The Metric System
The Good, Bad and the Ugly France (1786) ( France wants to be the center of the universe, as usual ) When the French Revolution came around, a bunch of French intellectuals ( oxymoron ) were sitting around “DOING” measurements. These intellectual types aren’t sitting in labs or making things, they’re just drinking wine and looking at measurements. At the time it was decided that the metre ( French spelling ) should be one Ten Millionth the measure of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along the Paris meridian. Baa! Baa! Baa! In order to reinforce their theory on where the center of the universe is located, they made a metal pole called the “Official Meter Rod” (The pole was made with platinum-iridium alloy with two hairline markings indicating the length of the official meter, when the pole is at 0 deg. Celsius) ( A lot of wine went into the creation of this pole ) About the time the French adopted the Metric System, sentiment in the US was pro-F...