Customer Reviews

The Sizesaurus

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The essays at the first part of the book are both witty and clever. However, I also purchased the book for (I thought) some factual information as well, and regret to report that the bulk of the book, containing relationships among units, is dreadful. As an example, a "stone" is given as a unit of mass, when its definition (14 pounds) makes it clear that it is a unit of weight. The definition of "barn" refers to a "barn door", but I believe it was originally a reference to "the side of a barn".

Too bad; it could have been an excellent book as well as a fun one.

The first half of the book is a collection of essays and the second starts with a list of definitions of weights and measures terms and continues with comparisons of various things to give a sense of the quantity being measured; for example, to talk about illumination, we are given for comparison an overcast sky, a candle flame, the sun, a lightning flash, among others; to talk about speed, we are given the growth rate of a child, speed a bacteria moves, the speed Heinz ketchup comes out of the bottle, speed of a cockroach, and the speed the astronauts traveled on the moon. As you can see, it is often silly, but I found it entertaining and thought-provoking. Some difficult concepts are made much easier to understand with the silliness.

One thing that this book stresses is that all systems of weights and measures are arbitrary. It talks about the history of measurement and the politics of measurement throughout history and what led up to the adoption of the metric system.

The biggest drawback for some Americans will be the fact that the book was written by a Canadian who is much more familiar with the metric system than the US customary units, but this edition is specifically edited for Americans, and does not assume a familiarity with the metric system.

There is also an abbreviated index of conversions. I would not necessarily recommend this book as a reference text; rather, it could be thought of as an entertaining way to explore the world of measurement.

The Siazesaurus is awesome! I am a teacher and it allows me to bring very complex subjects down to my fourth grade students in an amuzing and educational way. The book itself is extremely interesting. Pick up The Sizesaurus you will not be disappointed.