I'M LONGER THAN YOU!

With a free lunch on the line, Supersaurus and Blue Whale submit to being measured by Inchworm to see who’s longer.

Unsurprisingly, complications ensue. No sooner does Inchworm finish laboriously spanning Supersaurus than the time comes for the invertebrate to go off and change into a moth. Centipede arrives to measure Blue Whale, but the newcomer delivers a result in metric units rather than Inchworm’s customary ones. So how to tell who’s the longer monster? Enter Dragonfly, standing in for the author to propose a solution: “You can change inches to centimeters WITH MATH!” Going for maximum volume in both the dialogue and the exuberantly drawn art, Fisher concocts a rollicking lesson in using units of measure. Having led the clueless leviathans through the simple calculations to reconcile the results (cleverly beginning with figures that allow the answer to come out in whole numbers), Fisher leaves the giants behind to squabble over whether their pizza should be topped with ferns or krill. The author goes on to introduce each member of the cast by name—and, of course, length—and to expand on the metric and customary systems while introducing some outliers like the “zeptosecond” and “barleycorn.”

Fun beyond measure.