TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index M > Category: Metric System

Metric System Quotes (6 quotes)

But in the heavens we discover by their light, and by their light alone, stars so distant from each other that no material thing can ever have passed from one to another; and yet this light, which is to us the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds, tells us also that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds as those which we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule, therefore, throughout the universe, bears impressed on it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the double royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac ... the exact quantity of each molecule to all others of same kind gives it, as Sir John Herschel has well said, the essential character of a manufactured article and precludes the idea of its being external and self-existent.
'Molecules', 1873. In W. D. Niven (ed.), The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890), Vol. 2, 375-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arcturus (4)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Execute (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Sir John Herschel (24)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Kind (564)  |  Light (635)  |  Material (366)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Royal (56)  |  Self (268)  |  Sole (50)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Tell (344)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vibration (26)  |  World (1850)

Geometrical axioms are neither synthetic a priori conclusions nor experimental facts. They are conventions: our choice, amongst all possible conventions, is guided by experimental facts; but it remains free, and is only limited by the necessity of avoiding all contradiction. ... In other words, axioms of geometry are only definitions in disguise.
That being so what ought one to think of this question: Is the Euclidean Geometry true?
The question is nonsense. One might as well ask whether the metric system is true and the old measures false; whether Cartesian co-ordinates are true and polar co-ordinates false.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Among (3)  |  Ask (420)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Choice (114)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Convention (16)  |  Definition (238)  |  Disguise (12)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  False (105)  |  Free (239)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Guide (107)  |  In Other Words (9)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Measure (241)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Polar (13)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  System (545)  |  Think (1122)  |  True (239)  |  Word (650)

Give 'em 2.5 cm, and they'll take 1.6 km.
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Give (208)  |  Inch (10)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mile (43)  |  Quip (81)  |  Take (10)

In the heavens we discover [stars] by their light, and by their light alone ... the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds ... that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule therefore throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac.
[Footnote: Where Maxwell uses the term “molecule” we now use the term “atom.”]
Lecture to the British Association at Bradford (1873), 'Atoms and Molecules'. Quoted by Ernest Rutherford, in 'The Constitution of Matter and the Evolution of the Elements', The Popular Science Monthly (Aug 1915), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arcturus (4)  |  Atom (381)  |  Bear (162)  |  Cubit (2)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Execute (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Kind (564)  |  Light (635)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Royal (56)  |  Small (489)  |  Sole (50)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Temple (45)  |  Term (357)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Wavelength (10)  |  World (1850)

The comparatively small progress toward universal acceptance made by the metric system seems to be due not altogether to aversion to a change of units, but also to a sort of irrepressible conflict between the decimal and binary systems of subdivision.
[Remarking in 1892 (!) that although decimal fractions were introduced about 1585, America retains measurements in halves, quarters, eights and sixteenths in various applications such as fractions of an inch, the compass or used by brokers.]
'Octonary Numeration', Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society (1892),1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  America (143)  |  Application (257)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Binary (12)  |  Change (639)  |  Compass (37)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Due (143)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Inch (10)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Progress (492)  |  Retain (57)  |  Small (489)  |  System (545)  |  Unit (36)  |  Universal (198)  |  Various (205)

You, in this country [the USA], are subjected to the British insularity in weights and measures; you use the foot, inch and yard. I am obliged to use that system, but must apologize to you for doing so, because it is so inconvenient, and I hope Americans will do everything in their power to introduce the French metrical system. ... I look upon our English system as a wickedly, brain-destroying system of bondage under which we suffer. The reason why we continue to use it, is the imaginary difficulty of making a change, and nothing else; but I do not think in America that any such difficulty should stand in the way of adopting so splendidly useful a reform.
Journal of the Franklin Institute, Nov 1884, 118, 321-341
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Bondage (6)  |  Brain (281)  |  British (42)  |  Change (639)  |  Continue (179)  |  Country (269)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Everything (489)  |  Hope (321)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reform (22)  |  Stand (284)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.