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A Brief History of the Metric System

From Revolutionary France to the Constant-Based SI

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Carmen J. Giunta

    1. Department of Chemistry, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, USA

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  • Overviews the historic evolution of the metric system from its birth
  • Presents the roles of constants of nature in the formulation of the 18th-century metric system
  • Discusses the role of the metric system in the United States

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science (BRIEFSMOLECULAR)

Part of the book sub series: History of Chemistry (BRIESFHISTCHEM)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction: Decimal Ideas Before Revolutionary France

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 1-11

  3. Reform of Weights and Measures in Revolutionary France

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 13-30

  4. Metrication in France and Beyond: The Meter Goes International

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 31-39

  5. The Système International D’Unités (SI) of 1960

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 41-53

  6. Changes in the SI from Its Introduction (1960) to the Explicit-Constant Revision (2019)

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 55-67

  7. The Metric System and the United States

    • Carmen J. Giunta
    Pages 69-78

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 79-81
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Keywords

About this book

This book succinctly traces the history of the metric system from early modern proposals of decimal measures, to the birth of the system in Revolutionary France, through its formal international adoption under the supervision of an international General Committee of Weights and Measures (CGPM), to its later expansion into the International System of Units (SI), currently formulated entirely in terms of physical constants. The wide range of human activities that employ weights and measures, from practical commerce to esoteric science, influenced both the development and the diffusion of the metric system. The roles of constants of nature in the formulation of the 18th-century metric system and in the 21st-century reformulation of the SI are described. Finally, the status of the system in the United States, the last major holdout against its everyday use, is also discussed.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Chemistry, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, USA

    Carmen J. Giunta

About the author

Carmen J. Giunta is professor of chemistry emeritus at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where he taught from 1990 through 2019. He is a physical chemist by training, having earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard in 1989 working with Roy G. Gordon. He has been active in the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry since the late 1990s. He is editor of the Division’s journal, the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. His interest in units and their history led him to serve for a decade on the ACS Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols. During that time he organized a symposium on the history of units (2011 ACS Spring National Meeting) and published papers in the Journal of Chemical Education on the mole and the redefined International System (SI) of units and in Substantia on names of units. He is co-editor with Vera V. Mainz and Gregory S. Girolami, of 150 Years of the Periodic Table: A Commemorative Symposium (2021) in Springer’s Perspectives on theHistory of Chemistry series.

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