1795-1995 Bicentenary of the Decimal Metric System
On the National Convention of France decreed the new “Republican Measures” to be legal measures in France. The units of measurement included the metre, are, litre, and gram; and the prefixes centi, deci, deca, hecto, and kilo. This was the decimal system of measurement units or the decimal metric system that has survived practically unchanged as the basis of the modern International System of Units, or SI for short.
A tous les temps; A tous les peuples
[For all time; for all peoples
]
Comparison
Take the following tests to see why the decimal system is simpler:
Why Decimal?
- Question
-
Which column would you rather add?
Customary Units
1 yard, 2 feet, 31/4 inches
1 foot, 113/16 inches
2 feet, 51/2 inches
3 yards, 1 foot, 65/8 inches
? yards, ? feet, ? inches
Metric Units
1.607 metres
0.589 metres
0.749 metres
3.216 metres
? metres
- Hint
- The two sums are the same.
- Answer
- 6 yards, 2 feet, 29/16 inches; or 6.161 metres
Why Decimal?
A room measures 15 ft 33/4 in by 21 ft 71/2 in (4.667 m by 6.591 m).
- Questions
- What is its floor area in square yards?
- What is its floor area in square metres?
- Answers
- 36.79 sq yd
- 30.76 m2
Why Decimal?
In designing a calendar you wish to divide an area of 71/4 in by 11 in (184 mm by 279 mm) into 35 rectangles;
that is you wish to divide 71/4 in by 5 and to divide 11 in by 7.
- Questions
- What are the dimensions of each rectangle in inches?
- What are the dimensions of each rectangle in millimetres?
- Answers
- 129/64 in by 137/64 in
- 36.8 mm by 39.9 mm
View a PDF version of the this page.
Last updated: