The Unexpected Benefits of the Metric System

having its roots in the 1600s the metric system was developed in revolutionary France although slow to take off at first its adoption increased steadily after France made the system compulsory in 1840 today it is the system of measurement in many parts of the world and throughout the global scientific community for this reason it might be better to ask why there are still some countries like the u.s. Mayan maar and Liberia and in some circumstances the UK that still use Imperial measurements but what is it the metric system is defined by the merriam-webster dictionary as a decimal system of weights and measures based on the meter and on the kilogram great but why is it important to answer this it is useful to explore the system's history before the metric system was devised many countries and even regions within a country had their own units of measure they were in theory at least based on similar units feet inches pounds gallons etc but tended to vary widely in practice there was no standard foot or gallon while trade was primarily localized this was not necessarily a problem but as the world became more interconnected and global trade flourished it soon became necessary for some standards of measure to be developed this was especially true as the Age of Enlightenment dog and philosophers a term which included scientists argued the need for standardized measurements to make communication easier one of the first such standardized systems was proposed by an English cleric called John Wilkins in the 1600s Wilkins proposed a unit of length called the standard which was the length of a pendulum that had a half beat of one second his units of area and volume were the square and the cubic standard and his proposed unit of mass was the mass of a cubic standard of rainwater two years later a French clergyman gabriel mouton proposed a unit of length based on one minute of Arc of a great circle of the earth this is now the measurement of a nautical mile motown also developed a system for naming the multiples and divisions of the basic unit of length this idea of standardization was an innovation at the time however the time was not yet right for the introduction of a new system while some other prominent historical figures like Thomas Jefferson would also propose similar systems it was the political and technological changes stemming from the French Revolution in the 1790s that would make a new system possible in 1790 in the midst of the French Revolution the National Assembly of France requested that the French Academy of Sciences create a standard for weights and measures the Commission was appointed sponsored by the Bishop of altoon who is better known as Talleyrand the commission was tasked with creating a unified logical system of measurements that was as French philosopher the Marquis de Condorcet described for all people for all time this system would be defined by measurements derived from nature rather than arbitrary dictates the French Commission took a very scientific approach while developing their system of measurements and by the middle of the 1790s the concept of the metre and the kilogram were established one committee recommended a decimalised measurement system based on a length equal to one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the Earth's meridian the distance between the equator in the North Pole the measurements for volume and mass were derived from this unit of length the basic unit of mass the gram was defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water at its temperature of maximum density the leader was defined as the volume of a cubic decimeter the Commission also decided to make the system base 10 that is larger and smaller multiples of each unit would be created by dividing the basic units by 10 and its powers this made the system much easier to use than previous systems which required division by 16 to convert ounces to pounds or 12 inches to feed the French Revolutionary Government officially adopted the new system in 1795 but it would take some time to disseminate around the world in fact France herself would only make it compulsory in 1840 in 1875 an international agreement known as the convention of the metre set up international standards for metric length and mass as well as permanent mechanisms to make refinements in the metric system this agreement sometimes called the Treaty of the metre was signed by seventeen countries including the United States Chafee said an important part of his platform is getting the us to finally adopt the metric system let's join the rest the world and go metric it's a metric crowd all right from 1893 these metric standards have also served as the fundamental measurement standards of the United States the non-metric units in common use are actually defined in terms of the metric standards in 1960 the General Conference on weights and measures made up of the nations which had signed the convention of the metre adopted a simplification of the system seven units the metre the kilogram the second the ampere the Kelvin the mole and the Candela were established as base units for the system the revised system was named the system international D unit A's international system of units older measurements like the gallon would continue in some areas but now back to the question at hand as we have seen the metric system is quite simply a more systematic approach to measuring things for this reason the metric system proved to be a relatively easy concept to adopt and replicate the standardization of the system also made comparing measurements between things very simple and coherent not only that but as units of different things like volume mass or distance were all interrelated it was much easier to calculate and convert between them for engineering in the sciences this has proved to be incredibly powerful from the atomic realm to the universe as a whole the same units of measure albeit at varying orders of magnitude apart can now be used to the metric system

Channel: Interesting Engineering

Views: 23,496

Keywords: engineering, science, technology, metric system, measurement system, imperial measurements, meter, kilogram, measure unit, standardized measurements, unit of length, volume, mass, distance, imperial system, metric system vs imperial

Id: bdT3GlcA5D0

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020