metric system

A staff member sorts through fresh produce at British supermarket chain Morrisons last month in Leeds, United Kingdom.

World News

The U.K. Left The EU, And Now It's Inching Away From The Metric System Too

6:25pm September 17, 2021

by Scott Neuman

Boris Johnson's government is eyeing a move to allow shop stalls and supermarkets to use only imperial units in all transactions, ditching a metric requirement from when the U.K. was in the EU.

Forged in 1879 and sanctioned by the General Conference on Weights and Measures at its first meeting, Le Grand K, the international prototype of the kilogram, has been kept under lock and key in a vault outside Paris.

World News
Science

Say Au Revoir To That Hunk Of Metal In France That Has Defined The Kilogram

5:02pm November 13, 2018

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

A small cylinder called Le Grand K has defined the kilogram for more than a hundred years. But if a scratch ever rendered it lighter, the definition of the kilo literally shifted. Time for a change.

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This 1793 grave is an early version of the kilogram. It is possible this object, now owned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology museum, was once pirate treasure.

Science

How Pirates Of The Caribbean Hijacked America's Metric System

4:39pm December 28, 2017

by Joe Palca

In 1793, French scientist Joseph Dombey boarded a ship bound for the United States carrying with him a standard kilogram weight. Thanks to pirates, he and the weight never arrived.

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