Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins [Hardcover]

François Cardarelli (Author), M.J. Shields (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 185233682X | ISBN-13: 978-1852336820 | Publication Date: August 12, 2004

Mankind has a fascination with measurement. Down the centuries we have produced a plethora of incompatible and duplicatory systems for measuring everything from the width of an Egyptian pyramid to the concentration of radioactivity near a nuclear reactor and the value of the fine structure constant. With the introduction first of the metric system and of its successor the Système International d'Unités (SI), the scientific community has established a standard method of measurement based on only seven core units.

The Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures converts the huge variety of units from all over the world in every period of recorded history into units of the SI. Featuring:
- An A - Z of conversion tables for over 10,000 units of measurements. 
- Tables of the fundamental constants of nature with their units. 
- Listings of professional societies, and national standardization bodies for easy reference.
- An extensive bibliography detailing further reading on the multifarious aspects of measurement and its units.

This huge work is simply a "must have" for any reference library frequented by scientists of any discipline or by those with historical interests in units of measurement such as archaeologists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Outstanding Title! … Revised and expanded, this version of Cardarelli's Scientific Unit Conversion (3rd ed., 2002) is a comprehensive list of most scientific units, weights and measures, conversions, and definitions. Providing current and historical units from around the world, this book supplies alphabetically arranged conversion tables for more than 10,000 units of measurement….For archaeologists, historians, mathematicians, and scientists in any field. Summing Up: Essential. All collections."
(D. J. Turner, Choice, November 2003)

"All weights, volumes, powers, areas, field strengths ¿ You name it, it's here ¿ A gem for engineers, scientists, historians, journalists ¿" New Scientist

Language Notes

Text: English (translation) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 872 pages
• Publisher: Springer (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185233682X
• ISBN-13: 978-1852336820
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars only conversion reference you will ever need, July 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Scientific Unit Conversion: A Practical Guide to Metrication (Paperback)

Tired of looking through books to find the correct conversion factor to another unit? Well, so was I. Since I deal with international engineering contracts, this book saves a great deal of time. It is extremely well formatted and easy to use. This book not only has the usual units, but also Japanese, and ancient systems as well. You won't need any other book - ever. The author challenges you to find a unit not listed, and send it to him for inclusion in the next edition. That alone should give you an idea of how thorough it is! This is a must for any technical field. Well organized, and well worth the price of the book. A real bargin. Also, fun to read. It gives the approved units for various systems, and states which ones are on the phase-out. Good to know if you are doing technical writing, and need to keep your units within the standards listed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful resource, January 22, 2009

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scientific Unit Conversion: A Practical Guide to Metrication (Paperback)

About five years ago I reviewed a book called "Measure for Measure," by Thomas J. Glover, and gave it 4 stars. In it I said:

"[I] would recommend it with just one reservation.

Unfortunately, the authors were somewhat arbitrary in deciding which units any particular one would be converted to. If I had written this book, I would have included at least the following for each unit: (1) All other units in the SAME system (i. e., if we are talking about a pre-revolutionary French unit of length, all other pre-revolutionary French units of length) and (2) the nearest-sized SI unit. Unfortunately they frequently leave out conversions between units of the same system that would be useful, and often units of the same approximate size are converted to different SI units, making comparisons difficult. (For example, one foot-size unit may be expressed as so many centimeters, while another as such a fraction of a meter.)

Both of these omissions can be circumvented by using a calculator and working with what these authors have chosen to include, but the book would be easier to use if they had done what I would have."

This book gets its fifth star primarily because it has the feature that I said _should_ have been in Glover's book. It is more comprehensive as well. With these factors, if Glover's book got four stars, this book _has_ to get 5. It has everything I loved in Glover's book, without the shortcomings.

The book is not quite perfect; it has three "atomic mass units" listed (based on C-12, O-16, and H-1) but fails to include the old chemical atomic mass unit I grew up with (based on the abundance-weighted average of the oxygen isotopes), but it is so much more comprehensive than any other book that I still have to recommend it as the best.