The International System of Units (SI) comes from the French Systeme International d’Unites, which was established in Paris through the Treaty of the Meter on May 20, 1875. At the time, 48 nations (including the United States) signed up to this treaty. Since then, that number has risen to 51. The SI is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), and is updates every few years by the General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM). Their next meeting is scheduled for the year 2007. Why was this system created? Prior to the Metric System there was a lot of confusion between people in different areas because everyone had a different standard of measurement. The purpose of this system is to ensure worldwide unification of physical measurements. Presently, there is
The International System of Units (SI) comes from the French Systeme International d’Unites, which was established in Paris through the Treaty of the Meter on May 20, 1875. At the time, 48 nations (including the United States) signed up to this treaty. Since then, that number has risen to 51. The SI is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), and is updates every few years by the General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM). Their next meeting is scheduled for the year 2007. Why was this system created? Prior to the Metric System there was a lot of confusion between people in different areas because everyone had a different standard of measurement. The purpose of this system is to ensure worldwide unification of physical measurements. Presently, there is an economic necessity to adopt this system. There are 3 conditions for this system: 1. There is one fundamental unit for each quantity. 2. Multiples and fractions are created by adding prefixes to the originally defines units. 3. Fundamental units are defined rationally and are related to each other in a rational fashion.