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The Long and the Short of It: How We Came to Measure Our World

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We’ve always measured the world around us, from how big things are, to how fast they go, how much they’re worth and practically everything in between. But who decided how we do it, and why?

The Long and the Short of It takes us back in time to discover the origins and evolution of a huge variety of different units of measurement. On the way it answers such questions as:

Why do we measure time in units of 60?
How do you determine the height of a mountain when sea level keeps changing?
Why did ...