Decimal metric system
Sistema métrico decimal
- Date
- 1795 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- French Academy of Sciences and National Convention
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
A system of units with multiples and submultiples of ten with prefixes, based on the metre (one ten-millionth of the meridian quadrant) and the gram (mass of one cubic centimetre of water). The law of 18 Germinal Year III (7 April 1795) adopted it in France.
The Academy proposed the system in 1791; the definitive standard was fixed in 1799. The obligation to use it was slow, and Napoleon suspended it in 1812 (reinstated in 1837).
What it led to
- the metric system adopted almost worldwide
- the Metre Convention (1875) and the International System of Units
- an end to the multiplicity of local units in trade and science