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Understanding the Metre: A Quiz on the Metric System

This quiz tests your knowledge of the metre, its historical definitions, and its significance in the International System of Units (SI).

#metre #metric system #SI units #history of measurement #physics

1 In 1791, the ________ selected the meridional definition over the pendular definition because the force of gravity varies slightly over the surface of the Earth, which affects the period of a pendulum.

2 The metre (or meter) is the basic unit of length in the ________ (SI).

3 Decimal multiples such as kilometre and centimetre are indicated by adding ________ to metre.

4 1795 — Provisional metre bar constructed of ________.

5 where λ is the determined wavelength; c is the speed of light in ideal vacuum; n is the ________ of the medium in which the measurement is made; and f is the frequency of the source.

6 1983 October 21 — The seventeenth CGPM defines the metre as equal to the distance travelled by ________ in vacuum during a time interval of 1⁄299,792,458 of a second.

7 1790 May 8 — The French National Assembly decides that the length of the new metre would be equal to the length of a ________ with a half-period of one second.

8 ________ chose to use meter in accordance with the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual.

9 One approach suggested defining the metre as the length of a ________ with a half-period of one second, a 'seconds pendulum'.

10 In 1983, the metre was redefined as the distance travelled by light in ________ in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Waterloo Vase is a massive marble urn, 15 feet (4.6 metres) high and weighing 15 tons (13.6 metric tons), which was commissioned by French leader Napoleon but ultimately became an ornament in the British monarch's Buckingham Palace Gardens.
  • the tallest building in Tulsa, Oklahoma is the 667-foot (203 m) BOK Tower.
  • the tallest building in Minneapolis, Minnesota is the 792-foot (241 m) IDS Tower (pictured).
  • the Heights of Buildings Act of 1910 restricts the height of buildings in Washington D.C. to 20 ft (6 m) taller than the width of the street they face.
  • the original version of the Gettysburg Cyclorama (detail pictured), a cylindrical painting of almost 300 feet (91 m) in length, recently sold for a reported US$10 million.
  • the peak of Mount Hikurangi (1620 metres) is the highest non-volcanic peak on the North Island of New Zealand.
  • there have been at least fifteen deaths at the Welsh cave Porth yr Ogof in the last twenty years, all but one in the seven-metre-deep Resurgance Pool.
  • the unusual configuration of the running track at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas – 84 m straights and 118 m curves – has garnered it a reputation as one of the fastest tracks in the world.
  • the tallest of the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert rises 200 metres above the surrounding terrain.
  • the Flying Dragon is a lizard that has skin membranes which it uses to glide distances over 7 metres.
  • the broadfish tapeworm is the longest tapeworm in humans, averaging ten metres long and that it can shed up to a million eggs a day.
  • Will Jefferson is probably the tallest professional cricketer ever, at about 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall.
  • the Tuggerah Lakes (pictured), located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, cover a total area of 77 square kilometres yet have an average depth of less than two metres.
  • Neil Gardner holds the sixth-fastest recorded time for a Jamaican 400 m hurdler.
  • Wyndham Halswelle was winner of the controversial 400-metre run at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
  • Yoshioka-Kaitei Station, located 149.5 metres below sea level within the Seikan Tunnel, is the deepest underground station in Japan.
  • the banded archerfish (pictured) is able to hit targets up to three metres away by shooting jets of water from its mouth.
  • the genus Brachyplatystoma includes many large species of Amazonian catfish, including one which may reach about 3.6 metres (almost 12 feet) in length.
  • Pachycheilosuchus, an Early Cretaceous crocodile relative, was less than a meter (3.3 ft) long and had an armored neck.
  • Joseph Guillemot, winner of the 5000 m at the 1920 Olympics, was a pack-a-day smoker.
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