How Did We Arrive At Our System Of Measurement?

In every country there is a system of measuring weight, volume and quantity. For carry-ing on trade, it is necessary. It is required even for exchange. The weights and measures of one country may not necessarily be same.

In the United States the measures we use came sown from England and are called “the English system of measures”. The United States and England are the only countries that use the English weights and measures.

The units of measurement in this system come down to us from ancient times. Most of them grew out of simple, practical ways of measuring. In ancient Rome to measure length people used a man’s foot as a standard. The width of a finger or the length of the index finger to the first joint, was the origin of the inch (25 mm).

A yard (120 cm) was measured with the length of a man’s arm. One thousand paces (double step) was used for long distances and became a mile (1.6 kilometer). These were not the exact ways of measuring. At one stage of time in Roman Empire there were 200 different lengths for the foot (30 cm). In the United States in colonial times, the measuring units varied from colony to colony.

It is important that units of measurement must be uniform, in the modern times. The congress was given the right to fix the standards of weights and measures. In Washington, D.C., the Bureau of Standards keeps the standard units of measure. There is a platinum bar, kept carefully guarded, which is used as a standard for measuring length. The correctness of all other measuring units can be checked by comparing them with the standard units in Washington.

For adopting a uniform, international system of measures and weights, it would probably be the metric system. In the year 1789, it was worked out in France. It is used in most of the countries over the world now. The metric system is based on a meter. A meter measures 39.37 inches. This system is based on 10. In this system each unit of length is 10 Hines as large as the next smaller unit.