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Sure it doesn't but interestingly enough the article does not go into its roots. In France after the Revolution the Metrical or Decimal system of measures was i
by yannis 15y ago
Sure it doesn't but interestingly enough the article does not go into its roots. In France after the Revolution the Metrical or Decimal system of measures was introduced. The fundamental standard adopted was that of a quandrant meridian; This quandrant was divided into ten millions of equal parts, and one parts or divisions was called the Metre, which was adopted as the unit of length and painfully measured by triangulation by M.M. Delambre and Mechain by measuring an arc of the meridian between the parallels of Dunkirk and Barcelona!
- cromulent 15y agoI think you will find that the roots of latitude predate the metric system by quite a long way. They are quite different topics.
- yannis 15y agoThey do but with the metric system it was the first time since the Greek stadia that an earth measure was used to define units of measurements as compared to the body (feet, inches etc). They are a bit of a recursive topic, each defining each other in a way (besides geometry calculations, which are totally theoretical).
- cromulent 15y ago> the first time since the Greek stadia that an earth measure was used to define units of measurements as compared to the body (feet, inches etc) I'm not so sure this is accurate. Miles based on the length of a degree at the Earth's meridian were used widely during that interval.
- yannis 15y agoThere is no need to downvote. The Romans were the first to use the unit of long distance mille passuum (literally "a thousand paces" in Latin, where each pace was two steps) and hence back to the human body! (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man).
- cromulent 15y agoThat specific mile you are talking about is not one of the examples I am talking about. Have a look at nautical miles, sea miles, and geographic miles and you will find they were based on the Earth at times during that period. Apparently the Chaldeans used an Earth-based "mile" also.
- mturmon 15y agoActually, your fact above seems unrelated to the point of the OP, which is purely geometrical and in no way involves meters or miles. It sounds more like you want to tell the story of the original definition of the meter.
- vorg 15y ago> It sounds more like you want to tell the story of the original definition of the meter Give the guy some latitude.