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On Wed, 7/6/16, Kenneth Barns <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Metric Converters, was Re: [TML] Every day it seems we're closer to Cyberpunk 2020...
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 4:59 PM

 The base
 unit of length in the metric system is the meter. The
 base

 unit of area is the are. A hectare is 100 ares (by
 definition). The

 base units of volume are the liter (well known and
 originally

 intended for liquids (think "quart")), and the
 rarely used stere

 (originally intended for solids (think "cubic
 yard")).

 A liter was defined as both a kilo of water and as 10 cm *
 10 cm * 10

 cm. (1000 cubic centimeters)

 A stere was defined as 1 m * 1 m * 1 m ( a cubic meter.

 The are is apparently defined as 10 m * 10 m (100 square
 meters). A

 somewhat odd choice. Not exactly intuitive.

 Dear Leonard,
 Thanks for expanding my
 understanding of the world.  
 Lifelong metric user here, and I had
 never _heard_ of ares and steres before this discussion. 
 Perhaps that is because they never made the jump to
 international use when the metric system was formalised in
 the late 1800's in the way that tonnes, hectares, and
 litres have.
 I had
 always assumed that the "hecto-" prefix somehow
 had to do with the "100" metres on each side of a
 square.
 Cheers,KB.

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Here's something interesting;

Over the years I've used a number of Metric Conversion calculators but none has 'ares', only 'hectares'.

However, my 'flip phone', which came along much later, does have 'ares'!

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