Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on Where did the measuring systems (metric & imperial) originate and how?

Post

Where did the measuring systems (metric & imperial) originate and how? [closed]

+0
−0

Closed as off topic by Mithical‭ on Sep 30, 2021 at 18:47

This question is not within the scope of Physics.

This question was closed; new answers can no longer be added. Users with the reopen privilege may vote to reopen this question if it has been improved or closed incorrectly.

I had a thought that crossed my mind a while back that went something like this:

It's a cool thing measurements exist, if there wasn't, there'd be trouble and we'd be counting atoms if we could.

Funny, nonetheless, but now that I think about it, there's some curiosity of mine wondering how we got these measurements in the first place. "How'd we get miles?", "What're gallons?", "Why is it called pounds?", just to name a few. Though, there's only 1 question that can narrow down many of these.

Where did these measurements come from? The answer to that is the measuring system, actually, 2 measuring systems: metric (meters, liters, grams, etc.) and imperial (miles, fluid ounces, pounds, etc.)

Now this brings another question, which is the one that I'll ask here. There are many measurements that it's clever to know how these measurements came in the first place.

Where did these 2 measuring systems come from, and when or how did they come to our lives?

BONUS: Name a few creators of these measurements and whatever they created.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

2 comment threads

Post Feedback (4 comments)
Which “origin” are you interested in? (2 comments)
Which “origin” are you interested in?
dmckee‭ wrote over 3 years ago

While one can find an historical origin for the units in modern system they won’t be the original origin. Organized systems of units go back a long time. I’d guess they date back to roughly the origin of writing (because both relate to trade) with refinements piled on as necessary. We know a lot, for instance about units from the classical world and some of our modern unit can trace their history back to them.

General Sebast1an‭ wrote over 3 years ago

dmckee‭ If you're looking for something specific, the history of how the units even came to be.