Here’s a good trivia question: What are the only 3 countries in the world that do not use the metric system? Everybody knows the good ol’ hard headed USA is in there, but the other two? How about ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American I’ve met a lot of people and learned a lot ...

Many measurement systems were developed as civilisation evolved. The imperial system is nothing if not quirky. Readers may recall that a rod, pole or perch equals 5½ yards or 16½ feet, with 40 rods to ...

In prehistoric times, not much needed to be measured. You ate what you found and lived where you could. The advent of agriculture and civilization, however, necessitated a way for people to measure ...

You know kilo, centi, and milli, but how about ronto? Four new metric prefixes got the official stamp of approval last week at the 27th General Conference on Weights and Measures held at Versailles, ...

The metric system's governing body has added some new terms to help describe massive amounts of data. The General Conference on Weights and Measures last week added the prefixes "ronna" and "quetta." ...

A mural of a 30-meter-long blue whale covers the basketball court at Santa Barbara Charter School. (Courtesy photo) Santa Barbara Charter School has secured a $5,000 grant from the Santa Barbara ...