World in the balance : the historic quest for an absolute system of measurement / Robert P. Crease.
Pubblicazione:
New York : W.W. Norton, c2011.
Descrizione fisica:
317 p. : ill. ; 25 cm
Contiene:
Indice: Introduction: The noonday cannon 1. Vitruvian man 2. Ancient China: feet and flutes 3. West Africa: gold weights 4. France: realities of life and labor 5. Halting steps toward universality 6. One of the greatest triumphs of modern civilization 7. Metrophilia and metrophobia 8. Surely you're joking, Mr. Duchamp! 9. Dreams of a final standard 10. Universal system: the Si 11. The modern metroscape 12. Au revoir, kilogram. Epilogue. Acknowledgments. Notes. Illustration credits. Index
