The
metre or
meter[1] is a
unit of
length. It is the
basic unit of
length in the
metric system and in the
International System of Units (SI), used around the world for general and scientific purposes.
[2] Historically, the metre was defined by the
French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent
1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the north pole through Paris. In 1983, it was redefined by the
International Bureau of Weights and Measures as the distance travelled by
light in absolute
vacuum in
1/299,792,458 of a
second.
[3]The symbol (not abbreviation) for metre is m (never capital M). Decimal multiples and submultiples of the metre, such as kilometre (1000 metres) and centimetre (1/100 metre), are indicated by adding SI prefixes to metre (see table below).
The spelling of the word recommended by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is "metre".[4] However, the American English spelling is "meter", which is officially endorsed by the United States.[5]
The word metre is from the Greek µ?t??? (métron), "a measure", via the French mètre. It was first introduced in modern usage (metro cattolico) by Italian scientist Tito Livio Burattini in his work Misura Universale in 1675, in order to rename the universal measure unit proposed by John Wilkins in 1668. Its first recorded usage in English meaning this unit of length is from 1797.
