Researched
Metric System
France defines the metre and the kilogram from nature with decimal multiples (1791-99); the SI grows from it into the common language of science and trade.
Open in the interactive tree →After the Revolution the Academy of Sciences defined the metre as one ten-millionth of the distance from pole to equator, measured by Delambre and Méchain in 1792-98, with platinum prototypes deposited in Paris in 1799. The Metre Convention of 1875 made the system international, and almost every country uses the SI today. Shared units made experiments, machine parts and trade comparable across borders.
Prerequisites
- State & Administration~3000 BC
- Weights & Standard Measures~2500 BCThe metric system replaced a patchwork of local weights and measures with one standard
- Geometry (Euclid)~300 BC
- Enlightenment & Encyclopedia1715-1789