Today (April 7th) on Metric System Day, we stumble into step with the rest of the world and calculate all manner of measurements according to the metric system. It’s a challenging adjustment to make, especially if your high school science class days are well behind you.
For those who may benefit from a refresher, the metric system was developed during the French Revolution by the Assemblee Constituante as a solution to the diverse measurement systems unhappily coexisting throughout Europe. The units in the various systems tended to have the same names, but none of them measured the same amounts. Instead of taking sides and advocating the use of one system over the rest, France decided it would be best to come up with a completely new system.
Over time, the entire world has come to accept this measurement system based on units of ten, except for the United States, Liberia, and Burma. The U.S. uses United States customary units (the foot, the inch, and so on), Burma has its own system of measurements, and our sources were surprisingly mum regarding Liberia’s measurement system. All three countries do, however, use the metric system for things like international trading.
Even so, when working within the international community, it’s best to specify which system of measurement should be used. NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter in 1999 because one team did a very important calculation according to the metric system and the other team used United States customary units. Whoops.
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