From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-Id: <200312142156.hBELuUl22380@augusta.math.psu.edu>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] /lib/units
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 14 Dec 2003 02:02:21 +0100."
             <00f101c3c1dd$ee8df600$89844051@SOMA>
From: Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 16:56:30 -0500
Topicbox-Message-UUID: a2635d18-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

"boyd, rounin" <boyd@insultant.net> writes:
> dunkirk (iirc) to barcelona -- 7 years of work (spanning the
> revolution) -- 'defined' the metre.

As in, the Meter (sorry, I'm American) was defined as some fraction of
the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona?  I thought it was originally
something like 1/10000 the distance from the equator to the north pole
or something that attempted to be equally independent of political
entanglements (not knowing, at the time, that that distance changes
ever-so-slightly over time).  I suppose it's much better than the Cubit
(hey, the king died again!  Time for a new unit of measurement!)

	- Dan C.