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Measuring The World

Chion Wolf

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Tucker/Where%20We%20Live%2011-14-2011.mp3

“A pint’s a pound, the world around.” Except...what’s a pint? And, for that matter, what’s a pound?

Here in America, we take for granted our feet, our inches, our Fahrenheit temperatures...we even watch our pounds.

But, leave this country, and it’s pretty clear we’re on an island - an island the rest of the world would measure in meters...an “international standard” that we’re still resistant to.

Today we’ll take the measure of the world of weights and scales, yardsticks and stones with philosophy professor Robert Crease. His new book is called “World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement.”

We’ll find out why we’re still struggling to figure out how to measure our world. We’ll look at wrangling over an international standard...and Robert Krulwich considers the “smoot.”

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