Since 1984, running events in the Olympics have been timed in hundredths of seconds because of electronic timing devices.

The United States is the only developed country that does not use the metric system for its principal units of measurement.

Almost all scientific measurements are made using metric units. The metric system is based on the decimal system (units of 10) and follows a consistent naming scheme using prefixes.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spent $125 million on a spacecraft that flew 416 million miles over 9 1/2 months before crashing on Mars. The spacecraft crashed due to a contractor’s error in converting pounds of force into another unit of force called newtons. One newton is the amount of force required to accelerate 1 kilogram of mass 1 meter per second each second.

Many cars and trucks require metric tools for maintenance.

One square centimeter (1 cm² ) is about the size of your little fingernail.

The mass of one cubic centimeter (1 cm³⁾ of water at standard temperature and pressure is 1 gram.

The US Conventional System of Measurement is a modified version of the British Imperial System, which is no longer in use.

As of January 1, 2000, it is a criminal offense in Great Britain to sell most packaged and loose products using imperial measures (inches, pounds, and so on). One exception is precious metals.

One of the few British Imperial units of measure that remains in world-wide use is the barrel, primarily for oil.