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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Nick van Remortel demystifies natural unit systems — and advises what to do when you see a mass expressed in GeV. Several unit systems for describing the natural world exist. The International System ...

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 ...

The International System of Units (SI Units), adopted in 1960, is the global standard for consistent measurement, replacing disparate systems. It has 7 base si units and all other units are derived ...

Deluged by responses to his request for your favourite units, Robert P Crease discovers that non-SI units persist, and are sometimes even popular, among the physics community Setting the standard ...