Give them an inch
World in the Balance: The historic quest for an absolute system of measurement by Robert P. Crease
PRECISION and fastidiousness – at first blush the quest for a precise system of measurement might seem a plodding pursuit. But as philosopher Robert P. Crease makes clear in World in the Balance, it was anything but.
From prehistory to the present, Crease ties humanity’s search for precision to the history of nations and of ideas. Any measurement must be based on a “standard” that embodies a unit, such as a foot, a finger or a hand. Eventually standards came to be inscribed in stone or metal and stored in protected areas such as the Acropolis for the Greeks, and in later centuries in Paris and Washington DC. Ownership of the standard symbolised political and social power.
Published in New Scientist on Dec 3, 2011
