Beyond the Metre (Part I)

This article is the first in a series discussing the wide spectrum of metric units. Metric education programs typically avoid measuring force, energy, and other physical quantities. Specialized units like the joule and pascal, however, will be appearing more and more frequently. How many Americans can confidently interpret a label rating a light bulb in lumens? This series of articles for the general reader will review the history of the metric units, the rationales behind their definitions and the fine points of their usage. Examples and exercises will relate the special units to every day experiences. This initial article will deal with the foundations of the metric system, the metre, the second, and their simple extensions