Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants

by James Vincent

The following year, opinion polls showed that the majority of Americans were opposed to the adoption of the metric units, and the project was happily scrapped by President Ronald Reagan, another scalp in his administration’s programme of budget cuts. Despite this official rebuff, the US is definitely much more metric than it first appears. After all, the federal government has relied on metric units to define feet, pounds, and ounces since 1893,52 judging metric standards to be the product of an unimpeachably rigorous scientific process. Many commercial products in the US list measurements in both metric and customary units, the better to appeal to international markets; numerous industries are metric, like automaking and pharmaceuticals; and the US military is mostly metric, to better work alongside international forces. Nevertheless, since the 1970s any legislative attempts to go metric have failed conclusively, and it’s clear that cultural objections are as potent as ever.