The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank a treaty signed 150 years ago for the metric system that underpins daily life. On May 20, ...

On May 20, 1875, the so-called Metre Convention was ratified in Paris. With this agreement, the signatories undertook to support meters and kilograms in science and research as well as in economic ...

Select an option below to continue reading this premium story. Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading. Until the late 1700s there were no standard units. After ...