I consider myself pretty conversant in metric units. I know that 20 kilograms is 44 pounds (double it and add 10%) and that five kilometers is a little over three miles (I’ve, uh, run a lot of 5Ks).

Temperature in America is measured in degrees Fahrenheit, a system named after Polish-born physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), who moved to the Netherlands and became one of the pioneers ...

The Kelvin (K), named after British physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), is the thermodynamic temperature unit in the International System of Units (SI). It is derived from the third law of ...