And a meter wasn’t arbitrary. It was intended to be 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator.
= = =
Nice even base-10 number, but I think that “from the North Pole to the Equator” is arbitrary.
Soon we will learn it is based on some kind of white supremacy.
Yes, that was the intention, but I believe later measurements proved them to have gotten it wrong. It was a good try at consistency.
Here is something, though - most (all?) metric units are related to all the others. Using the “flawed” meter, one cubic centimeter of water at the temperature that makes it most dense (just before freezing, I think) is defined as a milliliter (volume). It is also one gram (mass). So, all the units are inter-related. Please note that a US “pound” is a weight, or force and not a mass, which makes all kinds of difference in physics and engineering calculations...
Anyway, I’m OK with metric, but prefer US units. I’m an engineer, and numbers don’t bother me. I can see how the competing systems could really frustrate people.
Well, that was a pretty good ramble. Hope you weren’t too bored. Guess it’s time to see if Rush in on-air today...