DECIMAL SYSTEM. This name is applied to any system of weights, measures, money, etc., in which the standard unit is divided into tenths, hundredths, etc., for the denominations below it, and multiplied by 10, 100, etc., for those above it. The nature of this method of division will be best explained by an example from the French system, where it has been most rigidly carried out. The meter (= 39.37 English inches) is the unit of length, and the foundation of the whole system. For the higher denomi nations of length, the Greek words dew, hecto, kilo, and myria, are prefixed to sin-nify multiplying by 10, 100, 1000, 10,000; so that decameter = 10 meters, kilometer meters, etc. The Latin words deci, centi, milli, on the other hand, arc used to express division. by 10, 100, etc., and thus furnish names for the lower denominations; deci meter = of a meter, centimeter = Th of a meter, etc. Similarly with money; the franc being the unit, a decinie is the tenth part of a franc; and a centime, the hundredth part.
Belgium and Switzerland have adopted both the French franc as the standard unit and the division into tenths. The Italian lira is the same as the franc. The decimal system in regard to money, with various units of reckoning, is now in use also in Ger many, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, the United States, China, and Japan. The French metrical system of weights and meas ures has been introduced into Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, etc.
This plan of decimal gradation in weights and measures is the only rational one, because it is in accordance with the universally adopted decimal notation. If thoroughly carried out, the facilities it would afford in every department of life are scarcely calcu lable. For one thing, it is not too much to say that one-half the time now spent in Great Britain in learning arithmetic might be saved. That study might, in addition, be made an effective means of intellectual discipline; whereas at present the time must be spent in acquiring something like a ready but blind application of complicated rules.
The most striking instance, perhaps, of the inconvenience of the arbitrary mode of division is furnished by the thermometer. In this case, nature has fixed the fundamen tal measure, and made it the same for all nations-the interval, namely, between the freezing and boiling points of water. And yet, in England, this space is divided into 180 parts or degrees; in Germany and the continent generally, into 80°; and only m France has it been divided into 100°. Thus, the basis of uniformity made to our hand has been thrown away, and every observation of temperature made in one country has to be painfully translated before it can be understood in another. See METER.