Measure for measure : the story of imperial, metric, and other units
著者
書誌事項
Measure for measure : the story of imperial, metric, and other units
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003
- : hbk
大学図書館所蔵 件 / 全5件
-
該当する所蔵館はありません
- すべての絞り込み条件を解除する
注記
Bibliography: p. 209-210
Includes index
内容説明・目次
内容説明
From the cubit used by Noah to build the ark to the angstrom in spectroscopy, units of measure have been integral to science and engineering. Throughout history, countless systems of measurement have been devised and then discarded as more precise and more logical systems have come along. While most of the world has adopted the metric system, the United States - with the curious exception of soda bottles - adheres to the imperial system, even though the country has officially been a metric nation since 1893, when Thomas Corwin Mendenhall declared metric prototypes the country's "fundamental standards of length and mass". The convenience of the base-ten metric system is undeniable, and so are the costs associated with not converting to metric. Yet, Americans still cling to inches, quarts and ounces. Clearly, there is more to measurement than logic. In this book, Alex Hebra offers an engaging and instructive history of measurement systems from ancient times to the present, exploring how and why such units as the stadium, the span and the parsec first came about.
Tracing civilization's various efforts to calculate distance, volume, mass, energy and time, he explains how units of measurement are applied in such fields as mechanical engineering, physics, optics and astronomy. In particular, Hebra focuses on the development of the metric system, arguing that even the United States will eventually join the worldwide metric community. "Measure for Measure" chronicles humanity's imperfect search for the perfect system with which to quantify reality.
「Nielsen BookData」 より