On 6/29/2012 12:36 PM, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>> ok ....trivia quiz...
>> >The origin of the dimension 'one foot' comes from the length of the
>> >king's foot I believe.
>> >What is the origin, or definition of, the meter ?
>> >Where did they derive that dimension from ?
> Well, that was a certain fraction of the distance from the north to the south poles along a particular line of longitude.  I forget both the fraction and the line of longitude.  The modern meter is the wavelength of a certain color of light emitted from the most common isotope of tungsten heated to a particular temperature.  Nice, handy references.  But, for those stuck on the English system of measurement, we just need to remember that a meter is 39.37 inches, or a tad more than a yard.
>
> Got your rods and furlongs straight?  How about cups and bushels?  I like the metric system myself.
BINGO !   ..the award goes to the gentlemen in  the Fedora hat.
That is the answer I was looking for.  Somewhere I read it's 10 million
meters from North to South poll..........or something like that.
Definitely based on dimension of the earth originally.

and sure ..it has since been defined as so many wavelengths of a certain
color of light.

Rods I don't know about ,
furlongs somewhat.
what about the hectare ? I think that's metric.
Both systems have merit, neither is 'better all the time.'

you would prefer to buy motor fuel in liters ?
Would you prefer to express fuel economy in liters per 100 km ?

VW had a goal to make a 'one liter' car.
That's a car that will travel 100km ( 62.1 miles  ) on one liter of fuel
( just a bit over a qt ) .
They did too.
worked out to 268 mpg or something like that.
I think the car is in VW's museum now.  They did that perhaps 10 years
ago.  It was a two person, tandem seating, small displacement perhaps 3
cylinder turbo diesel.  Totally google-able I'm sure.

next time you report on your fuel economy - the metric system is
requested ! lol.

so great to see your knowledgeable answer.