May is a month full of celebrations—everything from May Day and Cinco de Mayo to Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Largely forgotten in the cornucopia of May celebrations, however, is National Metric ...

Walter Block argues that “Canadians Hate the Metric System” imposed on them in 1975 (op-ed, Sept. 16). In the same year, reacting to the Metric Conversion Act, Americans resisted metrics. For example, ...

William Holdorf’s amusingly vehement reaction against the metric system (“A foolish U.S. push to go metric,” Voice, Jan. 3) illustrates the very American habit of flaring our individualism at the ...

When former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced he was joining the 2016 Democratic primary race, some people scratched their heads when he said switching to the metric system would be one of ...

The metric system is used in 95 percent of the world. The United States is among the few countries that doesn’t use this system. In a globalized world, countries don’t have to convert between each ...

Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world’s hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook and Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter. For better or worse, the United States remains one of only three countries ...

We’ll blame Thomas Jefferson. Oh, not entirely; there are more than 200 years’ worth of criticism to dole out. But in wondering why the United States is not entirely on the metric system, the blame ...

When I asked in a tweet: “Has anyone got any genuine reasons why imperial is better than metric?” – I had over 2,000 replies in just over 24 hours. Did it help me make up my mind? One argument for ...