#330 | A Short History of Measurements
English Learning for Curious Minds
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How to Standardise Distance and Weight
In the early 1700s, French peasants felt cheated by merchants and aristocrats. A demand to standardise weights and measures was high on the agenda in 1789. The metric system came from an urgent need to solve this problem as well as a more idealistic motive which had to do with the Enlightenment. This movement was spearheaded by two highly regarded men, astronomers Jean-Baptiste de L'Omme and Pierre-Méchamps. They decided that the metre should be the length of the meridian divided by 10 million.
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