World in the balance : the historic quest for an absolute system of measurement / Robert P. Crease.

  • Crease, Robert P.
Date:
[2011], ©2011
  • Books

About this work

Description

Offers the story of the invention of a global network of weights, scales, and instruments for measurement.

Publication/Creation

New York : W.W. Norton, [2011], ©2011.

Physical description

317 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contributors

Edition

1st ed.

Contents

Introduction: The noonday cannon -- Vitruvian man -- Ancient China : feet and flutes -- West Africa : gold weights -- France : "realities of life and labor" -- Halting steps toward universality -- "One of the greatest triumphs of modern civilization" -- Metrophilia and metrophobia -- Surely you're joking, Mr. Duchamp! -- Dreams of a final standard -- Universal system : the Si -- The modern metroscape -- Au revoir, kilogram.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    ADJW
    		Open shelves

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780393072983
  • 0393072983