Metric System of Measurement
Measurements in early days were based on human body parts. Man used various methods to measure the length, weight and height of various things. Gradually, various other types of measurements were discovered such as volume, diameter, area etc. The eighteen century witnessed the usage of many different units of measurement across different nations of the world. For example, length would be measured in hands, inches, feet etc. The inequality in units also hindered many scientific developments since two nations did not follow the same system of measurements. Thus, there were no common standards which led to much confusions and ineffectiveness of trade between nations.
By the end of eighteenth century, the French government decided to solve this chaos by establishing standards that could be used worldwide. The French National Assembly, in 1790, attempted to design a system of units that was based on decimals. They named that system as Metric System. It was later, in 1960, officially named as ‘Systeme International d’Unites or SI System. The base units defined in it were the meter (m) for length, kilogram (kg) for mass, second (s) for time, ampere (A) for electric current, Kelvin (K) for thermodynamic temperature, candela (cd) for luminous intensity, and mole (mol) for quantity of matter. 2 supplementary units called the radian (rad) to measure planes and steradian (sr) to measure solid angles were also identified.
The Metric system of measurement is one of the most widely used measurement system of the world. It is the official system of measurement for all scientific purposes. The metric system is also known as MKS or CGS system. MKS stands for Meter, Kilogram and Seconds while CGS stands for Centimeter, Gram and Seconds. They are the base units of length, weight and time of any object or event (for time).
If we look at the common prefixes that are used under the Metric system, we will get to know the reason why this system is also called the Decimal System.
- Kilo is 1,000 unit multiples
- Hecto is 100 unit multiples
- Deca is 10 unit multiples
Then you have the base unit
- Deci is .1 unit multiples
- Centi is .01 unit multiples
- Milli is .001 unit multiples
Thus, a kilometer would be equal to 1000 meters while a hectometer will be equal to 100 meters and so on. Thus, it is called Decimal based system since the unit multiples are all multiples of 10. Hence it makes the conversion of one unit to another very easy. It is all about shifting the decimal places!
The Metric system of measurement is highly significant in its usage in the field of scientific measurements since they involve huge numbers. Representing them in multiples of ten is easier than placing so many zeroes in the numbers. Thus everything gets written in powers of ten as 10^1 = 10, 10^2= 100, 10^3=1000 and so on. The exponent number to which 10 is raised is the number of decimal places after the decimal point. So 57, 00,000 can be written as 5.7 x 10^6 since number of decimal places after 5 is 6.
Ever thought how difficult our lives would have been if these standards of measurement were not taken into consideration? It would have been utterly impossible to make the astounding discoveries about the earth or any scientific invention! So pay attention when your mathematics professor is delivering a lecture on Metric System, you will gain a lot!!
- P. Asha Ritu
Tags: measurement, metric, metric system of measurement, units
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