Defining and measuring nature : the make of all things / Jeffrey Huw Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Jeffrey H. (Jeffrey Huw), 1956- author.

Contributor:

Institute of Physics (Great Britain), publisher.

Series:

IOP ebooks.

IOP ebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Weights and measures--History.

Weights and measures.

Measurement--History.

Measurement.

Metric system--History.

Metric system.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (various pagings) : illustrations (some color).

Edition:

Second edition.

Other Title:

Make of all things.

Place of Publication:

Bristol [England] (Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK) : IOP Publishing, [2020]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Biography/History:

Following a PhD in chemical physics from Cambridge University, Jeffrey Huw Williams worked as a research scientist in the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Illinois, and subsequently as a physicist at the Institute Laue-Langevin, France. Leaving research, Jeffrey moved to the world of science publishing and the communication of science by becoming the European editor for the physical sciences for the AAAS's Science and subsequently, the Assistant Executive Secretary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Most recently, 2003-2008, he was the head of publications at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Sèvres. It was during these years at the BIPM that he became interested in, and familiar with the origin of the Metric System, its subsequent evolution into the SI, and the transformation into the Quantum-SI. At the BIPM, he was the editor of their journal Metrologia. Jeffrey has written widely about science, technology, the impact of science on society and the individual for general-interest magazines such as New Scientist and for more specialized magazines (Chemistry in Britain, Physics Today, Chemical & Engineering News, Physics World and Chemistry and Industry).

Summary:

Measurement forms an essential part of our view of the world. Our world is measured and calibrated, and we are all subject to the tyranny of these numbers. In this updated and extended edition, Jeffrey Huw Williams outlines the history of measurement; particularly of the International System of units (SI). Since the previous edition, the base units of the SI have been redefined; realising a 150-year-old dream for a measurement system based on unchanging, fundamental quantities of nature. This change has created a new SI, a Quantum-SI, which will significantly change the way we look at nature in a quantitative manner, and greatly facilitate the advance of science.

Contents:

Introduction : the origin of observation and measurement

1. Measurement in antiquity

1.1. Man is the measure of all things

1.2. Seeds and cosmic forces

1.3. The Bronze-Age

1.4. Ancient time metrology : the calendar

1.5. The Roman Empire

2. Measurement in the early modern period

2.1. 'Measured by the King's iron rod'

2.2. Measuring the world

2.3. The pendulum : the world's first precision measuring device

2.4. 'Dear boy ...'

3. Measurement in the modern world (I)

3.1. Surveying and measuring the Earth

3.2. The circumference of the Earth

3.3. The Chinese survey

3.4. La Révolution Française

3.5. Defining the size of the world

3.6. The metric survey

3.7. The error in all things

4. Measurement in the modern world (II)

4.1. Envy, money, terror, and the metric system

4.2. The endgame

4.3. Avez-vous l'heure s'il vous plait?

4.4. Falling out of favour with the metric system

5. Creating the language that is science

5.1. Dividing apples with oranges to make ... something different

5.2. The consequences of mixing units

5.3. Derived units

5.4. A final comment on the value of a quantity

6. What was not in the original metric system?

6.1. Energy, work, and power

6.2. Electricity

6.3. The molecule meme

6.4. Unit conversion in electromagnetism

7. Measurement in the age of scientific certainty

7.1. The Convention du mètre

7.2. Conférence générale des poids et mesures (CGPM)

7.3. Comité international des poids et mesures (CIPM)

7.4. Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM)

8. A true universal language : the SI

8.1. Even scientists cannot always agree on units

9. 20th century confusions and refinements in measurement

9.1. International politics

9.2. Events at the BIPM during the Fall of France, June 1940

9.3. Two peoples separated by a common system of weights and measures

10. The birth of the Quantum-SI

10.1. The need for change

10.2. The problem that was the kilogram

10.3. The background to the redefinition

11. The base units of the Système International des Unites (I)

11.1. The base unit of length is the metre (m)

11.2. The base unit of mass is the kilogram (kg)

11.3. The base unit of electric current is the ampere (A)

11.4. The base unit of thermodynamic temperature is the kelvin (K)

11.5. The base unit of light intensity is the candela (cd)

11.6. The base unit of amount of substance is the mole (mol)

12. The base units of the Système International des Unites (II)

12.1. The base unit of time is the second (s)

12.2. The future of frequency standards

12.3. The mechanism of an optical clock

12.4. Secondary representations of the second

12.5. Possible applications of optical clocks

13. The new Système international des unites

13.1. Some further details of the Quantum-SI

13.2. Experimental measurements of the elementary charge, e

13.3. The problem of the permeability of space in the new SI

13.4. Determination of the Planck constant

13.5. Measurement of NA by x-ray diffraction

14. For this is science

14.1. Units of measurement must evolve, because science evolves

14.2. The constants of Nature

14.3. Final thoughts on the evolution of units of measurement.

Notes:

"Version: 20200701"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 4, 2020).

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780750331425

0750331429

9780750331432

0750331437

OCLC:

1182503054