Metric System - History of Metrics

What was the problem with using things like hands, feet, and grains to measure?

• It makes things difficult

• It is not exact

• It is easier

What historical event was pivotal in the adoption of a unified measurement system?

• French Revolution

• The 1918 Flu epidemic

• The 1846 Potato Famine

• World War 1

What defines our current ‘standard’ for one meter?

• The distance equal to 1/10,000,000 the distance between the Equator and North Pole

• The length of a pendulum arm that takes 1 second to swing from left to right

• The distance light travels in a tiny fraction of a second

• The distance a 1 kilogram object travels in one second when acted on by a force of 1 newton

Putting the new system into use was easy

• True

• False

What country was France's rival and at first, resisted switching to the metric system? 

• Portugal

• Britain

• Netherlands

Myanmar, Liberia, and the  _____ have still not fully adopted the metric system

• Australia

• China

• United States

The metric system is universally used in __ and medicine.

• education

• banking

• law

• science

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the metric system?

•  

  It has been officially adopted by every country around the globe

• It helps to streamline trade between different countries

• It provides a common language to discuss scientific data