Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Indeed, IIRC the intention was to define the meter so that the distance between the North Pole and the equator at the meridian through Paris would be exactly 10000 km, making the full circumference along that meridian and the one opposite it 40000 km.

EDIT: that information is already in the article, making my comment redundant and unnecessary.




Still bears highlighting, I think:

From pole to equator it's 90 (deg) * 60 (minutes/deg) = 5400 nautical miles or 10000 kilometres.

Pretty much the only way I can remember the conversion factor. Well, that's not true, 1.852 also consists of the country code of the USA followed by the country code of Hong Kong, so that's easy.


Mine also. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Well, the article claims that that is the definition which is false. The definition of a meter is ‘the distance traveled by light in 1/299792458 of a second’ so a kilometer is a thousand times that.

The story in the article is the original, obsolete definition.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: