''My studies of ancient metrology have led me to two general conclusions: first, that metrology was born mainly from the practices of the international merchant class of the ancient world and, second, that metrology provided the foundation for the scientific rational vision of the world.''
Livio Stecchini, Why Study Metrology?
https://web.archive.org/web/20190913224355/http://www.metrum.org/measures/whystud.htm
''Science is a process consciously directed toward achieving knowledge that is explicitly formulated, general in scope, systematically ordered, and dependable. Since Kepler and Galileo, dependability has been based on testing by measurement. Thus, physics became the queen of the sciences because of its consistent determination to introduce measurement into its discussions at the very earliest stages.
Modern science began when Galileo introduced the distinction between primary and secondary properties; primary properties are those that are measurable. Hence, science today is the art of formulating general statements that are verifiable by measurement. The precision of the measurements involved is the standard of the probable truth of a scientific theory.''
Livio Stecchini, A History of Measures, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 4, March 1961, p. 18