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 ...

Many measurement systems were developed as civilisation evolved. The imperial system is nothing if not quirky. Readers may recall that a rod, pole or perch equals 5½ yards or 16½ feet, with 40 rods to ...

Humans have a need to quantify things. And sometimes the usual measurements — feet, meters, grams — are not good enough. Or funny enough. Sometimes you need to express things in bananas, Helens, or ...

Here’s a handy chart of the units of measure we use all the time for electronic quantities. Note that the unit itself is lower case, the person it is named for is, of course, cap/lower case, and the ...

The metric system is on track for a mass makeover. In an effort to provide accurate measurements at all scales, scientists are preparing to redefine four basic units by the end of 2018. The shift will ...

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 ...

The NIST-4 Kibble balance, an electromagnetic weighing machine that is used to measure Planck's constant, and in turn, redefine the kilogram. Jennifer Lauren Lee / NIST Locked in a vault that requires ...