On 09/09/2009 09:42 AM, J. Clarke wrote:

On what "science" is it based? What research was conducted to show that the
units selected for the Metric system were of greater utility than other
units?

I suspect none. However, it was invented by scientists who tried to
come up with logical and practical standard units.

On the other hand, having used both it is much easier to carry out unit
conversions with the metric system. Certain physical constants work out
nicely in metric:

-a liter of water masses almost exactly 1kg
-the force due to gravity on earth of 1kg is very close to 10 newtons
-a 1 meter pendulum has a period of very close to 2 seconds
-standard atospheric pressure is very close to 100 kPa
-speed of light in vacuum is very close to 3x10^8 m/s


I do find it interesting that since 1893 the inch and pound are actually
defined in terms of metric values. Thus, an inch is defined as 25.4mm,
while the pound is defined as 0.45359237 kilogram.

Chris