Gregory Peterson wrote in USMA 11858:
>Bonjour Louis,
>
>I had heard that the metric calendar was not popular with the church
>because of the 10 day week and therefore 3 more days between worshipping
>days. Thus when the calendar was abandoned so was decimal time.
>
>I agree with your last comment. The metre and the kilogram, and the gram,
>work fine for me. It all depends on how familiar one is with their common
>uses.
>
>I fine the gram as a base unit is perfect in my molecular biology lab. I'm
>sure the original designers of the metric system were taking into account
>not only the shipping industry's needs but those of the apothecaries,
>jewellers, and precious metalsmiths when they decided on the grams. Grams
>are to kilograms as grains (the base unit for both the avoirdupois and
>troy masses) were to pounds.
>
>greg
>Saskatoon SK Canada
>
>>>> Louis JOURDAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-03-26 05:48:02 >>>
>>If they
>>had also retained the original mass unit (grave = 1 kg), instead of
>>switching to the thousand-times-smaller gram,
The reason that the unit of mass has the prefix "kilo" is that the metric
system originally had "milli" as its smallest prefix. The evolution was as
follows:
Académie des Sciences Décret du 1er août Décret du 7 avril SI
1792 1793 1795
---------- ----------- ----------- ---------
millier bar -- mégagramme
-- décibar -- --
-- centibar myriagamme --
grave grave kilogramme kilogramme
décigrave décigrave hectogramme hectogramme
centigrave centigrave décagramme décagramme
milligrave gravet gramme gramme
-- décigravet décigramme décigramme
-- centigravet centigramme centigramme
-- milligravet milligramme milligramme
The above is based on "Le Système Métrique", 1975, by H, Moreau.
>if the decimal time had been so appealing to people, why did it not
>survive more 7 months (from 22 September 1794 to 7 April 1795) ?
Primarily because the rest of the world uses a 24-hour day. Als with a
decimal day an 8-hour shift becomes a 3.333-hour shift.
>>most of our metrication difficulties would be solved. It is ironic
>>that the principal defects of SI are the metric base units.
>
>May I disagree ? The metrication difficulties you experience do not
>stem from the "deficiencies" of SI. This is a bad excuse.
>
>Louis
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
