The 17th-century Roots of the Metric System

The second part of Percy Fawcett's story delves into his fascination with a document known as Manuscript 512 and how it impacted his life. His obsession led to his disappearance; there has been endless speculation about what exactly happened. Research: Biello, David. “Ancient Ama ...  Show more

Fawcett’s life has invited controversy and speculation, because he was a man who did a mix of great and shady things. Part one covers his early life, marriage, military service, and early visits to South America. Research: Biello, David. “Ancient Amazon Actually Highly Urbanized. ...  Show more

Why is the United States so culturally opposed to the metric system? According to a popular legend, this conundrum dates back to the late 1700s, when a French polymath named Joseph Dombey sailed to Thomas Jefferson with two crucial artifacts: a rod measuring exactly one meter, an ...  Show more

Why do Americans measure things in inches and pounds while the rest of the world uses centimeters and kilograms? The answer becomes clear when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the future clashes with a band of marauding pirates. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz ...  Show more

Modern life would be impossible without standardised measurements.  

In this episode, we look at the development of measurements through history, explaining they evolved over time and why some succeeded where others failed. 

Melvyn Bragg discusses the epic feud between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over who invented an astonishingly powerful new mathematical tool - calculus. Both claimed to have conceived it independently, but the argument soon descended into a bitter battle over priority, p ...  Show more