Ken Alder

I asked for this book because I wanted to learn more about the development of the metric system and found so much more in it.

Other than the herculean effort it took to try and "measure" a portion of a meridian, it was the story of Méchain's struggles that helped me get a better understanding of the origin of the scientific concept of "precision". He couldn't understand why repeat measurements would yield different results and died thinking he had committed a serious scientific error that he was ashamed to reveal.… (mere)

This is the true story of two French scientists who triangulated their way up and down the meridian crossing France - during the French Revolution, no less - in order to determine a precise length for the meter. The author, in researching all of this, discovered that not only was there an error in their measurements - rather than being a set one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole, the first meter was about 200 micrometers too short to meet that definition - but that they had known about it and covered it up. This should be a fascinating book, but to be honest, it was dry almost to the point of being unreadable. I kept having to go back and reread paragraphs over and over again. Finally, a few chapters in, I gave up.… (mere)

Ce professeur d'histoire américain a écrit ici une oeuvre magistrale. Il s'est permis de refaire le trajet à vélo des deux astronomes, Delambre et Méchain. De Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre quittait vers le nord et Pierre-François-André Méchain prenait le chemin du sud. Leur objectif mesurer le monde ou, tout du moins, une partie du méridien terrestre de Dunkerque à Barcelone en passant par Paris. Cela donne un ouvrage historique plein d'humanisme où on comprend mieux l'attachement que les communautés avaient aux mesures «variables» de l'Ancien Régime, où on sent le désespoir d'un homme face à l'erreur, où les savants deviennent des scientifiques, où la mesure de la Terre devient mesure des hommes. Cette incursion dans l'histoire du mètre et de la Révolution qui l'a vu naître était une aventure palpitante.
[http://rivesderives.blogspot.ca/2016/04/mesurer-le-monde-lincroyable-histoire.html]… (mere)