000			02129cam a22002654a 4500
001			000648
005			20231009191956.0
008			090206s2002 nyua b 001 0 eng
010			_a2002070267
020			_a9780743216753
042			_apcc
050	0	0	_aQB291 _b.A43 2002
082	0	0	_a526.1 ALD
100	1		_aAlder, Ken
245	1	4	_aThe measure of all things _b: the seven-year odyssey and hidden error that transformed the world _c/ Ken Alder
260			_aNew York _b: Free Press _c, c2002.
300			_ax, 422 p. _b: ill. (some col.) _c; 25 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 397-400) and index.
520			_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. The 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." "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. Only 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.
600	1	0	_aDelambre, J.B.J. (Jean Baptiste Joseph), 1749-1822
600	1	0	_aMechain, Pierre, 1744-1804
650		0	_aArc measures _x--History
650		0	_aMeter (Unit) _x--History
942			_cMO
999			_c222238 _d222238