How Base 10replced Anthropic Metrics
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper re-examines the historical transition from anthropic, duodecimal, and sexagesimal systems of measurement to the modern decimal metric system through the combined lenses of logistics, navigation, horizon geometry, and political standardisation. It argues that pre-modern metrology formed a coherent cognitive framework grounded in embodiment, perceptual range, and operational movement across land and sea—rather than a disorderly collection of local units. The study situates French Revolutionary metrication as an intentional ideological rupture designed to suppress inherited anthropic systems and impose a universal, administratively efficient decimal order. Within this context, the paper presents an original numerical relationship linking the Great Pyramid’s traditional height, its slope angle, and the 360‑degree circle to a value within 0.02% of Earth’s modern kilometre-scale circumference. This “Khufu–kilometre anomaly” is not advanced as evidence of ancient geodetic intent, but as a heuristic demonstrating conceptual permeability between ancient proportional systems and modern geodesy. By integrating historical analysis, horizon-based geometry, and a falsifiable experimental framework derived from the author’s reconstruction of the Dixon Relics, the paper argues that base‑10 did not merely replace older units—it replaced an entire anthropic worldview. Recovering this continuity reveals a deeper structure of human spatial cognition rooted in logistics, navigation, and the horizon.
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204703400