Measure of All Things The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World

Name: Measure of All Things The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World
Price: 2.54 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780743216760

ISBN-10: 0743216768

ISBN-13: 9780743216760

Edition: 2003

Authors: Ken Alder

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In June 1792, amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, two intrepid astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary journey. Starting in Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north to Dunkirk, while Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain voyaged south to Barcelona. Their mission was to measure the world, and their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator -- a standard that would be used "for all people, for all time."The Measure of All Thingsis the astonishing tale of one of history's greatest scientific adventures. Yet behind the public triumph of the metric system lies a secret error, one that is…

Book details

List price: $20.00
Copyright year: 2003
Publisher: Free Press
Publication date: 10/1/2003
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 448
Size: 5.50" wide x 8.44" long x 1.40" tall
Weight: 1.034
Language: English



Dramatis Personae


Prologue



The North-Going Astronomer



The South-Going Astronomer



The Metric of Revolution



The Castle of Mont-Jouy



A Calculating People



Fear of France



Convergence



Triangulation



The Empire of Science



The Broken Arc



Mechain's Mistake, Delambre's Peace



The Metered Globe


Epilogue: The Shape of Our World


Note on Measures


Note on Sources


Notes


Selected Bibliography


Acknowledgments


Index