History of the Metric System

History of the Metric System 

1. Do you remember some of the different ways in which we can measure length?
2. Our hand, Our arm or Our feet
3. Of course, the problem here is that people's hands, arms and feet are of different lengths. For centuries, people tried to find a single or standards measure that would be the same everywhere. 
4. Finally, in 1791, a new standard unit was agreed upon. It was not like any of the earlier units. It was to be: One ten-millionth of a quarter of a circle on the earth, passing through Paris and through the North and South Poles. 
5. In 1789, a revolution took place in France. The new government wanted a modernize the country and expand trade. But the existing units of measurement differed from province to province and even from town to town! How could modernization possibly take palace?
6. In 1793, a special name, meter, was given to this unit of length. Meter is a French word adapted from the Greek word metron, meaning measure. But, of course, the meter was not very useful for measuring small lengths or long distances. So smaller and bigger units- all based on the meter- were introduced. These made use of the decimal system. The smaller units were tenths, hundredths and thousandths of a meter. while the larger units were multiples of 10 (100, 1000 and so on). The units for measuring weight and capacity were all based on the meter. In this way, the metric system came into being.