Home > Science > General > The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World 
| | The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World Author: Ken Alder
Retail Price: $26
Price: $18.2
Format: Audio Download
Audio Length: 6 hours and 1 min. You save $7.80 (30%)  Click here to buy
| | |
RATINGS:
Average Customer Rating: 3
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY:
Amid the chaos of the French Revolution, two 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. 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 logbooks, he stumbled upon a 200-year-old secret. The meter, it turns out, is in error. One of the two astronomers, Pierre-François-André Méchain, 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 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? This is a story of two men, a secret, and a timeless human dilemma: is it permissible to perpetuate a small lie in the service of a larger truth? In The Measure of All Things Ken Alder describes a quest that succeeded even as it failed. It is a story for all people, for all time.
FIND MORE TITLES:
All categories | Science | General | Search
HOW AUDIBLE WORKS:
Choose from thousands of downloadable audio books, radio programs and much more! | | 
Easily download audio programs from the Internet to your computer. No cassettes or CDs! | | 
Listen at your computer, burn to CDs, or transfer your program to an AudibleReady mobile player. | | 
Save up to 80% compared with audiobooks on tape or CD. Become a member for as little as $14.95 and save each month. |
MP3 PLAYERS:
Compatible MP3 players
Image & Summary provided by Audible, Inc.
All brands and product names are trademarked or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Prices, specifications, and availability are subject to change without notification. E.&O.E.
Page revised: Tuesday, November 30, 2004. |
