How Does Having Control Over Units of Measurement Give Someone Power?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The patron pon kusma is a unit of measurement roughly equivalent to six miles. The poltron consumer is basically how long it takes for a rain dear to walk before they need to go for a little lubrak. And an old irish unit called the collop, uh, which is the amount of land needed to graze a single cow. It's a unit that incos ods information about the world. We have this deep connection between political sort and defining units of measurement.

When reports surfaced that Boris Johnson would be announcing the return of imperial measurements to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, there was some celebration, consternation, and a lot of confusion. Britain already uses a mix of both imperial and metric, and it is legal to price goods in pounds and ounces if this is displayed alongside the price in grams and kilograms. So what’s really behind this rekindled debate over units? Science editor Ian Sample speaks to author and metrology historian James Vincent about the rise of metric, the enduring political power of measurement, and why it’s unlikely we’ll be getting rid of pints in pubs any time soon.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod