Author: Jeffrey Huw Williams
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1627052801
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
Weights and measures form an essential part of our ingrained view of the world. It is just about impossible to function effectively without some internalized system of measurement. In this volume, I outline a history of the science of measurement, and the
Author: Jon Bosak
Publisher: Pinax
ISBN: 9780615376264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
An essential resource for scholars and a treat for curious readers, this uniquely detailed history of American weights and measures traces these everyday standards back to their originals and explains the ancient trade system on which they are based.
Author: Marcus Weeks
Publisher: Richmond Hill, Ont. : Firefly Books
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
A comprehensive reference and history book on what is measured and why. Measurement is one of humankind's oldest and most vital activities. By measuring height, speed, size, temperature, strength and many other factors, humans can compare, improve and progress. In fact, measurement is an essential tool for survival. A Measure of Everything is a wide-ranging and comprehensive guide to what is measured and why. The book begins when the basic measurements were as simple as more, less and enough. As societies evolved, relative measurements were no longer sufficient. Advances in language allowed more precise measurements. Short distances were measured in relation to parts of the human body. For example, the ancient measurement cubit was the length of a pharaoh's arm plus the width of his hand. As society and culture progress and change, so do measurements. The rise of astronomy and the sciences demanded more exact measurements. These measurements are typically named after the discovering scientist, e.g., henry, curie, watt, rutherford, fahrenheit. This book features 28 categories organized into three sections: Earth and Life Sciences: astronomy, distance, time, meteorology, medicine, and five others. Physical Sciences: chemistry, mathematics, physics, speed, weight, temperature, and three others. Technology and Leisure: computers, engineering, finance, food, textiles, and four others. A Measure of Everything is an informative and entertaining book that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Author: François Cardarelli
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447100034
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 869
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Book Description
Mankind has a fascination with measurement. Down the centuries we have produced a plethora of incompatible and duplicatory systems for measuring everything from the width of an Egyptian pyramid to the concentration of radioactivity near a nuclear reactor and the value of the fine structure constant. With the introduction first of the metric system and of its successor the Système International d'Unités (SI), the scientific community has established a standard method of measurement based on only seven core units. The Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures converts the huge variety of units from all over the world in every period of recorded history into units of the SI. Featuring: - An A - Z of conversion tables for over 10,000 units of measurements. - Tables of the fundamental constants of nature with their units. - Listings of professional societies, and national standardization bodies for easy reference. - An extensive bibliography detailing further reading on the multifarious aspects of measurement and its units. This huge work is simply a "must have" for any reference library frequented by scientists of any discipline or by those with historical interests in units of measurement such as archaeologists.
Author: Emanuele Lugli
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226820009
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
An interdisciplinary history of standardized measurements. Measurement is all around us—from the circumference of a pizza to the square footage of an apartment, from the length of a newborn baby to the number of miles between neighboring towns. Whether inches or miles, centimeters or kilometers, measures of distance stand at the very foundation of everything we do, so much so that we take them for granted. Yet, this has not always been the case. This book reaches back to medieval Italy to speak of a time when measurements were displayed in the open, showing how such a deceptively simple innovation triggered a chain of cultural transformations whose consequences are visible today on a global scale. Drawing from literary works and frescoes, architectural surveys, and legal compilations, Emanuele Lugli offers a history of material practices widely overlooked by historians. He argues that the public display of measurements in Italy’s newly formed city republics not only laid the foundation for now centuries-old practices of making, but also helped to legitimize local governments and shore up church power, buttressing fantasies of exactitude and certainty that linger to this day. This ambitious, truly interdisciplinary book explains how measurements, rather than being mere descriptors of the real, themselves work as powerful molds of ideas, affecting our notions of what we consider similar, accurate, and truthful.
Author: Robert P. Crease
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393082040
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
“Shows that the story of metrology . . . can in the right hands make for a riveting read.”—The Economist Millions of transactions each day depend on a reliable network of weights and measures. But achieving such a network was anything but easy, as Robert P. Crease, physicist and philosopher, demonstrates in this endlessly fascinating, always entertaining look at just how this international system evolved. From the link between musical pitch and distance in the dynasties of ancient China and the use of figurines to measure gold in West Africa to the creation of the French metric and British imperial systems, Crease takes readers along on one of history’s greatest philosophical and scientific adventures.
Author: Helaine Selin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 140204559X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2428
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Book Description
Here, at last, is the massively updated and augmented second edition of this landmark encyclopedia. It contains approximately 1000 entries dealing in depth with the history of the scientific, technological and medical accomplishments of cultures outside of the United States and Europe. The entries consist of fully updated articles together with hundreds of entirely new topics. This unique reference work includes intercultural articles on broad topics such as mathematics and astronomy as well as thoughtful philosophical articles on concepts and ideas related to the study of non-Western Science, such as rationality, objectivity, and method. You’ll also find material on religion and science, East and West, and magic and science.
Author: Donald B. Carroll
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 1977225241
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
Introducing an incredible and elegant link from the past—a global link as integral to our journey today as it was thousands of years ago! This is a link through an ancient unit of measurement, used at sacred sites to unify within ourselves Heaven and Earth, along with time and space. And it is a symbolic message of meaning and hope that has been left for all of us.
Author: Ronald Edward Zupko
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9780871691866
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 578
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Book Description
Zupco presents the legacies of the Middle Ages to the pioneering reformers of the Scientific Revolution; the monumental impact of math, physics, chemistry, astronomy, & technology on modern metrology; the creations, struggles, & successes of the Metric System; & the intense battles between metrics & customary metrologies that have waged since the end of the 18th cent. Includes insights into the personalities involved in metrological events: scientists, technologists, bureaucrats, ministers, members of scientific soc., & shows the impact of scientific experimentation & social revolutions. Includes a comprehensive biblio. of European metrology & the sources relevant to the underpinnings for this period in weights & measures history. Illus.
Author: Jonathan Wilkie
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1524601128
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 62
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Book Description
The origins of lineal measurement remain shrouded in history. Which civilization was the first to create a ruler is uncertain, but the Egyptian, Hebraic, and Mesopotamian civilizations all required, from their very inception, a standardized single measuring system to determine lengths and weights. The standards that were established were kept in the temples and palaces of the time.
