| Record ID | marc_columbia/Columbia-extract-20221130-007.mrc:375662838:2536 |
| Source | marc_columbia |
| Download Link | /show-records/marc_columbia/Columbia-extract-20221130-007.mrc:375662838:2536?format=raw |
LEADER: 02536mam a2200361 a 4500
001 3369190
005 20221020054406.0
008 020420t20022002nyua b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2002070267
020 $a074321675X :$c$27.00
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm49699440
035 $9AVD3963CU
035 $a3369190
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dIG#$dOrLoB-B
042 $apcc
050 00 $aQB291$b.A43 2002
082 00 $a526/.1$221
100 1 $aAlder, Ken.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n86115727
245 14 $aThe measure of all things :$bthe seven-year odyssey and hidden error that transformed the world /$cKen Alder.
260 $aNew York :$bFree Press,$c[2002], ©2002.
300 $ax, 422 pages :$billustrations ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 357-400) and index.
520 1 $a"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.
520 8 $aThe 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.".
520 8 $a"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.
520 8 $aOnly 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.
650 0 $aArc measures$xHistory.
650 0 $aMeter (Unit)$xHistory.
600 10 $aDelambre, J. B. J.$q(Jean Baptiste Joseph),$d1749-1822.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84803472
600 10 $aMéchain, Pierre,$d1744-1804.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n89605118
852 00 $bsci$hQB291$i.A43 2002