Cole: Two things. Other than scientific expeditions, the future is unlikely to take humanity to Mars (for a huge number of reasons, which I won't go into here).
Second, the original basis for the meter is of historical interest, but no longer relevant with respect to its length. It was never very accurate to begin with, as it varies, depending on which meridian one chooses. (The Earth is an oblate spheroid, but not a perfectly smooth one.) Today, we recognize that the pole to equator distance is simply "about 10 Mm." The current definition of the meter is the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. For most purposes, we can rely on a measuring device (ruler, tape measure, rangefinder, micrometer, vernier gauge, etc.) that has been calibrated against a physical reference meter (based on one of the several platinum reference meters in existence). However, for precise scientific purposes, the light speed-based definition is necessary. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 17:28 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:29526] Metric System on Mars > > > >To USMA listserv subscribers: > >Here is a hypothetical question I would like to pose: > >If the meter is 1/10 000 000 the longitudal distance between the >north pole and the equator of the planet Earth; and > >If the future takes humanity to Mars; > >Then would we develop a seperate metric system based on a meter >having a length of 1/10 000 000 the longitudal distance between >the martian north pole and its equator (which whould be 53.208 cm)? > >I would like to start a dialouge on this interesting thought! > >-----Thanks!----- > >Cole Kingsbury >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >---------------- >
