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Metric units are units based on the metre, gram or second and decimal (power of ten) multiples or sub-multiples of these. According to Schadow and McDonald, [ 1 ] metric units, in general, are those units "defined 'in the spirit' of the metric system, that emerged in late 18th century France and was rapidly adopted by scientists and engineers.
Decimal multiplicative prefixes have been a feature of all forms of the metric system, with six of these dating back to the system's introduction in the 1790s. Metric prefixes have also been used with some non-metric units. The SI prefixes are metric prefixes that were standardised for use in the International System of Units (SI) by the ...
In the early metric system there were two base units, the metre for length and the gram for mass. The other units of length and mass, and all units of area, volume, and derived units such as density were derived from these two base units. Mesures usuelles (French for customary measures) were a system of measurement introduced as a compromise ...
The International System of Units, or SI, [1]: 123 is a decimal and metric system of units established in 1960 and periodically updated since then. The SI has an official status in most countries, including the United States , Canada , and the United Kingdom , although these three countries are among the handful of nations that, to various ...
A base unit is a unit adopted for expressing a base quantity. A derived unit is used for expressing any other quantity, and is a product of powers of base units. For example, in the modern metric system, length has the unit metre and time has the unit second, and speed has the derived unit metre per second.
Gravitational metric system was a little-used variant of the metric system that normalised the acceleration due to gravity. Metre–tonne–second system of units was a variant of the metric system used in French and Russian industry between the First and Second World Wars. Between 1812 and 1839 France used a quasi-metric system: Mesures usuelles
The picometre (SI symbol: pm) is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 10 −12 metres ( 1 / 1 000 000 000 000 m = 0. 000 000 000 001 m). To help compare different orders of magnitude this section lists lengths between 10 −12 and 10 −11 m (1 pm and 10 pm).
Deci-(symbol d) is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one tenth. Proposed in 1793, [1] and adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin decimus, meaning "tenth". Since 1960, the prefix is part of the International System of Units (SI). [2] [3]