Title:
Whatever happened to the metric system? : how America kept its feet / John Bemelmans Marciano.
Author:
Marciano, John Bemelmans, author.
Publication Information:
New York : Bloomsbury, 2015.
©2014
Call Number:
QC92.U6 M37 2015
Abstract:
The American standard system of measurement is a unique and odd thing to behold with its esoteric, inconsistent standards: twelve inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, sixteen ounces in a pound, one hundred pennies in a dollar. For something as elemental as counting and estimating the world around us, it seems like a confusing tool to use. So how did we end up with it?
Edition:
Paperback edition.
ISBN:
9781608199402
Physical Description:
310 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 21 cm
Contents:
The day the metric died -- Thomas Jefferson plans -- American Paris -- Metric systems -- The decimation of everything -- Napoleonic measures -- Lighthouses of the sky -- The internationalists -- A universal coin -- The battle of the standards -- Standard time -- A toolkit for the world -- The Great Calendar Debate -- Shocks to the system -- A metric America -- Isolated -- U.S. customary and metric measures -- Customary metric measures.
Personal Author:
