UNITS OF MEASUREMENTS

India decided to give up FPS system used earlier and switched over to MKS according to Standards of Weights and Measurements Act in the year 1956. In the year 1960, by the conference of weights and measures, System International (SI units) unit was approved. It is an international organisation of which most of the countries are the members. In this system unit of linear measurement is also metre. Though, in this system use of centimetres and decametres are discouraged. Major difference between MKS and SI is in the use of unit of force, Of course. In MKS unit of force is kg-wt (commonly which is called as kg only) while in SI it is Newton.

In SI units recommended multipliers are given below

                                            Mega unit = 1 × 106 units

                                                 Giga unit = 1 × 109 units

                                              unit = 1 × 10 0 units

                                             Kilo unit = 1 × 103 units

                                             Micro unit = 1 × 10-6 unit

                                            Milli unit = 1 × 10-3 unit

In surveying commonly used linear units are kilometre, metre and millimetres. Centimetre is not completely given up yet.

Angles sexagesimal system is used for measuring. In this system:

                                       1 circumference = 360°

                                       1 degree = 60′ (minutes of arc)

                                       1 minute = 60″ (seconds of arc)