The week of Oct. 10 – that's 10/10 – is National Metric Week because the metric system is based on powers of 10.

All countries use the metric system to varying degrees. Most of the world has adopted the metric system as their official system of measurement with one major exception: the United States.

Fast-forward to 1975, and Congress, along with President Gerald Ford, established the U.S. Metric Board to help the country gradually transition to the metric system.

Students are introduced to the metric system. Introduction to Chemistry continues with a discussion of the Metric System: length, mass, volume, time and temperature are defined, and students learn ...

France adopted these official standards in 1799. Over the next two centuries, the Metric System, or The International System of Units (SI) as it’s now officially known, took over the world.

In the 1790s, piracy of a ship carrying metric standards intended for then-U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson played a role in America's decision to not adopt the metric system.

While most nations use the metric system—those units of decimals that are universally employed in science—the U.S. still clings to pounds, inches, and feet.