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In this week\u2019s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand why Americans say \u201cmath\u201d, while New Zealand - and most of the rest of the world - says \u201cmaths\u201d. He speaks to Dean Koorey about the mysteries of language, before stumbling into the depths of math/maths and the perils of the metric system. How many ounces in a pound? How many pounds are in a stone? And why is America stuck using the imperial system when the rest of the planet loves the sensible metric system? Farrier is shocked to find that NASA once lost a space probe thanks to a metric conversion disaster, and meets with aerospace engineer Omar Abed to get to the bottom of the mess.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices