World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement
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- €12.99
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- €12.99
Publisher Description
The epic story of the invention of a global network of weights, scales, and instruments for measurement.
Millions of transactions each day depend on a reliable network of weights and measures. This network has been called a greater invention than the steam engine, comparable only to the development of the printing press.
Robert P. Crease traces the evolution of this international system from the use of flutes to measure distance in the dynasties of ancient China and figurines to weigh gold in West Africa to the creation of the French metric and British imperial systems. The former prevailed, with the United States one of three holdout nations. Into this captivating history Crease weaves stories of colorful individuals, including Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of the metric system, and American philosopher Charles S. Peirce, the first to tie the meter to the wavelength of light. Tracing the dynamic struggle for ultimate precision, World in the Balance demonstrates that measurement is both stranger and more integral to our lives than we ever suspected.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anyone who doubts the romance and history to be found in a meter stick will find this book a revelation. As Crease notes, the human body is the first and oldest measuring device in the world; for example, nearly every civilization has the equivalent of a "foot. In China, systems of measurement date back to the third millennium B.C.E., ., eventually becoming, as one scholar wrote, "a metaphor for the moral and spiritual order of the universe . The first effort to create worldwide standards of distance and weight came from the French Revolution, with the meter (based on a fraction of the Earth's meridian), and the kilogram (the weight of a cubic deciliter of water). But for the terrible luck of a wayward French emissary, America might have adopted the metric system around 1800. More precise measures now define the meter in terms of atomic wavelengths, and atomic values will probably also be used to define the kilogram. Through entertaining anecdotes and history, Stony Brook philosophy chair and Physics World columnist Crease (The Great Equations) ably reveals our modern world as a "metroscape shaped by the things we measure and the way we measure them. 35 illus.
