David Crowder, age 11, of Charleston, W.Va., for his question:
WHERE DID THE METRIC SYSTEM COME FROM?
Early systems of measure were based on personal items. Henry I of England established by royal decree that the yard be 36 inches long the distance from the tip of his nose to this thumb. The foot is now 12 inches long, but it used to fluctuate as a measure of the human foot. Each region of the old world developed its own system of weights and measures a most unsatisfactory system.
At the end of the 18th century, French scientists came up with a scientific system of weights and measures called the metric system. The system is much simpler than our present standard of measurement, and it has been accepted in many parts of the world.
Probably at some time in the not too distant future, the metric system of measurement will be used in every part of the world.
The meter, which comes from the Greek word (ital) metron (unital) which means measure is 39.37 inches long. Reckoning is then done on the decimal method: the meter is divided into 10 parts and each of those into 10 still smaller parts, and so on. Our money is now reckoned in this way: a dollar is made of 10 dimes, a dime is made of 10 pennies and there are 10 mills in a cent.
When you divide a meter into 10 parts, you get a decimeter: divided into 100 parts gives you a centimeter and into 1,000 parts produces a millimeter. Work it back again: 10 millimeters make a centimeter, 10 centimeters make a decimeter and 10 decimeters make a meter.
You have new words when you increase the size: 10 meters is a decameter, 10 decameters is a hectometer and 10 hectometers make one kilometer.
The same prefixes that are used with the word meter to indicate smaller and larger units are also used with liter and gram. A centiliter is one hundreth of a liter while a kilogram is 1,000 grams.
The unit of area is the square meter; the unit of volume is the cubic meter. The liter is the unit of capacity a liter of anything is the amount that is contained in a measure 10 centimeters long by 10 centimeters wide by 10 centimeters deep.
Since France accepted the metric system in 1795, all countries of any importance with the exception of the United states and the Commonwealth have officially adopted the metric system. Our scientists, however, do use the metric system and it is also creeping into other areas of our living.