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Title: The Measure of All Things : The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World by Ken Alder ISBN: 0-7432-1675-X Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (18 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but not very exciting scientific history
Comment: Ken Alder's "The Measure of All Things" follows two French scientists as they traverse France over the course of years in the 1790's. Their goal was to accurately measure the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona, triangulating from mountaintops and cathedrals, so that the size of the earth could be extrapolated from their calculations. Then they hoped to have a precise figure for the length of the meter, the new unit of measurement defined as being one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole.
My favorite aspect of the book was how the measurement expedition was tied to the French Revolution. The decision to switch to the meter, intended to be a gift to the world, was a consequence of the era of rationality in France that led to the Revolution. However it was the Revolution that almost derailed the men. The scientists, rather suspicious when setting up their arcane instruments on top of local high points, were repeatedly detained by locals who mistook them for spies. The extreme political chaos is contrasted nicely with the high-minded goals of the Scientific Academy, seeking to replace France's hodge-podge of measurement systems with a rationally defined and scientifically determined unit.
Unfortunately the senior of the two scientists, Méchain, suffers from a crisis of confidence throughout the narrative, and ended up fudging his results a bit to reduce the appearance of error in his numbers. (Their calculation was off a bit anyway because the curvature of the earth is less uniform than was thought at the time.) Méchain's dawdling and despair take up a rather unenjoyably large amount of the book. One certainly feels sorry for his partner, Delambre, who has to cajole the reluctant Méchain into finishing his part of the expedition and getting all of his results tabulated.
I was glad to learn about the origins of the metric system, and the story of performing ground-breaking science in the middle of revolutionary turmoil was fascinating. The politics of the Scientific Academy and the details about the scientific giants of the time also fleshed out the context well. Méchain's dilly-dallying is the center of my disenchantment with the book. I really grew to hate this guy! Admittedly, he was understandably plagued with doubt after discovering a major discrepancy in his calculations, and techniques of understanding and resolving scientific error were not well-developed at the time. Still, Méchain should have just sucked it up and gotten the job done -- if not for the duty to his country, or for the wife and children he left behind for several years, then to make the book about his journey flow better. There is a lot of interesting history in this extensively researched book; it's too bad you have to plow through page after page on Méchain's mental distress to get to the good stuff.
Rating: 4
Summary: Informative and engaging read about the journey of meter
Comment: An engaging read, Measure of all things is the story of the meter and the two intreprid astronmers who set about measuring it. Imagine, France three centuries ago. There were quarter million different units of weights and measures being used across the country. Perfectly natural for the people in those days, but unimaginable and chaotic in our current era. French Astronomers at that time came up with a radical proposal of having a single measure. To make it acceptable not only to the French denizens, but all the people around the world, they wanted to get the measurement from the earth itself. The concept was to fix the value of meter as one ten-millionth of the distance from the NorthPole to the Equator. They set out to measure the meridian arc from Dunkrik to Barcelona, running through Paris and then extrapolate this measurement. The catch was in their assumption that the Earth is a perfect sphere, whereas it is warped, due to which their measurement fell short minutely from the actual value.
This error has been perpetuated in every subsequent redefinition of it's length, including our current definition of the meter in terms of the distance travelledby light in a fraction of second. The meter fell short by 0.2 millimeters short.
The tale is not a dry essay on science or measurements. It's a personal saga of courage and dedication from the two astronomers whose expedition stretched for seven years admist political upheavals and war. Even as the French revolution claimed millions of lives, even as many of their scientific colleagues like Lavosier ended up in gullotine, Mechaine and Delambre soldiered on their task. Ending up in enemy territory in the middle of war didn't deter Mechaine. The savant community was unified irrespective of their political affliations, for this was a effort for the whole of mankind.
Mechaine is a punctilious astronmer, extremely obsessed in his measurement. A mismatch in his measurements drowned him in paranoia and fearful of loss of his reputation. Even though errors of this nature in an expedition of this nature was expected, Mechanie's nature of being self-critical and monomaniac turned him melachonic and forced him to fudge measurements to match the existing meter value of that time.
Delambre on the other hand is practical and open about his efforts. A geodesic of equal calibre, he completes the northern portion of measurement and provides emotional and logistic support to Mechaine.
The very act of measuring length is done using the principle of triangulation. If you know the three angles of a triangle and length of one side , you can calculate the length of other two sides. Hence if you know all the angles in a set of triangles connected side by equalside in a chain, plus the length of any single side, you can calculate the length of all their sides.
The strength of the book is it is a easy read, which is targeted for all audiences. It is well written without lingering or digressing on extraneous turns. The element of human drama, especially the state of Mechaine during his worse times, the triumph of human spirit, the highs and lows of human nature, the camaraderie and squabbles in the savant community, all of this is superbly expressed by KenAlder's prose. It's a story of human spirit and Alder fittingly concludes, Man is the measure of all things! Afterall, measurement is an accepted standard. So what if the atheletes who are running a 100m race are actually running 99meters and 98 centimenters. It's the same distance for all the runners!
The quibble is the book could have been 100 pages shorter without losing it's imapact or details or message. The philosopher in Alder keeps coming forth to make observations on human triumph and foibles and the last two chapters are observations on the importance of errors and their understanding for better measurements.
The dreams of Mechaine and Delambre has come true. Except three countries (USA, Burma and Liberia), every country in the world follows metric system.
Rating: 5
Summary: An informative and entertaining read
Comment: The Measure of All Things was a wonderful read! I learned so much, not only about the invention of the metric system, but also about the French Revolution and life in France at that time. I enjoyed the descriptions of the people and landscapes. I felt the author did a great job of capturing the characters and personalities of the men, based on their journals and personal letters. I was intrigued by the error in the data and the dilemma they faced because of it. I was completely absorbed in the story from beginning to end.
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Title: Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy by Andro Linklater ISBN: 0802713963 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Trans Atlantic Cable by John Steele Gordon ISBN: 0802713645 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet by Nicholas Crane ISBN: 0805066241 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 02 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Golden Ratio : The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number by Mario Livio ISBN: 0767908163 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ISBN: 0140258795 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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