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Paperback
Published: 3rd June 2004
ISBN: 9780349115078
Number Of Pages: 480
THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS tells the story of how science, revolutionary politics, and the dream of a new economy converged to produce both the metric system and the first struggle over globalization. Amidst the scientific fervor of the Revolution two French scientists, Delambre and Mechain, were sent out on an expedition to measure the shape of the world and thereby establish the metre (which was to be one ten-millionth the distance from pole to equator). Their hope was that people would use the globe as the basis of measure rather than an arbitrary system meted out by the monarchs. As one scientist went north along the French meridian and the other south, their experiences diverged just as radically. After seven years, they received a hero's welcome upon their return to Paris. Mechain, however, was obsessed over a minute error in his calculations that he'd discovered and concealed, and which eventually drove him to his grave. His death forced his colleague Delambre to choose between loyalty to his friend and his science.
all the pace and plot of a historical adventure novel, as though Longitude had been crossed with A Tale of Two Cities, with a measure of Don Quixote thrown in - The Sunday TIMES
riveting account of the origins of the metric system... an eye-opener - The DAILY TELEGRAPH
ISBN: 9780349115078
ISBN-10: 0349115079
Audience:
General
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 480
Published: 3rd June 2004
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 19.8 x 12.8
x 2.9
Weight (kg): 0.37
Edition Number: 1
