Dear All,
Over the years, I have had a number of enquiries along the lines of:
'Who invented the metric system? And when did they do it?' Usually
these have come from students who are running late to hand in an
assignment for their school or college.
Here is a sample question that I found on Yahoo (I have lightly edited
the spelling and punctuation):
When and who invented the metric system? I need a definite answer!
I've been looking around for a while and I still can't find a definite
answer on who invented it and when it was invented. I've already tried
wikipedia, so please don't tell me to try it, or to google it. It
always comes up with different answers.
Over the last few days I have had a chance to check the internet
resources on how this question is asked and how it is answered and I
was not impressed with what I found. The questioner above was correct
— the internet came up with many different answers to what seems to be
a very simple question.
I guessed that there must be many frustrated students (and perhaps
teachers) who try to answer this question so I decided to write an
answer to this question and to post it on the website at metrication
matters website at http://www.metricationmatters.com/who-invented-the-metric-system.html
I would appreciate any thoughts and comments you might have to improve
this answer.
Cheers and Happy New Year to you all,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
