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Defining and measuring nature : = the make of all things /

Record Type:	Language materials, printed : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Defining and measuring nature :/ Jeffrey H. Williams.
Reminder of title:	the make of all things /
Author:	Williams, Jeffrey H.
Description:	1 online resource (various pagings) :colour illustrations. :
Notes:	"A Morgan & Claypool publication as part of IOP Concise Physics"--Title page verso.
Subject:	Metric system - History. -
Online resource:	http://iopscience.iop.org/book/978-1-627-05279-5

Defining and measuring nature : = the make of all things /
Williams, Jeffrey H.1943-,

Defining and measuring nature :the make of all things /Jeffrey H. Williams. - 1 online resource (various pagings) :colour illustrations. - IOP concise physics,.

"A Morgan & Claypool publication as part of IOP Concise Physics"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction

Full-text restricted to subscribers or individual document purchasers.

Weights and measures form an essential part of our ingrained view of the world. It is just about impossible to function effectively without some internalized system of measurement. In this volume, I outline a history of the science of measurement, and the origin of the International System of Units ('SI'). The simplicity and coherence of the Metric System is outlined, and we see how a system of weights and measures, based on only seven fundamental quantities, can be used as the basis of all science. We will soon witness a redefinition of four of the seven fundamental quantities upon which the SI is based. This change in how we all define a number of fundamental quantities will not be subject to any discussion or appeal, humanity will be presented with a fait accompli. What will this mean for us?

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Jeffrey Huw Williams, born 13 April 1956, gained his PhD in chemical physics from Cambridge University in 1981. His career has been in the physical sciences. First, as a research scientist in the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Illinois, and subsequently as a physicist at the Institute Laue-Langevin. He has published more than sixty technical papers and invited review articles in the peer-reviewed literature. He left research in 1992 and 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. Subsequently, he was the Assistant Executive Secretary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the agency responsible for the advancement of chemistry through international collaboration. Most recently, 2003-2008, he was the head of publications at the Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), S�evres. The BIPM is charged by the Metre Convention of 1875 with ensuring world-wide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units (SI). 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 coming transformation into the Quantum-SI.

Standard No.: 10.1088/978-1-627-05279-5doiSubjects--Topical Terms:

985724
Metric system
--History.

LC Class. No.: QC83 / .W554 2014eb

Dewey Class. No.: 530.8/1

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500 $a "A Morgan & Claypool publication as part of IOP Concise Physics"--Title page verso.
500 $a "Version: 20140301"--Title page verso.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references.
505 0 $a Introduction
505 8 $a Measurement in antiquity -- Man is the measure of all things -- Seeds and cosmic forces -- The Bronze-Age -- The Roman Empire -- Further reading
505 8 $a Measurement in the early modern period -- 'Measured by the king's iron rod' -- Measuring the world
505 8 $a Measurement in the Modern World -- La R�evolution Fran�caise -- Defining the size of the world -- The metric survey -- Envy, money, terror and the metric system -- The endgame -- Further reading
505 8 $a Falling out of favour with the metric system
505 8 $a Creating the language that is science -- Dividing apples with oranges to make ... something different -- The consequences of mixing units -- Derived units -- A final comment on the value of a quantity
505 8 $a What was not in the original metric system? -- Energy, work and power -- Electricity
505 8 $a Measurement in the age of scientific certainty -- The Convention du M�etre -- The CGPM, the CIPM and the BIPM
505 8 $a A true universal language? -- Even scientists cannot always agree on units
505 8 $a 20th century refinements in measurement -- Two peoples separated by a common system of weights and measures
505 8 $a The base units of the Syst�eme international des unit�es -- Metre -- Kilogram -- Second -- Atomic time -- Ampere -- Kelvin -- Candela -- Mole -- Final comments on Ionizing radiation -- Further reading
505 8 $a For this is science -- Units of measurement must evolve, because science evolves -- The constants of nature
505 8 $a Re-inventing the Syst�eme international des unit�es : towards a Quantum-SI -- Is the kilogram getting lighter...or heavier? -- The 'smoking gun' -- The how and the why of redefinition -- The devil is in the detail -- 'Who will explain the explanations?' -- Further reading
505 8 $a Dialects of the single language of science -- Final thoughts on the evolution of units of measurement.
506 $a Full-text restricted to subscribers or individual document purchasers.
520 3 $a Weights and measures form an essential part of our ingrained view of the world. It is just about impossible to function effectively without some internalized system of measurement. In this volume, I outline a history of the science of measurement, and the origin of the International System of Units ('SI'). The simplicity and coherence of the Metric System is outlined, and we see how a system of weights and measures, based on only seven fundamental quantities, can be used as the basis of all science. We will soon witness a redefinition of four of the seven fundamental quantities upon which the SI is based. This change in how we all define a number of fundamental quantities will not be subject to any discussion or appeal, humanity will be presented with a fait accompli. What will this mean for us?
530 $a Also available in print.
538 $a System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
538 $a Mode of access: World Wide Web.
545 $a Jeffrey Huw Williams, born 13 April 1956, gained his PhD in chemical physics from Cambridge University in 1981. His career has been in the physical sciences. First, as a research scientist in the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Illinois, and subsequently as a physicist at the Institute Laue-Langevin. He has published more than sixty technical papers and invited review articles in the peer-reviewed literature. He left research in 1992 and 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. Subsequently, he was the Assistant Executive Secretary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the agency responsible for the advancement of chemistry through international collaboration. Most recently, 2003-2008, he was the head of publications at the Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), S�evres. The BIPM is charged by the Metre Convention of 1875 with ensuring world-wide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units (SI). 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 coming transformation into the Quantum-SI.
588 $a Title from PDF title page (viewed on March 5, 2014).
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650 7 $a Mensuration and systems of measurement. $2 bicssc $3 985725
650 0 $a Weights and measures $x History. $3 985726
650 0 $a Measurement $x History. $3 985727
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710 2 $a Institute of Physics (Great Britain), $e publisher. $3 985711
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856 4 0 $u http://iopscience.iop.org/book/978-1-627-05279-5