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New Book Says The Meter Is all Wrong

Posted by timothy on from the humane-fahrenheit-inhuman-celcius dept.

Bill Klemm writes "Ken Alder's new book 'The Measure of All Things' scandalizes the metric system as 'arbitrary.' CNN has a little article about a new book that explores the 'odyssey' of Delambre and Mechain to find the perfect unit of measure."

2 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Arbitrary doesn't matter... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who cares about the actual size of the Meter. Of course it's arbitrary. All units of measurement are arbitrary....

    All I want is a system that allows easy conversion to other units. None of this 2 cups to a quart; 4 quarts to a gallon, a dozen gallons to a bushel and a peck....

  2. Re:The correct measuring scale by KnightStalker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is fine, but then the problem occurs that you discover your original measurements were wrong, (or just inaccurate) but the old lengths are by now established. You then will have to redefine your everyday unit of length" as 1.28462341 * 10 ^ 12 hydrodgen-atom-widths (or whatever) and it's become just as arbitrary as the meter.

    --
    * And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."