About this episode
The next time you pick up a bag of spuds from the supermarket or fill up the car with petrol, you can thank the Treaty of the Metre for the metric system that underpins daily life.
The treaty was signed exactly 150 years ago, when delegates from 17 countries gathered on a Parisian spring day to establish a new and standardised way of measuring the world around us.
But the metre's inception predates the treaty that bears its name by nearly 100 years. So how did it come about, and how has its definition changed over the centuries?
Get every episode summarized
Each time The Science Show publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The Science Show
Celebrating David Attenborough’s 100th birthday and a new way of making vaccines
The Science Show
Lab Notes: What happens if a major ocean current … stops?
The Science Show
Australian science under strain
The Science Show
Lab Notes: AI data centres are coming to remote Australia
The Science Show