In prehistoric times, not much needed to be measured. You ate what you found and lived where you could. The advent of agriculture and civilization, however, necessitated a way for people to measure ...

Wondering why the United States measures things in inches and pounds? The answer will definitely surprise you All countries use the metric system to varying degrees. Most of the world has adopted the ...

I was at the supermarket recently when I took note of something my eyes had passed thousands of times before. The cans of my favorite sodas were 12 ounces, while the bottles were 2 liters. It caught ...

If scientists had sacred objects, this would be one of them: a single, closely guarded 137-year-old cylinder of metal, housed in a vault outside of Paris. It is a prototype that precisely defines a ...

Why is calibration important? How calibration techniques have changed over time. A timeline showing the evolution of calibration from the beginning would have to start hundreds of years ago (Fig. 1).