Who Decided That?: The Strange Origins of 100 Everyday Rules, Objects, and Systems

Why does February have fewer days? Why does a keyboard begin with QWERTY? Why are traffic lights red, yellow, and green? And who decided an hour should contain exactly sixty minutes?Most of the rules and systems around us feel inevitable only because they were already here when we arrived.Who Decided That? explores the surprising stories behind 100 ordinary things we rarely stop to question-from clocks, calendars, measurements, and language to technology, transportation, food, money, social customs, and the design of everyday objects.Discover how ancient counting systems still control your clock, why countries ended up driving on different sides of the road, how familiar symbols became standards, why common objects have their peculiar shapes, and which popular origin stories are much less certain than they sound.Each question is answered in a short, clear, entertaining explanation designed to deliver one satisfying realization: So THAT'S why.Open it anywhere. Read one question or twenty. The ordinary world may never look quite so ordinary again.