The Metric System is a decimal system of measures and weights, based on
the meter as its unit, which originated in France during the last decade
of the eighteenth century, and has since been adopted by the greater
number of States in Europe and America. In the United States its use was
authorized in 1866 by Act of Congress. The length of the _meter_ was
intended to be one ten-millionth part of the distance from the equator
to either pole, measured at the level of the sea, but it is in reality a
trifle less. All other units for measuring and weighing are derived from
it, and the higher or lower denominations of the same kind of measure
are obtained by multiplying or dividing its unit by tens, and prefixing
to its name the Greek numerals, _deka_ 10, _hekto_ 100, _kilo_ 1000, or
_myria_ 10000, for the higher denominations, and the Latin numerals,
_deci_ 1/10, _centi_ 1/100, or _milli_ 1/1000, for the lower. The unit
of weight, called the _gram_, is theoretically the weight in vacuo of a
cubic centimeter of distilled water at the temperature of maximum density
assumed to be 4° C. or 39° 1 Fe.
Including the meter and gram, five units have been adopted in the metric
system, viz.:—
1. The Meter, the unit of length, = 3.280899 feet = 39.37079
inches.
2. The Are, the unit of surface, = 1 square dekameter =
119.60332 square yards.
3. The Liter, the unit of capacity, = 1 cubic decimeter =
0.26418635 gallon = 1.0567454 quarts.
4. The Stere, the unit of solidity, = 1 cubic meter = 35.336636
cubic feet = 1.308764 cubic yards.