By Tens and Tenths Metric Measurement Hannah Stevens

Earliest Standards Span, palm, digit, foot King Henry I: yard Bishop Charles Maurice de Talleyrand – 1790: swinging pendulum French Academy of Sciences – Meridian arc

Metric Prefixes Greek – – – gigameter megameter kilometer hectometer decameter = 1, 000, 000 meters = 1, 000 meters = 1000 meters = 10 meters = 1 meter Latin – – – decimeter centimeter millimeter micrometer nanometer =. 1 meter =. 01 meters =. 000001 meters =. 00001 meters

The System Design – Kilogram = liter – Grade vs. Radian a = s/r 1875: Treaty of the Meter

International System of Units (SI) Length Mass Time Electric current Thermodynamic meter kilogram second ampere Kelvin m kg s A K mole mol candela cd temperature Amount of substance Luminous intensity

The Meter Redefined 1960 – 1, 650, 763. 73 x wavelength from krypton-86 1983 – Distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299, 792, 458 of a second

Metrics in the US 1866 law legalizes use Treaty of the Meter Metric Conversion Act of 1975 Other countries: – Liberia – Myanmar

Conversions 1 US gallon = 3. 79 liters 1 US quart = 0. 95 liters 1 US pound = 0. 45 kilograms To convert temperature: – Celsius = (5/9)*(Fahrenheit – 32) Metric mile = 1. 5 kilometers

Sources Berlinghoff, William P. and Fernando Q. Gouvea. Math Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and Others. Farmington, ME: Oxford House Publishers, 2002. International System of Units from NIST. October 2000. NIST. 27 Jan 2007 http: //physics. nist. gov/cuu/Units/index. html.