The Most Stupid, Unscientific, Measuring Unit
- This unit is supposed to be defined by the wavelength of light, and that is derived from the speed of light. But, the speed of light kept changing, so they decided to set it. So, it is not longer based on any real world measurable thing.
- This unit was supposed to be 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the poles to the equator. But the guy measure the distance across France by triangulation, made in error in math, that was never fixed.
- The universe is base 12. Many scientists have noted this, but this unit was set in a base 10, because it was easy for people to convert, because our number system is base 10. Which makes is useless for actually dealing with real scientific measurements.
This unit is the meter.
The hype is that it is scientifically based. But it isn't.
The Imperial measuring system has units that are based on human dimensions. So, every one of its increments is meaningful to humans.
The metric system has nothing that is meaningful to humans. The centimeter is to large for precise measurements, and too small for rough measurements.
Fortunately, people will realize how bad it is, and go back to inches and feet.
The early years of this fiasco.
The metre was supposed to be defined as 10,000 km from the pole to the equator. However, the guy who did the surveying, measure the distance across France via triangulation, made an error. So, instead of the earth being 40,000 km around it is actually 40,007.863 km. Oh well, close enough, right?
The big problem is that the arcs are measured in degrees. 360 degrees around a circle. 40,000 / 360 = 111.1111111. Well, is that useful? Or just made what was supposed to make things mathematically easier, made it really difficult instead?
After the guy measuring found his error, he wanted to call it out, but the people pushing for the metre decided not to, because they were already having trouble getting the metre accepted.
What a sad state.
The later years
The meter was decided to be set to a specific length that all scientists could measure. Using the speed of light. Which is used to determine the wavelength of light. Which the meter is defined as a function of.
However, if you look at very old science text books, you will find a table of constants. And, if you compare the speed of light over many books, you will find it changes. Right up until they decided to set it.
Instead of taking many measurements over the year and over the Earth, and then averaging them, the Metrological Society decided to set it. Because Einstein's theories said that the speed of light was constant. So, of course they couldn't have the speed of light changing.
So, the metre which is supposed to be based on the speed of light, is now based on what the Metrological Society decreed. Oh well.
The universe is base 12
12s, 6s, 4s, and 3s come up all over the place when studying the world.
5s rarely come up. It is just what we have devolved to. And it wasn't always so. We have 4 fingers and a thumb. And many societies of old, just used 4, or 12 (the number of joints on the fingers of one hand.)
And the metre's one claim to fame is that it is easy for school children because it is base 10, while we use a base 10 counting system.
You may wonder why the metric-clock never caught on. (yes, they tried to introduce a base 10 clock) And the reason is, that there is a lot of meaning having the day divided into 12 and the night divided into 12. The minutes divided into 60 make for an accuracy that works well in navigation.
Music is base 12. A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
And cannot be defined in base 10. Well, as long as you want harmonies, you can't.
Every unit of the Imperial system has meaning. Human defined meaning. Of course this means you get 5,280 feet per mile. And other odd definitions. But, feet and miles have actual meanings, related to the human.
So, it is very probable that we will revert to the Imperial system.
However, the move to the metric system has died, even if it is being pushed everywhere, by secret cabalistic forces, has reached its limit.
And when scientists actually start doing science again, they will agree that the universe is in base 12, and will drop the metric system.
And, after the scientists drop it, it will lose its "scientific" claim to fame, and the rest of the world will start to drop the metric system.
And if we all start using a base 12 counting system, because we need to learn it for science, then the metric system will be seen to be extremely difficult to teach children.