The metre was defined by the French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent 1⁄10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the north pole through Paris.
In 1983, it was redefined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures as the distance travelled by light in absolute vacuum in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second.