1. The Metric System 1 “We are making miles and miles of progress toward the metric system” “We are making miles and miles of progress toward the metric system” Gerald Ford

2. 2 To begin at the beginning…..

3. The Metric System By the eighteenth century, dozens of different units of measurement were commonly used throughout the world Length, for example, could be measured in feet, inches, miles, spans, cubits, hands, furlongs, palms, rods, chains, leagues, and more The lack of common standards led to a lot of confusion in between countries.

4. Cont. In 1790, the French National Assembly commissioned the Academy of Science to design a simple decimal-based system of units. The system they devised is known as the metric system. In 1960, the metric system was officially named the Systeme International d’Unites (or SI for short) and is now used in nearly every country except the United States.

5. 5 Thomas Jefferson was intrigued by the metric system and strongly advocated the use of decimal-based measures But he only got half of what he wanted...

6. METRIC MONEY That is, money based on the decimal system 6

7. BUT we insist on keeping the archaic inch-pound measurement system based on... 7

8. fractions of an inch... 12 inches to a foot…. 3 feet to a yard…. 5.5 yards to a rod... 320 rods to a mile... 43,560 sq ft to an acre... 8

9. 9 16 ounces to a pound... 12 ounces to a pound... (troy) 4 quarts to a gallon... 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon…

10. inch-pound METRIC SYSTEM Exceptions: Liberia and Myanmar While the U.S. continues using inch-pound measures, almost all the other countries has adopted the METRIC SYSTEM Exceptions: Liberia and Myanmar 10

11. The Metric System11

12. Now the metric system is all around us: 12

13. We buy soda in liters... We by film in millimeters... We run 10 km races... (in fact, all U.S. track and field events are in metric units) We swim in 25 meter pools... We watch metric Olympics... 13

14. The entire U.S. automobile industry is metric... All pharmaceuticals are metric... as is the entire health care industry 14

15. Also metric: The liquor industry Most farm machinery and heavy equipment The machine tool industry Most electronics All medicine All science 15

16. SI Base Units of Measurement Mass – the gram; g 1 gram Length – the meter; m Volume – the liter; L The Metric System16

17. Metric Prefixes giga-, G – x10 +9, or billions mega-, M – x10 +6, or millions kilo-, k – x10 +3, or thousands centi-, c – x10 -2, or hundredths milli-, m – x10 -3, or thousandths micro-, µ – x10 -6, or millionths nano-, n – x10 -9, or billionths pico-, p – x10 -12, or trillionths The Metric System17

18. In science classes, be fully metric.