The metric system
The metric system is an international decimalized system of measurement, first adopted by the National Convention of France on April 7, 1795.
The Convention, members of which were greatest French scientists (Condorcet, Laplace, Monge), decided to carry out an experiment in order to define units of length and mass.
A metre, a unit of length, was defined as the basic unit. It determined all other units including mass (one kilogram was equal to one cubic decimeter of the distilled water at the temperature of 4°C).
It was an important decision to form multiples and submultiples by multiplication or division by ten.
One metre was originally defined as 1⁄10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and Earth’s equator as measured along the meridian passing through Paris. The first prototype of the standard metre was made of brass in 1795. In 1799 a platinum prototype of the metre was produced. After that the standard metre was redefined for several times.
At the same time France made an attempt to start using the decimalized system to measure angels (it was suggested that the right angel should be divided in 100 degrees) and even time but those suggestions were rejected.
The metric system became very popular in Europe at the time of Napoleon`s Conquest. Russia and the UK stayed aside.
In 1875 seventeen countries including Russia signed Metric Convention that provided the international unity and improvement of the metric system. According to the law issued on June 4, 1899 Russia began to use the metric system and on September 14, 1918 the Council of People’s Commissars decreed to make the metric system obligatory.
In 1960 the International Bureau of Weights and Measures standardized a set of unit prefixes, known as SI prefixes (The International System of Units). It was based on the Metric system; the metre became its basis.
Today metre defines as the distance travelled by light in free space in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second .
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