Ever wonder why America sticks to inches and pounds? Turns out, pirates played a surprising role in keeping the metric system ...

The US almost adopted the metric system—but a ship carrying the official standards was intercepted by pirates. That’s right, pirates may have changed the course of American measurement forever.

The metric system was officially adopted in France on December 10, 1799. Government proclamation was one thing, but practical use was another. Many people preferred their old customs of measurement.

The US lives in a metric gray area. It has a few laws requiring that consumer goods list both metric and US customary measures, but it still remains isolated in its US customary measures bubble.

In the 1790s, piracy of a ship carrying metric standards intended for then-U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson played a role in America's decision to not adopt the metric system.

A tourist takes pictures with a thermometer display showing temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, or 54 degrees Celsius, at the Furnace Creek Visitor's Center at Death Valley National Park in ...

Uncle Sam versus the metric system Jason Schneider. While most nations use the metric system—those units of decimals that are universally employed in science—the U.S. still clings to pounds ...

The great metric conversion obviously never happened, and it’s now I-19 that stands out as anomaly. This is the only stretch of continuous highway in the U.S. where road signs, markers, and exit ...

Samuel Arbesman reviews "Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet," by John Bemelmans Marciano.