The Metric System Origin: Liberty, Equality, Meter

Before the late 1700s, France was a mess of measurement. One town used a "foot" that was 12 inches, the next town used a "foot" that was 11 inches. Merchants were constantly cheating peasants.

The Revolution

When the French Revolution toppled the monarchy in 1789, they wanted to wipe out all traces of the old regime—including the chaotic measurements. They sought a system based on nature, not kings.

Defining the Meter

Scientists defined the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, passing through Paris. It took astronomers seven years to measure this arc of the Earth. While they made a slight error (the Earth isn't a perfect sphere), the Meter was born, and with it, the decimal-based system we use today.