This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, share it with them here.
My Dad was a swim coach for the YMCA and I spent many summers swimming for his teams. I enjoyed the competitive thrill of trying to beat my personal record for my breaststroke. Part of my trouble was figuring out what exactly my PR was. There were many pools that were 25 yards long and others were 25 meters. If I swam my best race in a 25 meter pool, should I just convert that to 25 yards? Or vice versa?
My Dad and I at a swim meet back in 2003.
The back and forth of trying to figure out if I should measure my PR in yards, meters or convert between the two was a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things. However, the USA’s indecision on converting to the metric system has caused lots of friction on the world stage.
The US measurements are officially US Customary Units (USCU), which is pretty much the British Imperial system, which has its origins back to Ancient Roman times. In the 1790s, people used many different measurement units such as the Dutch, British and other regional units. There was little uniformity across the states. In 1793, then Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson wrote his French friend Joseph Dombey to bring over some of the newfangled “French Metric” weights. Dombey boarded a ship with an official Kilogram and other metric weights, but on the way was captured by British pirates in the Caribbean.
Jefferson got cold feet and worried about the cost of sending delegates back and forth to France to verify the measurements. Shortly after, the US decided to stick with the British Imperial System. Throughout the 19th century, America’s prowess in industry grew and all the machinery was codified in feet and inches and workers grew accustomed to working in the imperial system. Plus, the metric system seemed too European and America’s superiority complex kicked in.
In 1965, Britain officially switched from the British Imperial system in favor of the metric system. Here is a map from the 1971.
In the above map, light brown shows all of the countries that were already on the metric system pre-WW2 and the dark brown countries that converted to metric post-WW2.
In 1968, The US government sponsored a study on the feasibility of switching to the metric system. The report came out in favor of the metric system and proposed a detailed 10 year plan of transitioning to the metric system. President Gerald Ford gave an executive order for the “Metric Conversion Act”. There were even US Public Education, PSA’s about switching to metrics, like this cute cartoon.
So what happened? The act was voluntary and many people, particularly in engineering and construction related jobs didn’t want to switch, so they didn’t.
Every other country that has made the switch, has made it a mandatory law. However, even when countries like Canada make the switch to the metric system, some imperial measurements still stick around. Here are steaks from a market in Toronto listing the price by the pound.
In America, science and medicine have long made metric the standard. However, my friend who works in the hospital said they will still often refer to a patients weight in pounds.
While there are many reasons to switch to the metric system, the current imperial system has some merits.
The imperial system is centered on the human experience, not on fundamentals of physics. For instance, Fahrenheit, made "0" approximately the coldest day you could expect and "100" approximately the hottest day you could expect. In another example, a foot is roughly the size of a human foot and an inch the size of a digit on a finger. These are human proportions and immediately more intuitive for people to grasp.
I work in sales and the biggest competitor isn’t your competition, it is the status quo. People don’t like change and switching to the metric system will impact our systems, processes and everyday life. For example, in 1995 a study estimated that switching all of the road signage to metric would cost about $420 million ($820 million adjusted for inflation).
One can imagine how converting everything over would cost tay payers tens of billions of dollars. However, it is a one time fee in exchange for continued benefits.
Why switch to Metric?
In a nutshell, it will save us tons of money and improve international relations. For example, many US manufacturers need to make two kinds of products for every item — one for here and one for everywhere else. Foreign manufacturers also have to modify products just for the US market (or decide that maybe it's not worth the bother).
There have also been big snafus and horror stories that come from mis-conversions. For instance, NASA lost $125 million dollars on a Mars probe, due to a simple mis calculation between miles and kilometers. Another time, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel halfway through its flight because of an error in converting between non-metric and metric.
I am skeptical that the US will ever switch fully to the metric system, but in many ways we already have. Our system measures relative to the metric system. So the way we ensure that a gallon of milk in Arkansas is the same as a gallon of milk in Seattle is by measuring it against the metric system. A gallon is officially defined as 3.78541 liters.
I hope that one day our apathy and pride of keeping the imperial system will give way to logic and reason and we switch to metric.
Quote I’m pondering
“Don’t ask your barber whether you need a haircut”
-Warren Buffett
Compare Hubble vs Webb image
NASA’s new Webb telescope is replacing the longstanding Hubb telescope. The above image is of the “Carina Nebula”. The Hubble image on the left and the new Webb is on the right.
You can see how much more detail the Webb provides. You can compare the vast difference between the Hubble images of nebulas and galaxies and Webb’s new images on webbcompare.com. Just slide back and forth and be in awe. Hat tip to the Recommendo email newsletter.
Tackling a challenge
When thinking about a problem, try flipping the question on its head for a new perspective.
In a recent interview, Tyler Cowen the Economist said “it’s not surprising that we are polarized in America. It’s surprising that there was a time period in the 1950s 1960’s where we weren’t that polarized.” What was going on then, that made us not as polarized? By asking the opposite, you will come up with new plausible explanations.
Pic of the Week
Life on the road. Since the last newsletter, I have flown from Pittsburgh to San Francisco for a work event, then took a redeye to Davidson, North Carolina. From there, drove to Charleston > Durham > Black Mountain > Memphis > Tulsa and now en route to Santa Fe. The past 2 months have been magical, but Jenny and I are ready to settle back into a routine in San Francisco in a few days.
Bill - great points!
I had to fact check you on the barleycorns for American shoe sizes, and you are right. My understanding of our measurement systems gets weirder the farther down the rabbit hole I go.
Hi Kevin -
You should remember much of this from World history - or were you not paying attention that day in 10th grade?
My mom fretted about converting to metric b/c she thought she wouldn't be able to cook any more. I tried to explain that the teaspoon police would not raid her measuring utensils, but it didn't matter.
Have you noticed how many items like canned goods are now measured in even metric units and odd English amounts - e.g. .5 KG, 17.5 oz.
One of the ironies here is that under Franklin's direction we were the first nation to use decimal currency. British non-decimal currency took until 1972?. Prior to that all calculations had to be done by hand - computers were just appearing and no one ever invented a cash register that could deal in three uneven kinds of units - pounds, shillings and pence. Their intermediate coins were crazy - half penny, quarter penny (farthing), two pence, six pence... 12 pennies made a shilling, 20 shillings made a pound, 240 pennies a pound. A guinea was 1 pound, 1 shilling. Most of there abbreviations were from Latin - penny - d (denarius), pound (L - librum). My English cousin went to her grave about 10 years ago confident that the monetary conversion was designed to swindle her out of much money. Pennies were copper and substantially heavier that a US quarter, farthings about 1/2 the size of a dime.
Conversion for the rest of the world was mainly due to Napoleon forcing the issue.
If you want amusing reading check the Revolutionary French attempt to decimalize time - 12 months/year, 10-day weeks, 10 hour days, new names. It lasted about 3 years and was never honored in most of France. Metric weights and lengths made trade easier b/c France was plagued with dozens of local/regional systems and variations as were most countries in 1795.
Did you know that American shoe sizes are measured in barleycorns?
Our continued use of English weights and measures (sort of standardized by Henry II in the 1152? Assize of Measures) is very expensive. US trade is hampered, many companies must make two products, car mechanics need two sets of wrenches. But Americans who lead the world in so many things are terrified of grams and meters and liters. I recently read something about an American traveling in Canada, confident that he was being swindled because he had to buy gasoline in liters.