This week on The Brancatelli Vlog
We consider the slow but steady invasion of the metric system into our domestic world of inches, feet, and pounds. The change is finally happening, centimeters from our very eyes. But do you really know what a centimeter is? Or the length of a kilometer? Can you weigh a bag of flour in anything other than ounces and pounds?
As Laurence Sterne might have said, “Good G–! What is a gram?”
In this quiet invasion, our story begins with an elementary schoolgirl’s math problem involving fish tanks, volume, and the kind of measurement no one in her house actually uses and is best left for socket wrenches. As your server says, “Enjoy!”
Image by Zahraa Hassan. “Greaser” by Cullah, courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library. Dedicated to Giovanna Deanna Brancatelli. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli.
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Thanks for the funny soliloquy, Rob. As a chemistry major in college, and a 30-year employee of a large chemical company, I have long seen the advantage of the metric system over whatever we call our hodgepodge.
But I began to wonder if it would ever take hold here, early on for me. I was having dinner with A college classmate who also was majoring in chemistry, and the waiter at this Italian restaurant asked us if we would like a liter of wine. Joe looked at me and said: should we get a large liter or a small liter? I knew we were cooked at that point.
I simply cannot “fathom” why this is so difficult for us. Shades of the $2 bill, and the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
Vic
Well, I hope you went with the large liter at least. There’s something Yogi Berra-ish about all this…