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How Pirates Thwarted America’s Plan to Go Metric

Just a moment...

https://psnaudus.medium.com/how-pirates-thwarted-americas-plan-to-go-metric-7af4d41f7c09?sk=12d2f1d5e5a1aa166a1d73c58d872ce9

In the late 1700s, Thomas Jefferson wanted the United States to adopt a unified system of measurement and saw the metric system as the best solution. However, a pirate attack in the Caribbean disrupted these plans. Joseph Dombey, a French scientist carrying a kilogram and meter stick to demonstrate the metric system, was captured by pirates. By the time France sent another scientist to explain the system to the Americans, Jefferson was no longer in office, and plans to go metric were disregarded.

38 comments

quixotic120

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That son of a bitch pirate has no idea how much of a pain in the ass he ended up being

001100010010

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But if the plan had suceeded, it could've lead to a butterfly effect where none of us are ever born.

quixotic120

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Or it could’ve led to a butterfly effect where measurements were much easier to understand and as a result scientific and engineering progress moved along a bit faster

Maybe both; maybe that resulted in like a huge bomb that destroyed the world. Or maybe it resulted in utopia where we figure out eternal life and cured all disease

amir_s89

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Also that NASA's scientists with many suppliers would have performed their tasks and intended with quality, following through schedules. Through a handful of projects. Meaning that some space missions would not have failed. Those outcomes could have made us living and work on the Moon by now. (Maybe).

Great historic trivia. Have always wondered why the US had chosen their system. Still never to late to change over.

FlyingSquid

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But we wouldn't be aware of that fact, so it wouldn't be that big a deal.

dreadedsemi

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The pirate name was Captain Fahren Heit.

Izzent

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The Fahren Heist?

keeb420

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it happened on the sell seaus.

gooddaytodayhere

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That is good content! Off to google I went to explore the rabbit hole

And here’s a good read! https://time.com/3633514/why-wont-america-go-metric/

raltoid

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I always find it funny to read about how much it's the public who wants America to be a "leader" and not a "follower" and keep resisting the change. Meanwhile metric is in widespread use across the country. Most science and medicine is done in metric. NASA and the US Military are metric. Most soldiers knows how long a "klick" is, which is literally just slang for kilometer. Every car mechanic can show you exactly how much a centimeter is, since the 10mm wrench/socket size is burned into their memory.

And because of the global trade market, a lot of products that are also meant for export is manufactured in metric

Not to mention that when it comes to conversion it's so much easier that US students are in some cases taught to convert to metric, apply that formula and then convert back(like calculating work) since it's so much faster and easier.

Flaky_Fish69

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NASA still almost lost the Mars Climate Orbiter in '98- they used metric, and Lockheed used US customary. Probably put it on approach too close to mars, and uh, it "encountered" the planet....

NASA has the best euphemisms.

(edit: also in 3d printing world...we almost always use metric, partly because it's literally an international community.)

Paradoxvoid

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One thing I find humourous is the term 'US Customary' - I've only come across it recently; to most of the world they're Imperial units, which is ironic given the nature of how the USA came about.

raktheundead

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Strictly speaking, there are a few places where Imperial measurements diverge from US customary measurements; the sizes of a fluid ounce, pint and gallon are a few examples.

gravitas_deficiency

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To be fair, the 10mm socket is burned into their memory because they keep fucking disappearing.

Onionizer

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They're afraid of the 17/2 inch socket

thayer

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Permanently Deleted

gooddaytodayhere

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I completely agree. It’s hilarious!!!

FlyingSquid

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I think it's funny that they have to have a converter button on every medical scale in this country so that patients can find out what their weight is in pounds.

15liam20

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Fast forward to the present day and for most of the world the only things measured in inches are TV's and dicks.

Hyperreality

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Most of the world measures dicks in cms.

I think the big one is car rims and tyres.

001100010010

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Oh... that's not jolly. That's not jolly at all!

Cityshrimp

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Why would it take a scientist to demonstrate metric system…? Everything is in powers of 10. How hard is that to explain?

CaspianXI

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They needed examples. How long is a meter? How heavy is a kilogram?

Flaky_Fish69

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actually, they didn't need examples (even if it would make things easier.)

for example, the meter was originally defined as one ten millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole. (which, given the necessary instrumentation, was something "anyone" could measure. well, instrumentation and instruction.) it's now based on the emissions of krypton-86, and the wave length of a certain part of it. Again anyone with the proper tools is able to measure this.)

Similarly, the kilogram was defined- originally- as the mass of one liter of water. the liter was defined as the volume of a cube with a length of ten centimeters.. (today it gets quite a bit more complicated, but based on observable constants...)

FlyingSquid

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This is America, pal. We don't believe anything unless we someone tells it to us with conviction. Hence Donald Trump's presidency.

Flaky_Fish69

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I can't tell if you're just being honest, or being sarcastic. or like... you know... both.
you have no idea how depressing this is.

FlyingSquid

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I can't tell either, which also depresses me.

cynar

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One of the ongoing goals in science is to reference all metric units to fundamental forces. Basically, we want a system where you can write down everything you need to recreate all our measurement systems.

Right now, most are referenced that way, but not all. Last I heard the kg was being difficult. I believe the plan is to reference it to a perfect sphere of perfectly crystalline silicon-28 of a given size. Creating such a sphere is extremely difficult however.

Anders429

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And it sounds like Jefferson was already familiar with it anyway, if he was thinking it was the best system. I find it very doubtful that the only holdup was that there was no one to demonstrate it.

Rivalarrival

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Powers of 10 is actually the main problem with the metric system. It makes geometry ugly as sin, and isn't sufficiently granular for convenient use in the kitchen.

Whatever asshole invented us with 10 fingers instead of 12 is begging for my boot in his ass. Geometry is elegant in duodecimal. But because we developed basic arithmetic with 10 fingers, we have to resort to ugly hacks like a sexagesimal unit circle to make geometry compatible with decimal.

Anders429

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And it sounds like Jefferson was already familiar with it anyway, if he was thinking it was the best system. I find it very doubtful that the only holdup was that there was no one to demonstrate it.

Scolding7300

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Is there a non-paywalled link? The archive.org link doesn't seem to work

gooddaytodayhere

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That’s weird I can read it on iOS and I’m definitely not a subscriber

Ghoelian

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It does say member-only story for me, but I can still read it

CaspianXI

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I was pretty sure this isn't behind a paywall. I made a pastebin that expires in one week: https://pastebin.com/rK82JgyY

Scolding7300

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Thank you! On Firefox mobile it asks you to download the app to read but not ln Brave mobile. reazlied that after reading the pastebin entry.