Creative Computation Assignment: History of Units

As assigned in class, research the history of one of the following systems of measurement - when where, how and by who they were first used and defined, and how the definitions have changed up to the present. Write an essay, and prepare a presentation for the class on the system you are assigned. If your system has multiple units units that were originally defined separately, and only later unified, you should discover and document this. (If you were not in class, send me email and I'll assign you a unit)

• The inch:
  
• The foot:
  
• The rod:
  
• The mile:
  
• The meter:
  
• The parsec:
  
• The second:
  
• The kilogram:
  
• The teaspoon:
  
• The cup:
  
• The gallon:
  
• The bushel:
  
• The acre:
  
• The pound and ounce weight measures:
  
• The calorie:
  
• The BTU:
  
• The Farenheit scale:
  
• The Celcius scale:
  
• The Volt:
  
• The Ampere:
  
• The Curie:
  
• The Rad and Gray:
  
• The Roentgen:
  
• The Rem and Sievert:
  
• The cord (wood):
  
• The knot (velocity):
  
• The degree (angle):
  
• The day:
  

Back to CSC 199 main page