alt Hacker NewsYou jest, but times around the Earth is the actual origin of the Meter. Kinda.
The history is quite interesting and well worth checking out.
I can't recommend a book on the subject, but I do heartily recommend "Longitude", which is about the challenges of inventing the first maritime chronometers for the purpose of accurately measuring longitude.
The original meter (1790s France) was defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole along a meridian.