Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet

The intriguing tale of why the United States has never adopted the metric system, and what that says about us.

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 to the 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?

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