He spoke of distances in metres and kilometres, and it took me a while to understand that this was not an affectation so much as a driving need to convert units of measurement more or less instantaneously.

NEWYORKER: Midnight in Dostoevsky

One, Mars Climate Orbiter, had a particularly humiliating crash, because the fault lay with a group of engineers who, in defiance of common sense, had continued to use imperial units of measurement in their calculations when all around had adopted the metric system.

ECONOMIST: Exploring Mars

When teaching numeracy, the facilitators focus on teaching numbers and the idea of quantity, grouping and interpretation of measurement units, arithmetic operations, special forms and orientation, and content interpretation, such as reading tables and graphics.

UNESCO: Country Profile: Chile