The History of the Metric System

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The human body is more or less consistent in size. It is always accessible your units. And this brings us to the metric system. I think it was about standardizing this huge array of units the people were using in france in the eighteenth century, which were causing their fair share of problems themselves. They want one king, one law, one weight and one measure, because they had up of being cheated.

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