Charles Sumner: “Had the same or any other unit been selected without measurement of…”

On the record

Had the same or any other unit been selected without measurement of the earth, the metric system would not have been less beautiful or perfect.

Said by

Massachusetts

Source

Sumner suggests that the beauty of the metric system is not dependent on its earth-based origins.

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Slave Power, necessity of political action against the, II. 207.

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Charles Sumner: “Had the same or any other unit been selected without measurement of the earth, the metric system would not have been…”