Who 'Invented' Metric 2

[friartuck]

Does any body know how 'metric' came about.

I think the metre was supposed to be the circumference of the earth divided by 100,000 or something like that. But where did the kG come from and the Celcius.

We seem to have a real mish mash of units and knowbody sticking to them.

For instance, we have the kW for power as well as HP (Horse Power) and PS (Pferdestarke) which is a 'metric' horse power...(How can you have a metric horse power.)

I know that there is a thread on Metric already, but I don't think it was clear on who started it all. Any clues out there?

Sorry if this question has been raised already.


Friar Tuck of Sherwood

 

[rb1957]

welease wodger

 

[friartuck]

I bet you thought this topic had died a death, well, I've been thinking (I think real slow----just like the trees on Lord of the rings I hear you say)

I suppose metric makes sense since we have ten fingers. There isn't much logic to counting in twelves is there?? (Or is there?)

Friar Tuck of Sherwood

 

[IRstuff]

But you're looking at it after the fact.

Start with the basic unit of 1 ft. That had some rough correspondence to a body part that's always with you, as opposed to the tape measure that's either at home or in another room.

Now you want a smaller unit, so maybe you use the length of the big toe or the thumb. It then turns out that there are roughly 12 of those to the foot.

The fact that you have 10 fingers is irrelevant, because the basic unit had a requirement to be something commonplace, and ideally, with you all the time. One-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole is unrealistic and unmanageable at the personal level.

TTFN

 

[notnats]

It's a shame we weren't born with 12 fingers. A base 12 number system has factors of 1,2,3,4,6 and 12, or more correctly, 1,2,3,4,6 and 10

 

[25362]

Notnats, what do you infer from the fact that Jesus had 12 disciples, and Israel 12 tribes ?

 

[IRstuff]

And:
12 signs of the Zodiac
12 animals in the Asian calendar
Minutes arranged as 12 groups of 5
12 hours in a half-day
12 months in a year

TTFN

 

[notnats]

I don't know, 25362. Are you implying that Jesus and Moses had 12 fingers?

 

[25362]

Notnats, when referring to the 12 tribes, although Moses guided them out of Egypt it was Jacob who was credited with their being born. Somehow, I entertained the illusion you'd find a divine nexus in the number 12 because of the biblical connotations.

 

[ewh]

Why only ten commandments?

 

[rb1957]

boy, have we ever strayed from the OP !

 

[notnats]

I'm not a symbologist. This is moving into Dan Brown's area.

 

[cadcoke5]

Friar Tuck asked about advantages to 12 instead of 10.

The common use of numbers like 12 or 16 to divide units predate the use of 10.

Despite the metric claim of 10 being more intuitive because of having ten digits on our hands, I think 12 is more intuitive. This is because people think in terms of halves, not 10th. This also

The question ,"Is the glass half full?" is never presented as, "Is the glass .5 full?" Also, dividing an inch into half, half again into 1/4, etc is very natural.

Since the metric system came from France (and the metric unit based on a measurement of the earth through France) it was an alternative to Great Brittan's world standard. I think the main motivation for metric was political, not scientific or an effort to unify units.

Joe Dunfee

 

[Skogsgurra]

We had a king once (Charles XII of Sweden) that was going to introduce 12 instead of 10 as a basis for the number system. He got killed in action and we still have 10. Like all other countries.

Cadcoke, there is a very practical reason for measuring the Earth's quadrant the way the French did it. The measurement was done along a stretch of land that included Finland, the Baltic states, Prussia, Germany, France, Spain etc. It simply wasn't practical to do precision measurements across open water, which would have been necessary if England was included in the chain. Nothing political there.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[TChronos]

Surprisingly, base 12 originates from an ancient method of finger counting, first documented in Babylon, but probably much older. No, they didn't have more fingers back then. If you examine your fingers, you will see that each finger is divided into three joints. Using your thumb as a pointer, and each joint of each finger as a counter, you can count to 12 on one hand. Using the other hand to accumulate, and you easily see why numbers like 60, 360, and 144 come up so often in measurement systems.