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The metre and the pendulum

In 1790 the French Assemblée Nationale set in train a process that would result in the metric system. But for quirks of history, the course of metrication might have had an Anglo-French dimension – and a different outcome.

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  1. J. H. Freeman, who until recently was Counsellor for Science and Technology at the British Embassy in Paris, will shortly take up a British Nuclear Fuels Chair in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK.

    • J. H. Freeman
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Freeman, J. The metre and the pendulum. Nature 348, 105–106 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/348105a0

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