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by irishsultan 1384 days ago
No, that's not correct, that unit while intended to be a universal measure of distance never was called a meter (the "inventor" wanted to call it "toise universalle"), all that comes from the wikipedia page you linked to, so the only remaining question is whether you can call it the "original definition".

I don't think you can call it the original definition, because (a) that definition never got any universal acceptance (not even among scientists), (b) didn't work (as it gave different results on different locations) and (c) wasn't particularly close in value to the current definition.

1 comments

I understand, but the fun fact I mentioned, that the relation between pi and g is not accidental, stems from the earlier attempt to define the meter via a pendulum. Yes it was refined later many times, and it's why the relation between pi and g is not precise.
Except it has little to do with the metre other than being an earlier attempt at an objective measurement.