Whatever happened to the metric system? : how America kept its feet

Summary: 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?

Record details

ISBN: 1608199401
ISBN: 9781608199402
Physical Description: print
310 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 21 cm
Edition: Paperback edition.
Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury, 2015.
Copyright: ©2014

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-300) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

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 -- Appendix A. U.S. customary and metric measures -- Appendix B. Customary metric measures.