In June 1792-in the dying days of the French monarchy, as the world began to revolve around a new promise of Revolutionary equality-two astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary quest.
An edition of The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World
(2001)
The measure of all things
the seven-year odyssey and hidden error that transformed the world
by Ken Alder
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"Amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, two intrepid astronomers set out in opposite directions from Paris to measure the world, one voyaging north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona. Their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator, a standard that has since swept the planet.
The Measure of All Things is the astonishing story of one of history's greatest scientific quests, a mission to measure the Earth and define the meter for all nations and for all time.".
"Yet when Ken Alder located the long-lost correspondence between the two men, along with their mission log books, he stumbled upon a two-hundred-year-old secret, and a drama worthy of the great French playwrights. The meter, it turns out, is in error. One of the two astronomers, Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain, made contradictory measurements from Barcelona and, in a panic, covered up the discrepancy. The guilty knowledge of his misdeed drove him to the brink of madness, and ultimately to his death.
Only then - after the meter had already been publicly announced - did his partner, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre, discover the truth and face a fateful choice: what matters more, the truth or the appearance of the truth?"--BOOK JACKET.
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The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World
October 1, 2003, Free Press
Paperback
in English
0743216768 9780743216760
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The measure of all things: the seven-year odyssey and hidden error that transformed the world
2002, Free Press
Hardcover
in English
074321675X 9780743216753
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Book Details
First Sentence
"In June 1792-in the dying days of the French monarchy, as the world began to revolve around a new promise of Revolutionary equality-two astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary quest."
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-400) and index.
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In June 1792, the erudite and cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the cautious and scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris -- one north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona to calculate the length of the meter. In the face of death threats from village revolutionary councils, superstitious peasants, and civil war, they had only their wits and their letters to each other for support. Their findings would be used to create what we now know as the metric system. Despite their painstaking and Herculean efforts, Mechain made a mistake in his calculations that he covered up. The guilty knowledge of his error drove him to the brink of madness, and in the end, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only then was his mistake discovered. Delambre decided to seal all evidence of the error in a vault at the Paris Observatory. Two hundred year later, historian Ken Alder discovered the truth. With scintillating prose and wry wit, Alder uses these previously overlooked letters, diaries, and journals to bring to life a remarkable time when everything was open to question and the light of reason made every dream seem possible.
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