THROUGHOUT MUCH of human history, man has been the measure of many, if not all, things. Lengths were divided up into feet, palms, spans and smaller units derived from the human hand. Other measures were equally idiosyncratic. Mediterranean traders for centuries used the weight of grains of wheat or barley to define their units of mass. The Roman libra, forerunner of the pound, was 1,728 siliqua (carats), each the weight of a carob seed (possibly because they were thought, erroneously, to be less...
The kilogram and three other metric units are about to be revamped
The Economist - 15 Nov 2018 17:49
THROUGHOUT MUCH of human history, man has been the measure of many, if not all, things. Lengths were divided up into feet, palms, spans and smaller units derived from the human hand. Other measures were equally idiosyncratic. Mediterranean traders for centuries used the weight of grains of wheat or barley to define their units of mass. The Roman libra, forerunner of the pound, was 1,728 siliqua (carats), each the weight of a carob seed (possibly because they were thought, erroneously, to be less...
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