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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Broad in scope but shallow in depth. Barely worth the money,
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This review is from: A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement (Hardcover)
I have mixed feeling about "A Measure of All Things" by Ian Whitelaw, and I think Whitelaw does also. In the Epilogue he is rather apologetic for the limited depth of the book. Over 300 interesting and widely different measurements are covered (good), but the coverage is inconsistent in quality (not so good).In some cases the writer mentions interesting facts, but gives no explanation. For example, thickness gauges often measure decreasing thickness as the gauge number increases, the opposite of what one might expect. He mentions one possible explanation in passing, but why not find out the real reason and tell us? He also lists model railway scales as "O", "OO", "N", "T" and so on, but does not explain how those designations came about. In another place he describes the names for wine bottles - magnum, jeroboam etc, but says nothing about who chose such names and when. Similarly, the story of how prefixes like "yotta" and "zepto" got their names is interesting, but you won't find the story in this book. These examples aptly illustrate the shallowness of the book. A myriad of interesting topics are presented in convenient "bites" so that readers can graze, rather than actually read the book. Some readers may prefer that approach. But I think most readers want more than just snippets of raw information in a book of this nature. We want information that has been analysed and put into perspective, with comparisons made and conclusions drawn. Then information becomes knowledge, something more than just the sum of individual facts. It is also what separates good writers from clerks trawling through Google search results. I was also surprised that Whitelaw did not mention the most spectacular recent example illustrating the need to get units of measurement right. NASA officials found that the $125 million Mars Polar Orbiter launched some years ago burned up on impact with the thin Martian atmosphere because two navigation teams and their computers had confused English and metric units. There are errors on page 115. Whitelaw says that a body in free fall under the influence of gravity experiences no forces. That is incorrect. A body in free fall accelerates due to the force of gravity. He then gives a wrong explanation for the "vomit comet" used by NASA to simulate weightlessness. Weightlessness occurs at the top of a carefully flown arc, not as the plane accelerates downwards as Whitelaw says. The book is only 160 pages, much of it diagrams, so there was plenty of scope for more explanatory material to be included. In fact, if you took out the diagrams, there are probably only 60 or so pages of text, making it more of a pamphlett than a book. The paper is thick, presumably to add bulk and fool the buyer into thinking he has received value for money. The use of diagrams and graphical flourishes is grossly overdone, probably to pad out the book to an almost-respectable size. An acre is described at length in the text on the measurement of area, so there is hardly any need for a large diagram of a bare rectangle to show the proportions of an acre. The colour for the text has been poorly chosen. Instead of the usual black print one is accustomed to see, the publishers have chosen a dark bluish-grey font. It is readable (but uncomfortable) in good daylight, but difficult to read in anything but the brightest artificial light. The font and the graphic design with all its diagrams look good, but aesthetic factors seem to have triumphed over content. The bottom line: Broad in scope but shallow in depth. Barely worth the money.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Romp Through the World of Measurement,
By
This review is from: A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement (Hardcover)
When I first leafed through this book, I got the impression that it was simply a listing of various units used in the measurement of various quantities. However, upon closer examination, I realized that it was much more that. For each of the various units that are discussed, the author gives its historical origin, its evolution and its current standing. In eleven chapters, the author covers everything from length, area and volume to energy, radioactivity and lasers. The last chapter covers miscellaneous topics such as the perceived hotness of chili peppers, the hardness of various materials and ring sizes. The writing style is very clear, authoritative and friendly. Although anyone would be fascinated by this book, it would likely be most enjoyed by science buffs - especially those with a passion for the physical sciences.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fun and Exciting Book on Measurement,
By
This review is from: A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement (Hardcover)
I got this book at a library first, but I liked it so much that I bought it.If you are at all interested in how things are measured or where they got the idea for such and such way to measure something than I recommend you simply buy this fun book. I keep it in my classroom for my students to read when they get done early. They like it too. Nicely illustrated, easy to access.
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