Volume

Carlo de Carolis

The Pact of Measurement

From the cubit to the constants of nature: how humanity learned to measure the world

Year
2026
Disciplines
metrologystoria della scienza
Level
Introductory
Status
Draft
Version
0.2.0
License
CC BY-SA 4.0
Contents
11 chapters
  1. 00 Preface Why tell the story of measurement
  2. 01 The Body as Measure Cubits, feet and the fertile chaos of ancient measures
  3. 02 The Meridian and the Revolution Delambre, Méchain and the metre wrested from the Earth
  4. 03 Longitude and Time Harrison, the railways and the hour of the world
  5. 04 The Century of Standards The Metre Convention and the diplomacy of precision
  6. 05 Measuring the Invisible Temperature, electricity and the ohm of the transatlantic cables
  7. 06 Error Becomes Science Gauss, the astronomers and the birth of statistics
  8. 07 Matter as Standard From the last artefact to the constants of nature
  9. 08 Extreme Measurement Optical clocks, relativistic geodesy and the limits of the measurable
  10. 09 A Chronology of Measurement Dates and turning points, from the royal cubit to the redefined SI
  11. BIB Bibliography Sources cited and reading paths