The Measure of All Things

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Last edited by ImportBot
December 9, 2022 | History

The Measure of All Things

  • 4.0 (1 rating) ·
  • 10 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

In June 1792, the erudite and cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the cautious and scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris -- one north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona to calculate the length of the meter. In the face of death threats from village revolutionary councils, superstitious peasants, and civil war, they had only their wits and their letters to each other for support. Their findings would be used to create what we now know as the metric system. Despite their painstaking and Herculean efforts, Mechain made a mistake in his calculations that he covered up. The guilty knowledge of his error drove him to the brink of madness, and in the end, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only then was his mistake discovered. Delambre decided to seal all evidence of the error in a vault at the Paris Observatory. Two hundred year later, historian Ken Alder discovered the truth. With scintillating prose and wry wit, Alder uses these previously overlooked letters, diaries, and journals to bring to life a remarkable time when everything was open to question and the light of reason made every dream seem possible.

Publish Date
Publisher
Little, Brown
Pages
480

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Measure of All Things
The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World
October 1, 2003, Free Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: The Measure of All Things
The Measure of All Things
September 12, 2002, Little, Brown
Hardcover
Cover of: The measure of all things

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Book Details


First Sentence

"In June 1792-in the dying days of the French monarchy, as the world began to revolve around a new promise of Revolutionary equality-two astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary quest."

Classifications

Library of Congress
QB291, QC91

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Number of pages
480
Dimensions
8.5 x 5.4 x 1.8 inches
Weight
1.5 pounds

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL10446386M
Internet Archive
measureofallthin0000alde
ISBN 10
0316859893
ISBN 13
9780316859899
Library Thing
47340
Goodreads
4773832

Excerpts

In June 1792-in the dying days of the French monarchy, as the world began to revolve around a new promise of Revolutionary equality-two astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary quest.
added anonymously.

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
December 9, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
November 15, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
September 16, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 17, 2021 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 30, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record