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How was the length of a meter originally determined?

The French scientists who created the metric system had originally intended for the meter to represent one ten-millionth of the distance of a meridian (a meridian is an imaginary circle that runs in a north-south direction around the Earth, connecting the North Pole and the South Pole). They measured a meridian from the North Pole to the equator, passing through Dunkirk, France, and Barcelona, Spain. The task took nearly six years and was completed in November 1798.

The scientists casted a platinum-iridium bar, the length of a meter, to be the official physical replica of this unit of measurement. It was later discovered that the surveyors of the meridian made an error of about two miles. Rather than changing the length of the meter to conform to the actual distance, in 1889 the platinum-indium bar was chosen to represent, internationally, the...

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1. Time
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   2. What is meant by Universal Time?
   3. How many time zones are there in the world?
   4. Who establishes the correct time in the United States?
   5. What is military time?
   6. What do the initials a.m. and p.m. mean?
   7. When is Daylight Savings Time observed in the United States?
   8. What is a leap second?
   9. What is the exact length of a calendar year?
   10. Where did the term "grandfather clock" come from?
   11. What were the longest and shortest years on record?
   12. Besides the Julian and Gregorian calendars, what other calendars have been used?
   13. When does leap year occur?
   14. When did January 1 become the first day of the new year?
   15. How were the months of the year named?
   16. Where do the names of the days of the week come from?
   17. Why are the lengths of the seasons not equal?
2. Weights And Measures
   1. What is the metric system of measurement?
   2. What are the U.S. and metric units of measurement for area?
   3. How did the yard as a unit of measurement originate?
   4. What is a bench mark?
   5. How was the length of a meter originally determined?
   6. How are U.S. customary measures converted to metric measures and vice versa?
   7. What is the difference between a short ton, a long ton, and a metric ton?
   8. Why is a nautical mile different from a statute mile?
   9. What are the equivalents for dry and liquid measures?
   10. What are U.S. and British measures for volume and weight of water?

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