Given price of ream-to find price of bales, reams, quires, sheets. Reduce bales to reams. Consider reams £, quires s., sheets d. And use Practice with the price. SECTION IV. THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 1. The Metric System. THE French Philosophers of the time of the Great Revolution devised the metric system-entirely based upon a decimal scale. The simplicity and convenience of this system ensure its final adoption by all civilised nations. At present the English system is its only great rival owing to the vast extent of our trade. If we were prepared to give up our inconvenient moneys, weights, and measures in favour of decimal scales the boon to all students and schools as well as to business men generally would be incalculable. The mere fact that a 3 is involved in the relations of our coins (12d. 1 shilling) causes most decimals of a £ to recur and thus greatly increases the labour even of decimal work. The adoption of decimal coinage and the metric system though it would cause temporary disturbance in our trade would reduce the time required for arithmetic in schools by one-half and ultimately simplify all commercial operations enormously. = The basis of the metric system is the Metre or unit of length. This was originally intended to be one ten-millionth part of the arc of a meridian from the pole to the equator. Errors have since been discovered in the measurement of the half-meridian, and therefore the metre is now an arbitrary standard without exact decimal relation to any natural constant. Its value is that of a rod kept at Paris. The unit of area is the square of 10 metres or Are. The unit of volume is the cube of 1 metre or Stere. The unit of capacity is the cube of of a metre or Litre. Capacity is very often stated in cub. centimetres. The unit of weight is the weight of pure water at 4° C. and 760 mm. pressure contained in of a litre (= 1 millilitre or 1 cub. centimetre) or Gramme. It follows that the weight of a litre of water is a kilogramme. All these five units--the metre, are, stere, litre, gramme-are divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, or multiples of 10, 100, 1000 are taken. The fractions are denoted by Latin prefixes, the multiples by Greek. 1000 milli- 10 dec(a)100 hect(o)1000 kil(o) metre, are, stere, litre, gramme. COMMERCIAL USES. 2. Commercial Uses. 333 93 The metre is the measure for cloths, silks, cottons and all short lengths and distances. Its value is of our yard nearly. The pole is 5 metres very nearly, and the furlong 2 hectometres. The kilometre is used for measuring long distances and is about of the English mile. The The centimetre and millimetre are used in scientific calculations—as also the micron of a mm. centimetre is about 2 of an inch. 1000 The are is the unit of land measure, but hectares are generally used to express large areas. The are is nearly 4 poles: the hectare 2 acres. The rood equals the decare very nearly. The square metre is the unit for measuring ordinary surfaces. Its value is nearly of a sq. yard. The stere is the unit for wood. The cubic metre is used for measuring ordinary solids, viz. excavations, loads, and timber. It is very nearly 13 of a cubic yard. The litre is used for both liquid and dry measures. It contains 12 pint nearly. The decalitre holds 10 gallon. The hectolitre is the unit for measuring large quantities of liquids, grain, or fruit. or fruit. Its capacity is 22 gallons. The kilogramme is the common unit of weight for trade. It weighs 2 lbs. The -kilo is also used under the name "pound" (= 1 lb. Av.). The gramme or kilogramme is the bullion weight in most Continental Countries. The myriagramme is 1 stone in weight. The quintal and tonneau are for heavy weights. They are very nearly equal to 2 cwts. and 1 ton respectively. The milligramme and centigramme are used in scientific calculations. |