The History of the Metric System
By Ms. Marra and Mrs. Roksvold
On one rainy afternoon in the castle, King Henry was craving his favorite drink - extra dark chocolate milk. His usual servant was sick in bed, so he asked his substitute servant to go to the kitchen and make some extra dark chocolate milk.
When the servant hurried back to the king with his extra dark chocolate milk, King Henry took a sip and spit the milk back at him.
He shouted "This is simply not enough chocolate! There must be a way to get my servant and his substitute to make the same extra dark chocolate milk."
He thought to himself hmmm...it's time I invent a system of measurement. I will call it The Metric System.
King Henry was about to run upstairs to his quarters to do some thinking when he said "A-ha! The staircase! That will do it!"
King Henry came up with a mnemonic device for his units, in honor of his love for extra dark chocolate milk:
King Henry Drinks Unusually Dark Chocolate Milk
Kilo-Hecto-Deka-Unit-Deci-Centi-Milli
King Henry decided that "Unit" would represent the basic units of meter, liter and gram and that if people used this device, they would simply have to move decimal points to the left or to the right.
For example, here is how King Henry's trick works:
1000.0 millimeters = __________________ meters
The decimal moves from "milli" three spaces to the left towards "unit."
1000.0 millimeters = 1 meter
Glossary
metric system: system of measurement based on units of ten
meter: metric measurement for length
liter: metric measurement for volume
gram: metric measurement for mass