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 ...

Taking the first steps of what would be a major historical advance in the science of measurement, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is participating in a worldwide effort to ...

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 ...

The Imperial Measurement System, originated in Britain in 1824, is now primarily used by only three countries: the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. Defined by non-decimal units like inches, pounds ...

As ever more digital data is created and stored, the world needs more unit measurements to keep up with the ever-expanding numbers. To do so, the 27th General Conference on Weights and Measures on ...

Scientists have approved the introduction of four new prefixes that can be applied to units of measurement in the metric system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...

Balancing act The two systems of measurement – imperial and metric – are often used together in UK shops. (Courtesy: iStock/Paolo Paradiso) When I was at primary school in the 1960s, measurements were ...

In the age of big data, it is time to ensure that units are routinely documented for easy, unambiguous exchange of information. Robert Hanisch is the director of the Office of Data and Informatics at ...

If you’re from the US or are trying to understand American units of measure, there’s now an easier way to do that with Uniter. This is a new iPhone app that can convert measurements in real-time in ...