![\"Liverpool](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/07160520\/sei228729712.jpg\")
<\/div>Liverpool fans jostle for a look at the on-field VAR screen at Anfield stadium<\/p>\n
Alex Dodd \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
If you have watched any football<\/a> \u2013 or soccer \u2013 over the past few years, you will know that the game has been consumed by controversies over its new refereeing technology. The video assistant referee (VAR)<\/a> system was introduced to the English Premier League in 2019 to reduce refereeing errors and get more decisions right. Instead, it has created new kinds of uncertainty and undermined our understanding of fundamental rules like offside and handball. It has also infuriated fans, who can often be heard chanting \u201cit\u2019s not football any more\u201d after a long-winded VAR check.<\/p>\n It is fair to say that football fans like to get irate, especially when refereeing decisions go against their team. But as I argue in my new book, I Can\u2019t Stop Thinking About VAR<\/em>, there\u2019s more to this than meets the eye. As someone whose job involves developing new methods of measuring educational attainment, I have thought long and hard about the reasons why VAR has been so frustrating. I believe its problems relate to the challenge of pinning down objective reality<\/a>, the difficulty of precise measurement and the human dislike of uncertainty<\/a>.<\/p>\n What I have also come to realise, however, is that VAR exemplifies the limits of rationality<\/a> in many walks of life far beyond the football field. As such, a brief exploration of the history of measurement<\/a> more broadly\u00a0\u2013 from attempts to pin down the boiling point of water in the 18th century to the struggle to accurately assess the\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n