What Is the Origin of Meter?

The word meter is derived from the Greek "metron," which means "a measure."

In 1790, during the height of the French Revolution, the French National Assembly set about the task of establishing a linear measurement system that was divisible by the number 10. Though not enacted until 1840, the system that was devised is still called the metric system and contains a basic unit of length, known as the meter.

Metric Originator

The design of the metric system for linear measurements can be traced back to 1670, when Gabriel Mouton, the vicar of St. Paul's Cathedral in Lyons, France, devised a new measuring system. At the time Gabriel determined that a meter would be based on one minute of arc on the surface of the earth, which is the same thing as a nautical mile.

Surveyors

After the report of the French commission, two men, Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre, were assigned the task of measuring a geographic arc and finding the true value of a meter, which had been theoretically determined as one 10-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. After six years and several trips to jail courtesy of unfriendly nations, the two men arrived at the data that they needed. The result was then recorded in platinum and preserved as a standard measurement.

The Metric System Spreads

Adopted by France in 1840, the use of the meter has spread to every country on the planet, as of 2010, except the United States and Myanmar. Within the metric system the meter can be subdivided into centimeters and millimeters or expanded to kilometers. Overall, It takes 1,000 meters to make a kilometer, 100 centimeters to make one meter and 100 millimeters to make one centimeter. One meter is close to the English measurement of one yard.

References

• Colorado State University: Origin of the Metric System
• Texas Agricultural & Mechanical University: The Metric System