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Whatever Happened to the Metric System?

Whatever Happened to the Metric System?

How America Kept Its Feet

by John Bemelmans Marciano
Paperback
Publication Date: 15/09/2015

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The system of measurement for most of the world is the metric system, and for a time in the 1970s the United States appeared ready to switch from American standard measurement. The reasons it never happened get to the root of who we think we are, just as American measurements are woven into the ways we think. John Marciano chronicles the origins of measurement systems, the kaleidoscopic array of standards throughout Europe and the thirteen American colonies, the combination of intellect and circumstance that resulted in the metric system's creation in France in the wake of the French Revolution, and America's stubborn adherence to the hybrid United States Customary System ever since. As much asWhatever Happened to the Metric System? is a tale of quarters and tenths, it is a human drama, replete with great inventors, visionary presidents, obsessive activists, and science-loving technocrats.

Anyone who reads this inquisitive, engaging story will never read Robert Frost's line "miles to go before I sleep" or eat a foot-long sub again without wondering, Whatever happened to the metric system?

ISBN:
9781608199402
9781608199402
Category:
History of mathematics
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
15-09-2015
Language:
English
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Country of origin:
United States
Dimensions (mm):
211.58x140.21x22.35mm
Weight:
0.32kg
John Bemelmans Marciano

John Bemelmans Marciano, like his grandfather Ludwig Bemelmans, is a talented artist as well as a writer of both adult and children's books.

As he carries on the Madeline legacy, John faithfully evokes the style and spirit of the original Madeline books, while adding his own unique stamp to story and pictures. His previous Madeline books include Madeline at the White House, Madeline and the Cats of Rome, and Madeline Says Merci. He is also the author of The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfiled, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.

John grew up on a horse farm in Three Bridges, New Jersey, and attended Columbia University in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Andromache, who is a set designer, and their daughter Galatea.

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