Origin of the Metric System

[+ Avalon]

http://www.us-metric.org/origin-of-the-metric-system/

 

Most historians agree that Gabriel Mouton, the vicar of St. Paul’s Church in Lyons, France, is the “founding father” of the metric system. He proposed a decimal system of measurement in 1670. Mouton based it on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle of the Earth (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters). He also proposed the swing-length of a pendulum with a frequency of one beat per second as the unit of length (about 25 cm). A pendulum beating with this length would have been fairly easy to produce, thus facilitating the widespread distribution of uniform standards. Over the years, his work was revised, improved, and extended by a number of French scientists.

 

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A problem that I have had with the Metric System is that I thought that it arose out of the French Revolution. But I see now it goes back a century earlier during the Ancien Regime.

 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Mouton

Edited September 23, 2018 by Avalon

[mike carey]

The origin is largely irrelevant now, it came into vogue in the revolution, and SI just makes sense. The multiples of 10 being the biggest factor in its favour. If the imperial system were based entirely in base 60 (the way time and degrees of arc are) that would be understandable, but weights that go 16oz = 1 lb, 112 lb = 1 hundredweight, 2240 lb = 1 ton, and lengths that go from inches to feet to yards to furlongs to miles are crazy. An acre is what, 43,560 square feet or a chain by a furlong (10 square chains) and a hectare is 100m by 100m.

[+ Avalon]

The origin is largely irrelevant now, it came into vogue in the revolution, and SI just makes sense. The multiples of 10 being the biggest factor in its favour. If the imperial system were based entirely in base 60 (the way time and degrees of arc are) that would be understandable, but weights that go 16oz = 1 lb, 112 lb = 1 hundredweight, 2240 lb = 1 ton, and lengths that go from inches to feet to yards to furlongs to miles are crazy. An acre is what, 43,560 square feet or a chain by a furlong (10 square chains) and a hectare is 100m by 100m.

 

Here in the USA our ton is 2000 pounds

[mike carey]

Here a tonne is 1000kg.

[+ Avalon]

, Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State presented a report on weights and measures to the U.S. House of Representatives. Even though all the weights and measures in use in the United States at the time were derived from English weights and measures, his report made no mention of the stone being used. He did, however, propose a decimal system of weights in which his "[decimal] pound" would have been 9.375 ounces (265.8 g) and the "[decimal] stone" would have been 5.8595 pounds (2.6578 kg).[41]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_for_Establishing_Uniformity_in_the_Coinage,_Weights,_and_Measures_of_the_United_States

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/28/574044232/how-pirates-of-the-caribbean-hijacked-americas-metric-system

[mike carey]

Before the SI was introduced here, the stone (14lb) was the weight measure (it was mass, to be precise) used for people, we never weighed people in pounds. I knew I weighted 13 stones but had no idea that that was 182lb. I now know I am about 83kg, but still have no idea how much that is in pounds.

[+ Gar1eth]

Before the SI was introduced here, the stone (14lb) was the weight measure (it was mass, to be precise) used for people, we never weighed people in pounds. I knew I weighted 13 stones but had no idea that that was 182lb. I now know I am about 83kg, but still have no idea how much that is in pounds.

 

182.6 pounds

 

Gman

[mike carey]

182.6 pounds

 

Gman

Lol, touché! I can work it out too. I meant that saying 'weight 180lb' does not convey to me an idea of how big a person is in the way that 80kg does, or even 14 stone still does