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As its name implies, the meter (from metron, the Greek word for "measure") is the basis on which the entire metric system is founded. For instance, a box measuring one centimeter (cm., 1/100 of a meter) on each side (a cubic centimeter) would hold one milliliter (ml., 1/1000 of a liter) of water which, at 4°C, would have a mass of one gram. Similarly, at 4°C, a liter of water (a little more than a quart) would weigh a kilogram (a little more than a pound), and be equivalent to a cubic decimeter.
The reason for this system lies in the use of multiples of ten for all of the increments, as opposed to multiples of six in the old imperial system. In 1791, the French Academy of Science was instructed to come up with a new, logical system for weights and measures, which they based on the metre (original spelling), defined as 1/10,000,000 of a quadrant of a great circle of Earth, measured around the poles of the longitudinal meridian passing through Paris. By 1797, they had accurately identified the metre as 39.37008 inches.
In 1799, a platinum bar measuring exactly 1 metre was placed in French Archives to act as a standard against which the meter was measured. Recently, the meter has been redefined a few times, and in 1983, the present definition of a meter was reached: the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 second.
Although the length of a meter is somewhat arbitrary, its connection to the rest of the metric system is very logical and obvious.