Beyond Measure
The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and The Economist
"Quietly thrilling.…The story of humans measuring things is no less than the story of civilization." —Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Book Review
A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day.
From the cubit to the kilogram, the humble inch to the speed of light, measurement is a powerful tool that humans invented to make sense of the world. In this revelatory work of science and social history, James Vincent dives into its hidden world, taking readers from ancient Egypt, where measuring the annual depth of the Nile was an essential task, to the intellectual origins of the metric system in the French Revolution, and from the surprisingly animated rivalry between metric and imperial, to our current age of the “quantified self.” At every turn, Vincent is keenly attuned to the political consequences of measurement, exploring how it has also been used as a tool for oppression and control.
Beyond Measure reveals how measurement is not only deeply entwined with our experience of the world, but also how its history encompasses and shapes the human quest for knowledge.
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Vincent, a senior reporter at the Verge, debuts with a phenomenal exploration of measurement, the "cornerstone of cognition" that "has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too." He starts in ancient Egypt, where each year, citizens gauged the depth of the Nile River's floodwaters to ascertain whether it would be enough to support a plentiful harvest. To do so, the Egyptians developed giant rulers called nilometers that were carved into columns and walls. Elsewhere, Vincent chronicles how the metric system was developed during the French Revolution by the "country's intellectual elite," who "thought that the standardisation of weights and measures would eliminate some of the imbalances of feudal life"; argues that the ability to accurately survey land led to the expansion of the U.S.; and makes a fascinating case that measurements can be used for social control, as with the productivity quotas that are imposed on Amazon workers. Amusing anecdotes abound: for centuries, the kilogram was based on the weight of a "particular lump of metal" locked away in a French vault. Vincent's running of the rule is brisk and constantly surprising as it makes clear that all measurements derive from human choices and are thus inherently fallible. This one shouldn't be missed.
