Why the Metric System Matters

Before the Middle Ages, most countries used the same measurement system

• True

• False

NASA crashed a spaceship into Mars because they used the wrong conversion units

• True

• False

What historical event was pivotal in the adoption of a unified measurement system?

• The 1918 Flu Epidemic

• The French Revolution

• The 1846 Potato Famine

• World War I

What defines our current ‘standard’ for one meter?

• The length of a pendulum arm that takes 1 second to swing from left to right

• The distance equal to 1/10,000,000 the distance between the Equator and North Pole

• The distance light travels in a tiny fraction of a second

• The distance a 1 kilogram object travels in one second when acted on by a force of 1 newton

The word meter derives from a Greek word that means:

• Global

• Stride

• Hearth

• Measure

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the metric system?

• It helps to streamline trade between different countries

• It has been officially adopted by every country around the globe

• It provides a common language to discuss scientific data

• It is based on measurements from the world itself and not arbitrary standards

What circumstances during the French Revolution permitted the metric system to gain a foothold?

Why hasn’t the United States of America switched to the metric system yet?