A lot of people wonder how the Metric system came into being. It has a
long history, dating back to the time when the Romans were establishing the
city of Carthage on the Nile River in Egypt. Because of the differences in
measurement systems between the Roman engineers who were building
structures like the Parthenon, and the Egyptian engineers who were building
pyramids like the temples at Luxor (not to be confused with the temple of
Angkor Wat at Chichen Itza), there was much confusion and it was realized
that a standardised system of measurement would help. So with the help of
Antony Caesar and Cleopatra, the scholars of the day created a system of
standards which could be used internationally.
Unfortunately this system was lost when the Roman civilization collapsed.
However, years later in Egypt, French troops under Napoleon dug up a large tablet or
monument, now known as the Rosetta Stone, which gave the measurements of
various different items in 3 different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs,
Greek, and Latin. It was therefore an easy matter for Rennaissance
scholars to create a table of conversion factors. The scholars were headed
by the famous abbey, Bernard de Metrier, or in English, Bernard of
Metricia. Hence the system that they worked out was named the Metric
system in his honour.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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