The Metric System is Modern Latin

Knowing the language of the Bible - common Greek of the time - is essentially no help in reading the Ancient Greek of Homer's Illiad and both are vastly different from modern Greek.  But once a tongue dies, there is no language drift and I can easily read what someone wrote centuries ago.

Until I covered a Latin class last week, I considered Latin to be a "dead" language in a negative sense.  If we study theology or philosophy, literature or law, Latin might be a good thing to know but with the Universal Translator I find that Latin has little value for me.

But the metric system is also a dead language.  With minor modifications - definitions and forms of expression - both Latin and the Systeme International remain the same today as they were a couple centuries ago.  The SI is great for communication across the world.  It is the common language of science and industry.

It turns out that my beloved metric system and the ancient language of scholars are the same in concept and in use.