Because we're used to the metric system, ... An Ancient Relation between Units of Length and Volume Based on a Sphere. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (3): e33895 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033895; ...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson and cultural critic James Panero attacked the metric system as a relic of the French Revolution and a bad way of measuring things in the real world.

Turns out it’s not that simple. According to Marciano, there was a window in the mid-1970s when America was totally primed to go metric. President Ford signed an order, even.

Metric units have conquered the globe, but in the US and the UK, their presence has become part of a culture war between “traditional” and “progressive” values. This is an extract from ...