Asimov Isaac. Realm of Measure

Boston: The Riverside Press, 1960. — 186 p.Measuring things has become so much a part of daily life that most people take it for granted. And yet the concept of measurement is one of the most sophisticated products of the human mind; without it, there could be no science, no industry, no commerce. this book not only explains the underlying theories of measure, but also describes the history of the tools and techniques involved.
Isaac Asimov begins where mankind did, with the very simplest measurements of length. The human body itself provided most of these–the foot, yard, cubit, and fathom are all based on lengths of various parts of the body. But as society developed, it became necessary to standardize these simple units and to add to them as well. Men needed specific ways to describe volume, temperature, time, speed, pressure, and mass.
And it became more and more necessary to convert measurements from one set of units to another. The story of the metric system, which was designed to simplify this problem, combines fine examples of both human invention and folly. Step by step, Asimov brings the reader up to the highly complex units that must be used in order to measure such phenomena as force, energy, and viscosity, and finally, to a consideration of such forbidding topics as Planck’s Constant and Einstein’s theory of relativity. But by the end of the book, the unsuspecting reader is able to grasp how it is that one can go about putting a yardstick on a hydrogen bomb.Feet and Yards
Inches and Miles
Centimeters and Kilometers
Acres and Gallons
Ounces and Grams
Seconds and Per Seconds
Pounds per Cubit Foot and Centimeters per Second
Dynes and Newtons
Ergs and Watts
Poises and Quanta
Index