To save this word, you'll need to log in. Eliot 2 : a standard of measurement no metric exists that can be applied directly to happiness — Scientific Monthly 3 : a mathematical function that associates a real nonnegative number analogous to distance with each pair of elements in a set such that the number is zero only if the two elements are identical, the number is the same regardless of the order in which the two elements are taken, and the number associated with one pair of elements plus that associated with one member of the pair and a third element is equal to or greater than the number associated with the other member of the pair and the third element metric. The metric system was invented in France in the years following the French Revolution, and a version of it is now used in most of the world to measure distance, weight, and volume.

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A metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre introduced in France in the s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the International System of Units SI , under the oversight of an international standards body. The historical evolution of metric systems has resulted in the recognition of several principles. Each of the fundamental dimensions of nature is expressed by a single base unit of measure. The definition of base units has increasingly been realised from natural principles, rather than by copies of physical artefacts. For quantities derived from the fundamental base units of the system, units derived from the base units are used—e. These derived units are coherent , which means that they involve only products of powers of the base units, without empirical factors.
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