Whats with the “Metric System”?
The “metric system” of measurement is just about the only living remnant of the French Revolution. The idea was to make a logical system of weights and measures based on something very basic: the size of the Earth. They took the best number available for the section of the Earth’s circumference from the Equator to the Pole through Paris, and called 1/10,000,000 of this value “1 meter”. So measurements up and down from that are in increments of 10’s. And then a cube 1/10m on a side is a “liter” or “litre”, (about 10% larger than a quart), units again going up and down in increments of 10’s. And 1 millileter (1/1000 liter) of pure water at its maximum density is 1 gram. This involves auto stuff in two major ways: engine displacements measured in liters; specifications quoted in millimeters, and hardware made in metric dimensions. A lot of people hate metric specs, but it isn’t hard to convert with a couple of basic equivalents. On engine sizes, 100 cubic inches is 1638 cc (cubic centimet
