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Realm Of Measure: From The Yardstick To The Theory Of Relativity
Theory and concept of measurement along with the history of the devices, instruments, and techniques used
- GenresScience
186 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,369 books28.3k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 12, 2008
When I first got this, it sat on the shelf for quite some time. When I got around to reading it, I found it fascinating. How & why we measure seems pretty straight forward & it is, but there is interesting history & facts that make the entire field to life.
July 31, 2014
Removed from circulation from my school library and regulated to the trash pile before I spotted the circa-1960 photo of Isaac Asimov on the back cover (looking younger than I've ever seen him before, so I surprised myself by recognizing him), serendipity brought Realm of Measure: From the yardstick to the Theory of Relativity into my possession.
I'm happy that it did. Though billed as an exploration of mathematics, he veers off a bit into scientific measurements, but I'll still count this toward my goal of reading one interesting book on math each summer, and this one does it without spinning out of control with endless, overly-complicated and overly-ridiculous equations.
http://mrburkemath.blogspot.com/2014/...
I'm happy that it did. Though billed as an exploration of mathematics, he veers off a bit into scientific measurements, but I'll still count this toward my goal of reading one interesting book on math each summer, and this one does it without spinning out of control with endless, overly-complicated and overly-ridiculous equations.
http://mrburkemath.blogspot.com/2014/...
May 6, 2017
I never thought I'd say this but this book by Asimov is absolutely awful. The whole book shows how to convert from one system of measurement to another, with far too much essentially repetitive math being done to overwhelm one. Not so much in the latter parts of the book that dealt with more scientific based measurements that do not have familiar American or British equivalents, but the beginning part was a constant annoying (even if he was correct) whine that metric would be easier to use than the other methods. Stipulated, he was right but after reading it well over a half dozen times, I was not happy to read it yet again!
He does explain the difference between mass and weight well in here. (quick explanation: Your mass is the same here on earth or on the moon, but you weigh a lot less on the moon than on earth.)
There were a few other things that were decently done but nonetheless, this book was not a success. I suspect Asimov was still at the early stage of publishing where the publishers could demand topics from him. He learned somewhere along the way to leave math out of his books for the most part. Maybe this was the book that taught him that lesson.
He does explain the difference between mass and weight well in here. (quick explanation: Your mass is the same here on earth or on the moon, but you weigh a lot less on the moon than on earth.)
There were a few other things that were decently done but nonetheless, this book was not a success. I suspect Asimov was still at the early stage of publishing where the publishers could demand topics from him. He learned somewhere along the way to leave math out of his books for the most part. Maybe this was the book that taught him that lesson.
January 25, 2023
I like Asimov’s science fiction. I didn’t like this non-fiction because it got too wrapped up in listing out the conversions, but there were several fun random facts about measurements that I liked.
I may read his stuff about the Bible. I feel like someone so analytical writing about the Bible could be an interesting viewpoint.
I may read his stuff about the Bible. I feel like someone so analytical writing about the Bible could be an interesting viewpoint.
August 19, 2009
The Good Doctor describes how scientific advances have kept pace with the development of every more precise methods of measurement of every quantity from displacement to pressure to elapsed time.
June 25, 2012
If you're looking for conversion factors between feet furlongs chains and rods and pedes, this is a good read. A history of measurement.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews