History of measurement

With development of manufacturing technologies, and the growing importance of trade between communities and ultimately across the Earth, standardized weights and measures became critical.

Starting in the 18th century, modernized, simplified and uniform systems of weights and measures were developed, with the fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science of metrology.

An interesting example of this is the comparison of the dimensions of the Greek Parthenon with the description given by Plutarch from which a fairly accurate idea of the size of the Attic foot is obtained.

The earliest known uniform systems of weights and measures seem all to have been created at some time in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, and perhaps also Elam (in Iran) as well.

When it was necessary to compare the capacities of containers such as gourds or clay or metal vessels, they were filled with plant seeds which were then counted to measure the volumes.

Before the establishment of the decimal metric system in France during the French Revolution in the late 18th century,[2] many units of length were based on parts of the human body.

The carat is a unit for measuring gemstones that had its origin in the carob seed, which later was standardized at 1/144 ounce and then 0.2 gram.

When weighing of goods began, units of mass based on a volume of grain or water were developed.

The diverse magnitudes of units having the same name, which still appear today in our dry and liquid measures, could have arisen from the various commodities traded.

The larger avoirdupois pound for goods of commerce might have been based on volume of water which has a higher bulk density than grain.

The division of the circle into 360 degrees and the day into hours, minutes, and seconds can be traced to the Babylonians who had a sexagesimal system of numbers.

[9] In 1790, Thomas Jefferson submitted a report to the United States Congress in which he proposed the adoption of a decimal system of coinage and of weights and measures.

[10] The great interest in geodesy during this era, and the measurement system ideas that developed, influenced how the continental US was surveyed and parceled.