In other words, the French introduced not only national standards, but a system of standards. It survives today as the metric system.

While most of the rest of the world uses the metric system (formally known as the International System of Units, or SI), the United States uses the U.S. Customary System, which—fun fact—is ...

‘The metric system did not really catch on in the States,” humorist Dave Barry once joked, “unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.” There, in one pithy ...

It’s the American Way. Lengthy investigation suggests that this is about the only explanation for why the United States as a whole evades the metric system while most of the rest of the world ...

In the meantime, a new system of weights and measures, developed by French scientists following the Revolution of 1789, gained increasing international use. This metric system had as its fundamental ...