This activity looks at how weights developed
in history and presents those findings in a multimedia stack.
Students use paper, pencil, encyclopedias,
and history books.
Discuss weight systems in use in America today. Use the Internet to answer these questions:
a. Where did names ounce, pound, and ton come from?
b. Why are we using these and not a decimal system?
c. When did our system of weights evolve?
d. How? For whom?
***Use multimedia authoring tool.***
1. Discussions via e-mail with students in countries using other systems and/or dual systems
2. Construct quiz based on info gathered
3. Make displays, making the work involving
technology the central theme.
**The following is a paper on the above questions.
Information was located through the Internet.**
The metric system of units and standards of measure is rooted in 17th and 18th century efforts to establish a simple, easily used system of weights and measures universally acceptable to countries of the world. It was a planned system created by scientists.
The metric system is based on the metre for length and the kilogram for mass that was adopted in France in 1795. It is considered a simpler form of measurement because it includes only 7 base units for different types of measurement. It is also based on the decimal system, multiples, and submultiples are always related to powers of 10. The origins of our modern decimal, or base-10, number system can be traced to the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Chinese roots. The bulk of the base-10 system dates back to the Hindu-Arabic mathematicians of the 8th to 11th centuries AD.
The introduction of the metric system in France met with some resistance. In 1812 the old units of measure were restored by Napoleon, Emperor of France. In 1840, the metric system again became mandatory in France and has remained ever since. In 1850, the growing international trade and commerce expanded the use of the metric system and by 1880 the major European countries and most of South America had adopted it. In 1866, it became legal in the U.S. but not mandatory. At the start of the 20th century the metric system was officially in use in 35 countries except U.S., Liberia, and Burma.
The metric system has the following attributes:
1. Consists of measuring units based on unvariable quantities in nature.
2. All units other than the base units should be derived from these base units.
The English System of weights and measures is often called the "customary" system to indicate that it originated in everyday customs that had developed over a long period of time. As Great Britain began to dominate world trade in the 17th century, English weights and measures (British Imperial System --B.I.S) became the first worldwide system. Colonists took English weights and measures back to other continents.
The names of the units and relationships between them are generally the same in both the metric system and B.I.S, but the sizes differ considerably.
The English units of measurement have many drawbacks: the complexity of converting from one unit to another, the differences between American and British units, the use of the same name for different units, and the existence of 3 different systems of weights. Because of these disadvantages and because of the wide use of the much simpler metric system in most other parts of the world, there have been proposals to do away with the U.S. Customary System and replace it with the metric system.
Three highly important weights and measures of the metric system include the ounce, pound, and ton. All three of these units are dependent upon each other.
The pound is the basic unit of weight (which is proportional to mass). Within the English units of measurement there are three different systems of weight. In the avoirdupois system (most widely used), the pound is divided into 16 ounces and the ounce into 16 drams. The ton is used to measure large masses and is equal to 2000 pounds (short ton) or 2,240 pounds (long ton). The troy system is used for precious metals. The troy pound is divided into 12 ounces and the troy ounce into 20pennyweights or 480 grains. The troy pound equals 5,760 grains. In the apothecaries system, weights are based on troy weights; in addition to the pound, ounce, and grain.
Today the International
System of Units, the modern form of the
metric system is the most widely used system of units and measures
around the world.