WE'RE JUST DIFFERENT.

NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was lost in 1999 due to a mix up between the U.S. customary and metric systems of measurement. The United States remains one of only a handful of countries that has not widely adopted the metric system.

This isn't due to a lack of trying. In its history the United States has tried several time to make the metric system the nation's standard. It just didn't try very hard.

This time on ¡extra! Ordinary, Sonny looks at America's complicated relationship with the metric system including John Quincy Adams' exhaustive report in the 1800's and the push to make the switch in the late 1970's.

Also in this episode: The 1-19, the only metric interstate in the US. 

¡extra! Ordinary is hosted by Sonny Garibay.