hard to tell the difference between 86 mm and 87 mm or 42 and 43 and so on. Dashes of different lengths make the Inches measurements easier to read. Still, I persevere -- taking my glasses off and getting right down on the ruler when precise metric measurements are needed, which is to say constantly. Please use your 'influence' to persuade metric measurement instrument providers to adopt gradations in their dashes. Picture one span of a suspension bridge for guidance, from short dashes at the beginning to the long dash in the middle, then shortening down again until the next centimeter. Thank you very much, Mr. Nubs. You are doing every metric user over the age of 40 a great service.

I made the switch to metric for all 'fine woodworking' projects from the start. All of my tapes, squares and straight edges are metric or dual measurement. I added a Wixey digital rule / gauge on my table saws and planer and keep a nice Mitutoyo caliper at the ready. I still reference approximates in imperial and use it for larger projects like cabinets or home repair just because most appliance schematics and accessories use imperial, but my life is loads easier using metric.

The USA has been half metric half English standard for decades. When cars first started going metric on fasteners you would find half the bolts were metric, half were standard, on the same car. Our mile marker signs are in English and Metric. Many speedos in cars are standard and metric. We used to use bushels and pecks. They stopped teaching that here in like 1971.

The great thing about growing up in both an imperial & metric system is that you don’t think about it. You just take a look at the project and see what tools you gonna need and just do the job. I honestly like metric it’s simple.

I believe that in the 1960s there was a big push in the USA to switch the metric system which was quashed by the Society of Automotive Engineers. I think that is fascinating since, as you pointed out, American cars are now mostly metric.

I used to hate the metric system. Mainly because their odd sizes didn't fit correctly in the imperial tools I had at the time. But as I aged and started working on industrial machines for overseas, where everything on them is metric, I found it's a far easier method and can quickly be learned by anyone even a child. There are times now even at home where I'll prefer to use the metric system for my work around the house.

Australia went metric in the 1970's - I was in the last class that went through TAFE (vocational training) using the imperial system. As a mechanic that repairs agricultural and earthmoving equipment I have to have two sets of spanners and sockets in my toolbox - 1 set AF Imperial and 1 set Metric. In the last 10 years I have noticed Caterpillar parts catalogues with warning labels - WARNING Metric Fasteners used on this component! If you worked on old pre 1960's British equipment you needed an additional set of sockets and spanners - Whitworth!

It's funny that I totally switched to imperial when I moved to the US. It's way easier to use in the shop than metric, given you have the right measuring tools. Decimals are hard to use quickly, fractions are easy.

Here in Australia the older generation like my father, were brought up on the imperial system. So I know how hard it is to change from something that was taught from a young age. But it does make me laugh when my dad has to add up 5ft 9 53/64th in + 3ft 7/16th in + 9ft 3/32 in , and all I have to do is 1774mm + 926mm +2822mm 🙂

The inch was re-sized and defined as 2.54cm very early in the 20th century. Although, I think it was "officially" set as such in 1959. For the most part, all the precision work in the industrial age has been on an inch that is really metric in disguise

The last three holdouts in the USA are: 1. Temperature (which is likely to go first!) 2. Weights and volumes (in lb but these too are likely to go) 3. Distances and Speed. I suspect that the last will be the most difficult given how all streets are labelled in miles and so on. It's possible that they will add metric units, otherwise, when it comes to weights, there's really no point in sticking to customary units. I mean, let's face it, who really wants to buy in ounce increments?

In 1978, I took a one-quarter long high school class called simply "Metrics", which was a requirement. It taught us all about the metric system, which was legislated to very quickly become the predominant system of measurement in the US. Nearly 50 years later, here we are! That class served me well, and I use both systems with ease, but the history of the metric system in the US at that time was haphazard. The Metric Conversion Act was signed into law by President Ford, killed off by Reagan, then somewhat reimplemented by Bush the First.

I grew up in Singapore where we uses Metric. Watching and reading imperial is just about another measuring systems. Hence no big deal. Now a days smart phone are so convenient and conversion is just a click away. What I felt really challenging is baking, where Cups and spoons were used rather than weight and volume which is much easier to follow. This is personal. 😊

As a Aussie with an American mother I grew up confused as hell with measurements, on top of that I often failed my spelling tests because I leave the U out of color...I mean colour. Now I fix metric Airbus aircraft in the morning and Imperial Boeing's in the afternoon. 🙄🇦🇺

Australian engineer here. I went through school and university using the Imperial system - only in my final year did Australia change over to the S.I. metric system. Boy, I wished that we had changed much earlier - S.I. made many calculations much easier.

in the UK we have been "metric" for many years. However, we still have a half and half system when it comes to measuring etc...most lengths are done in centimetres and metres, but we still do "miles per hour" in our cars, we still like to order a "pint" of beer, not a litre, though we buy our milk in litres lol...I still think in Imperial measures generally, and I feel that when we all started going metric, it was the beginning of the great dumbing down of the world!

I'm from the Netherlands, and If it wasn't for wheels, TV's, PC monitors and drivebays I'd probably never ever knew inches were a thing. It's kind of weird that we got so accustomed to the imperial system for certain devices. It was probably more convenient to stick with them as conversion would lead to even weirder numbers and more confusion.

Funnily enough, I was born, raised and educated in the metric system (I am from France), and yet, when I work in my workshop, I primarily used the imperial system. I found the fractions fun to use... That said, who cares what system you use as long as you have fun building stuff.

I am British and of an age where I happily use both. With imperial (duodecimal) a measurement has more factors and can be divided by 2,3,4,6,12 whereas metric (decimal) has only 2 and 5. imperial (duodecimal) a measurement has more factors and can be divided by 2,3,4,6,12 whereas metric (decimal) has only 2 and 5. With an imperial ruler/ tape I can use fractions to improve accuracy 1/2, 1/4 1/8 etc down to say 1/64th but with metric it’s a millimetre and that’s it. UK rulers/ tapes have imperial on top and metric underneath making it more difficult to look over to avoid parallax errors when marking out. As a result on an awkward job I sometimes measure length in imperial looking over the top of the tape and width in metric by turning and looking at the bottom of the tape - mad I know! If I want to use metric measurements I use a European centimetre only tape.

Well fractions are not easy for Americans. I had been to a sporting goods store in USA and asked the price of a soccer shirt, which was $65. The owner of the shop told me i could get a 25% discount if i could calculate the final price, which i did in a second. He asked me where i did come from, because he told me none of the (young) Americans could do that and prefer paying the full price instead. But the real problem in USA is the 110V electricity system.

In the early 1960's there was a serious effort to convert the U.S. to the metric system. I remember being in grade school during that time and was educated in the metric system for about 2 years. Then they abruptly stopped. Well, my later education as an engineer; physics and chemistry classes were all metric. It's like growing up learning 2 different languages at home. As an old man, I think and function equally well with either system............

Weirdly enough, the rigid but foldable device for measuring, usually made from wood, is called a "Zollstock" in German, literally "inch stick". A "Zoll" was a cut off piece of wood with a thickness of about 2 thumbs, whereas 12 Zoll made 1 Fuß, or foot. But then a Zoll varied between 2.5 cm in Hesse and 3.7662 cm in Prussia, with Baden and Switzerland (where 10 Zoll made a Fuß) somewhere in between. We also had miles, varying from 7500 to 9000 m, or between 12000 and 24000 Fuß in other places. All in all, the metric system is a good thing...

I grew up learning metric in school, but results were mixed. I visualize length in feet and inches, but traffic in kilometres. Weather temperature is Celsius, but oven temperature is Fahrenheit. Flour and sugar are measured in cups and teaspoons, but rain is in millimetres and snow in centimetres. Makes no sense, but welcome to Canada!

For me as a German I never understood the Imperial system. For us it is like Middle Ages. In GB the industrial revolution started, I never got it why they never switch to metric. It is so much easier to use.

Here in the UK we use both interchangeably, although I think imperial is becoming less common in the younger generation. I'll use imperial for my height, weight, distances and speed, but metric for almost everything else. I like the ease of halving, say, 4 & 3/8 inches by doubling the denominator, but for any precise measurement I'm just much more comfortable in mm

I’ve pretty much gone metric by choice for projects etc. i find the units more accurate and easier to use. Sure it took several tries for it to start to be comfortable, but now it’s second nature

As an Australian using metric the most infuriating thing is occasionally having to deal with "US customary units". It's like dust or a bad odor - it gets in everywhere...

I find the most difficult thing for people using the imperial system is breaking down the fractions. You can have 13/16ths but you can't have 14/16ths or you can have 9/16ths but not 10/16ths as that gets broken down to 5/8ths. But why is that really necessary? That's what scares people away from using a tape measure or math in general for many. Instead if they just thought of every little line on the tape measure as 16ths instead of worrying about having to break all the fractions down, they could just count the number of 16ths they have and call it a day. You can still have the larger lines for 4/16ths, 8/16ths, and 12/16ths, but keep it simple and I think a lot more people would feel comfortable measuring things. They can break it down in their head after if they want, but they'll easily remember how many 16ths they had.

Here in Puerto Rico: we sell gasoline (petrol) in liters, yet we sell milk and motor oil in quart, half gallon or gallon jugs (yet we ask for a liter of milk); speed is measured in miles per hour, yet distance is measured in kilometers and mileage is calculated in miles per gallon; cloth for sewing is sold by the yard; lumber is sold by inches and feet. In cooking: we use the 'spoon and cup' system. This is a partial list.

In South Africa we changed from imperial to metric in the mid 1960. I use both. Although metric is easier for calculating engineering subjects. My biggest downfall is I love to bake bread. Blows my brain when the recipes use cups , ounces , lbs etc. so much easier when it’s all in grams , litres and millilitres. 👍👍. We enjoy your videos.

As a Swede brought up with metrics, now at grown up age I do see some advantages of dividing like 1/4 of an inch. Ease of use when calculating, just dividing in equal sizes. Maybe we can learn from each other to have say like 3/8 of a decimeter is much easier than 37.5mm…

I am French. I lived for a little while in the US. I did my best to get used to the Imperial system but didn't really succeed. Renting a house in LA I studied the brochure given by the city about the seismic precautions to be taken and I was surprised by the fact that all the measures were metric. It was recommended to keep a certain amout of liters of water at home and in the car. I wondered how the Americans could take it. The issue is that the imperial system contaminated the rest of the world to some extent: in aviation altitude is measured in feet, in photography lenses are measured in millimeters while sensors sides are measured in millimeters and the diagonal in inches, in automobiles and bicycles tires are measured in inches, TV and computer screens are in inches, and so on. I wish it was eradicated. The EU should decide that no gear can be sold in Europe if its measurements are not metric. It's just a matter of consistency.

As a Canadian I can tell you that the stubbornness of the imperial system is boundless. Even after everything governmental has switched we still buy 2.5 inch mattress toppers and brag about being 6 ft tall and so on

As an American, I was amazed by the ease of calculating volume by size and also the weight. 1ml(of water) is 1 cubic centimeters, which is one gram or in larger terms 1 liter of water is 1000 cubic cm and 1 kilo. Not necessarily as easy if you are looking for the wight of something other than water, but volume still works. Without looking it up, how many gallons are in a cubic foot?

I’ll believe it when I see it. When I went to VoTech school in 1969 we were told that America would be converting to metric. Here it is 50 yers later and still on the old way.

I'm in Canada and still do home renovations in imperial units. Drywall and plywood are 4x8 foot panels though the thickness is now mm. Studs are on 16 or 24 inch centres, tiles are in inches... I tried going metric but found it more difficult given the standards in construction that even 50 years after going metric are still imperial. For woodworking I use and prefer metric. I could tell I made the switch when I started converting to metric to visualize units. If someone says something is a foot I think "about 30 cm" now converting to metric in my head.

6 Months ago I bought my first metric measuring tape... I find myself reaching for it more frequently. I'm also old enough to remember being in junior high and being forced to learn the metric system for science... Dividing by ten is not very hard! Cheers!

I’ve been using metric on personal projects for a while now. My only problem with using metric at work is that my metric tape measures seem to keep going missing off job sites, funny thing that.

For woodworking I can see the attraction of imperial. I am from the UK and flick between Imperial and Metric all the time. Still call 4x2 “4 by 2” rather than “100 by 47”, because it is easier to say! People don’t need to be rude about it though!

Extremely fair and amusing analysis. Having worked in both I much prefer the simplicity and accuracy of metric. We went through a similar process here in the UK, start teaching it in the schools and before you know it metric slowly becomes the norm.