Why doesn’t the U.S. use the Metric System? Pirates. In the late 1700s, the U.S. had no standardized system—each state used ...

The metric system vs. imperial system debate has raged on for years, but is one truly better? From NASA losing a $328 million spacecraft due to a conversion error to ...

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

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 ...