Category Archives: Metric System in Popular Culture

MetricBusters

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MetricBusters

By The Metric Maven

Bulldog Edition

It is the best of shows, it is the worst of shows. It is a show that attempts to show the nuts and bolts use of scientific thinking when deciding propositions. It is also a show that promotes the worst of American disorganization and lack of planning. Yes, I said this about MythBusters. You can stop gasping now. It is a show that indicates it’s about Science! and claim they are “experts,” so don’t try this at home kids!  But they also have warnings about “Science Content” lest too much science depress their ratings. Four years ago on 2008-10-30 I wrote to the MythBusters as a Professional Engineer, another kind of “expert,” who is not on television. I pleaded with them to adopt metric only in their show,  and to encourage metric thinking. The US Mail and email I sent to these prominent “Technical Personalities”  was met with nothing but silence. Their lack of concern for metric seems to say “we’re all for science, but we just don’t care about organized measurement.”  I discovered that MythBusters  fan boards have inquired about their lack of  exclusive metric use from at least as early as 2006.  There has been nothing but The Silence of the MythBusters concerning metric for at least the last six years. But on 2012-09-30, during a Reddit Driven Q&A session, a metric advocate asked Adam Savage the question directly:

Q: Why don’t you guys use the Metric System on Mythbusters? as it is the standard for scientific experimentation

By: KyleGustafson

A: We try, we do both sometimes. But we’re both fully inculcated with the english system, sad to say. That’s how we think.

Wow, that’s it? That’s all that Adam has to say? He has been so inculcated with the Olde English non-system by our culture, that he cannot think otherwise? A MythBuster can’t think otherwise! His mind embraces disorganization and rejects organization, and nothing can be done? This is MythBusters! A show that is supposed to challenge myths, and change peoples views. But when it comes to embracing metric, all Adam has to say is “we try.”  Adam, seriously, it sounds like an excuse which is as lame as: “the dog ate my homework.” Apparently you just don’t give a damn Adam, and don’t care to. As Jamie is silent, I can only assume the same. Your show is completely counter-factual to your anemic assertion that “we try” when it comes to metric. It appears that the use of measurement units in Mythbusters is at best thoughtlessly ad hoc, and at worst, willfully ignorant. How feckless. You and Jamie find the courage to have a bridge drop out from under you while you dangle in the air 50-75 meters above concrete below, but the metric system is too scary?—too much of a challenge?

Why am I so upset about this show? Why do I care?—after all it’s just one more program emanating from “the vast wasteland.” I care because I’m very certain that scores of young American children are inspired to consider Engineering or Science as vocations because of this program. The unfortunate fact is that MythBusters propagates the inculcation of the American hodgepodge of pigfish measuring units on television. This will acclimate another generation of aspiring Engineers and Scientists into accepting the US measurement status-quo. Because of this learned comfort for a farrago of mixed measurement units is being inculcated into another generation of youth, metric will not move forward a millimeter in the US for at least another generation.

I’m an enthusiastic fan of the show’s premise, but find the execution of it by the Mythbusters cohort to be at best amateur, and at worst ignorant, when measurement units are involved. MythBusters seems to encourage an attitude of “just make it up as you go kids!—grams and inches—milliliters and ounces—no problem, don’t worry about it—–we’re doing science!”

Adam appears to be fishing for some manner of absolution by saying:: “we do both [English and metric units] sometimes.”  Why how “fair and balanced” of you. Adam, seriously, take time from being feted, and read Naughtin’s 1st Law: Dual Scale Instruments are Evil. The rest of Naughtin’s Laws are here, but I suggest you don’t take my website’s word for it, how about watching one of his lectures about metric? You will also hear his “don’t dual with dual” assertion. Perhaps you might even check out his Metrication Matters website and learn a bit about the system your show ignores and 95% of the world uses.

The story behind the creation of MythBusters is curious. Here is what Wikipedia has to say in it’s first sentence:

MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Australia’s Beyond Television Productions[1] for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including SBS Australia, 7mate Australia, and other Discovery channels worldwide

The entry continues: “Filming is based in San Francisco, though some elements of production are done in Artarmon, Australia.”

So MythBusters was proposed and created by an Australian Television Company!  Australia is the one English speaking country where metric is ubiquitous. Houses in Australia are all built in  millimeters and meters only. The Land of Oz is where one can purchase 300 mm, 600 mm, and 1000 mm metric only rulers (and tape measures) at the Land Down Under’s local equivalent of The Home Depot. You can be certain you’re not in Kansas anymore when that happens. You order your steaks in grams there.  Kilojoules are what one counts when on a diet in Oz, and not Calories (1000 calories = 1 Calorie). Was there not one discussion of exclusively using metric units in MythBusters by its Australian creators?! Inquiring Metric Mavens want to know.

Since 2003, the MythBusters have used measurement units with a contempt that is so reckless, that I suspect it is born of complete ignorance. I will give you one example, but choose almost any episode where multiple measurement units occur, and you will get showered with a farrago of Furlongs per Fortnight measurement units and metric mixed in without distinction.

In one program segment entitled   Fireworks Man,  Grant, Tory and Kari need to measure how much known weights will decrease the speed of a commercially available fireworks rocket. They set up a yellow and black 32 foot scale, in one foot increments, against which they photograph the rockets to determine their speed. They compute the speed of an unloaded rocket as 80 feet per second, then convert it to 55 miles per hour.

This triumvirate of technology next add nuts, which each weigh 50 grams, to reduce the rocket speed. They determine the optimum load (50% reduction in speed) is 150 grams. Grant then states: “Well with 400 rockets, 150 grams that’s 60 kilograms. That’s a carrying capacity of about a 130 pounds.” Feet, miles, grams, kilograms, pounds. The rockets were not powerful enough for 400 of them to possibly lift a man.

The myth is supposedly German in origin, which leads Kari, Tory and Grant to discover that commercially available European fireworks have more thrust than their American counterparts. The European rockets can carry 300 grams per rocket. The graphics for all the tests show the results in miles per hour against weight in grams.

In the full scale test, black powder is used to produce a synchronous ignition of the rocket engines. As Tory is pouring in the black powder He says: “Now I know this might not seem like a lot of black powder, but I’m actually using six ounces, I mean that would be plenty to fire off a cannon ball.” The MythBusters segment has now used feet, miles, grams, kilograms, pounds, and ounces (by weight not volume I assume?).

According to Wikipedia, when the MythBusters show is shown in some countries:

The United States customary units, used by the hosts throughout the show, are converted to metric in the process. Sometimes, the part where the myth is explained in sketches is completely redrawn in that language.

Seriously, is America ever going to grow up and face up to the importance of metrication? Apparently Adam’s cavalier attitude verifies to me that we need mandatory metric legislation to change our schools, industry and government to metric. Otherwise Adam Savage’s descendants will also be prisoners of “english system” inculcation. The MetricBusters have become so celebrated, they are now Dr. Adam Savage and Dr. Jamie Hynaman. According to Wikipedia:

Hyneman and Savage received honorary doctorates from the University of Twente in the Netherlands for their role in popularizing science, on the occasion of the university’s 50th anniversary, on November 25, 2011.[65]

Right through The Metric Maven’s heart! The country which has used metric the longest, awarded them Doctorates.

Well, add another 100 years before metric is possible in this country. You can thank Adam and Jamie, The MetricBusters, for doing their part. With friends like them, who needs reactionaries?

If you liked this essay and wish to support the work of The Metric Maven, please visit his Patreon Page and contribute. Also purchase his books about the metric system:

The first book is titled: Our Crumbling Invisible Infrastructure. It is a succinct set of essays  that explain why the absence of the metric system in the US is detrimental to our personal heath and our economy. These essays are separately available for free on my website,  but the book has them all in one place in print. The book may be purchased from Amazon here.


The second book is titled The Dimensions of the Cosmos. It takes the metric prefixes from yotta to Yocto and uses each metric prefix to describe a metric world. The book has a considerable number of color images to compliment the prose. It has been receiving good reviews. I think would be a great reference for US science teachers. It has a considerable number of scientific factoids and anecdotes that I believe would be of considerable educational use. It is available from Amazon here.


The third book is not of direct importance to metric education. It is called Death By A Thousand Cuts, A Secret History of the Metric System in The United States. This monograph explains how we have been unable to legally deal with weights and measures in the United States from George Washington, to our current day. This book is also available on Amazon here.

The “Preferred” Measurement System of the US

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By The Metric Maven

Bulldog Edition

The object to the left is an everyday thing, but it is making a clear statement about the designer’s measurement preference. It may not be apparent what the measurement preference is to you. It might not have been to me had I not read The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A Norman (suggested to me by Sven). The design of even the simplest of objects is done in a manner that provides information on how the designer intends them to be used. A person will unconsciously take an intended design clue, and use an object as intended. Knives are provided with handles, and one doesn’t stop to think which is the best end to hold in one’s hand after early experience and instruction in childhood. Norman cites research which argues there are at least 30,000 everyday things around us, and decreases the number to 20,000 to state: “Suppose each everyday thing takes only one minute to learn; learning 20,000 of them occupies 20,000 minutes —333 hours  about 8 forty hour work weeks.” We have a considerable amount of time invested in learning about our everyday things. When we encounter a can opener, or a scissors, or a potato peeler, we generally know exactly what to expect, how to hold it, and how to use it. One way that a designed object signals how it should be used, is to design it so the ways it may be used are limited, this is called affordance by Norman.

When I worked on the design of televisions, I immediately ran into the idea of affordance. A television motherboard and its chassis were dropped off in my lab, but about seven cables had been disconnected. I protested that it was all apart, and was calmly told by a technician  that all the plugs would only go into one place on the motherboard. Indeed, they did, and I was impressed that because of this affordance, I couldn’t make a mistake.

The affordance of the TV motherboard was essentially foolproof, but often designers can’t restrict a user that much, and the affordance involves only discomfort or a subtle tactile clue. Donald Norman offers this:

Take another example of good design. My felt-tipped marking pen has ribs along only one of its sides; otherwise all sides look identical. Careful examination shows that the tip of the marker is angled and makes the best line if the marker is held with the ribbed side up, a natural result if the forefinger rests upon the ribs. No harm results if I hold the marker another way, but the marker writes less well. The ribs are subtle design cue—functional, yet visibly and aesthetically unobtrusive.

Norman also shows numerous door handles as examples. If we see only a push plate on a door, we have no other choice but to push to open the door. A handle which one can readily grasp cues us that we pull to open it. This brings us back to the measuring cup shown above. Its design is pro-metric, as the metric graduations are facing a person’s eyes when it is held with the right hand. About 70-90% of the worlds population are right handed. Right handed Americans using this measuring cup, would find it uncomfortable and unnatural to place the handle on the left. The measuring cup shown is from the period when the US pretended it might go metric. Measuring cups of this same type, which are currently sold in the US, are all designed so that the imperial graduations face one’s eyes when held with the handle on the right. One of mine is shown below:

Common American Measuring Cup

Measuring cup designs have improved since the 1970s. Some of the ones I now own are “top readable” and only sold (unfortunately) at product parties. Dual scale is always a hindrance to metric adoption, but this set of top reading measuring cups are the best I have encountered.  I have visited many cooking stores and looked online, but have yet to find metric-only measuring cups and measuring spoons. The measuring cup shown below appears to have eliminated a right hand bias as well as being easy to read. Now if I could just purchase a metric-only one.

Top Read Measuring Vessel with Clear Metric Graduations
Left Handed Ruler

The design of common measuring cups is but one example of subtle anti-metric bias in our everyday things. In a previous blog I mentioned that the design of American “metric” rulers hinders their use because of the presence of a centimeter-millimeter dual unit scale, and the rounding of the origin end of one particular metric scale. The origin of the inch scale is placed on the square end, which is much more natural for measuring. For about 10% of our population, which are left-handed, the current dual scale measuring cups are adequately designed for metric use. On the other hand both metric and inch ruler scales  have equally low affordance for left-handed people. Left hand rulers exist which have the numbering from right to left to increase the ease of use by a left handed person.

My father gave me an expandable wrench for my last birthday, which has mm markings on one side, and had inch on the other (yes, I ground off the inch scale). If one holds the wrench as a right handed person would, the inch scale faces your eyes. On the opposite side is the metric scale, which has low affordance for a right-handed person. The wrench is nice because it allows one to immediately see what size a bolt head is in mm, but it is very cumbersome for me to use, as I’m right handed.. I have a better understanding of what left handed people deal with on an everyday basis in our world.

Expandible wrench designed with an affordability preference for inches (click to enlarge)

These examples point to the fact that a preference for imperial measures is designed into our US tools, and US everyday things. But I’ve been assured by non-binding legislation that the US prefers metric measurements. Here is some background:

The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 was signed into law by Ronald Reagan. It amended the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, yet didn’t have the word metric in the title of the legislation. President Reagan and Congress apparently were concerned that the voluntary nature of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 was not clear enough.

Section 3 of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 is amended to read as follows:

SEC. 3. It is therefore the declared policy of the United States

(1) to designate the metric system of measurement as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce;

(2) to require that each Federal agency, by a date certain and to the extent economically feasible by the end of the fiscal year 1992, use the metric system of measurement in its procurement, grants, and other business-related activities, Except to the extent that such use is impractical or is likely to cause significant inefficiencies or loss of markets to United States firms, such as when foreign competitors are producing competing products in non-metric units;

Well, it has been the case since the 19th Century, that switching to metric is always “impractical” in the US. Apparently there was much concern among our legislators that we have an exception: “such as when foreign competitors are producing competing products in non-metric units;” Apparently Liberia and Myanmar (the last two non-metric holdouts in the world) might flood the US (and the world?) with non-metric products, and thereby destroy what’s left of our uncompetitive non-metric US economy. Thank you President Reagan and Congress for the foresight to see the threat and protect us from the economic danger posed by these two tiny countries, and making an exception. Clearly the 1992 date was meaningless and arbitrary. It made it look like the government was taking action, when in fact it was not. Metric is 21 years past the expiration date for becoming “preferred.”

One can easily see how “preferred” metric is in the US simply by inspecting the design of our everyday things and everyday tools. The legislation is feckless, and crass hypocrisy. It is in line with the strange belief that if we cling onto the trappings of our past, the future may be indefinitely postponed. This emotional response, written in legislation, only postpones the day when reality intervenes, and forces Americans to realize that fantasy is no match for reality. I’m not willing to wait another 150 years hoping America will come to its senses. We need legislation that compels industry to design and make available true metric products, during a short compulsory switchover by industry, government, and education to metric. What we have now is legislation celebrating the the metric system as the preferred system of the future and makes sure it will always remain so.

Related Essay:

The Invisible Metric Embargo

If you liked this essay and wish to support the work of The Metric Maven, please visit his Patreon Page and contribute. Also purchase his books about the metric system:

The first book is titled: Our Crumbling Invisible Infrastructure. It is a succinct set of essays  that explain why the absence of the metric system in the US is detrimental to our personal heath and our economy. These essays are separately available for free on my website,  but the book has them all in one place in print. The book may be purchased from Amazon here.


The second book is titled The Dimensions of the Cosmos. It takes the metric prefixes from yotta to Yocto and uses each metric prefix to describe a metric world. The book has a considerable number of color images to compliment the prose. It has been receiving good reviews. I think would be a great reference for US science teachers. It has a considerable number of scientific factoids and anecdotes that I believe would be of considerable educational use. It is available from Amazon here.


The third book is not of direct importance to metric education. It is called Death By A Thousand Cuts, A Secret History of the Metric System in The United States. This monograph explains how we have been unable to legally deal with weights and measures in the United States from George Washington, to our current day. This book is also available on Amazon here.