Defining and Measuring Nature: The make of all things

PRELIMS.pdf
	Preface
	Acknowledgements
	Author biography
		Jeffrey Huw Williams
		Further reading
CH001.pdf
	Chapter 1 Measurement in antiquity
		1.1 Man is the measure of all things
		1.2 Seeds and cosmic forces
		1.3 The Bronze-Age
		1.4 Ancient time metrology: the calendar
		1.5 The Roman Empire
		Further reading
CH002.pdf
	Chapter 2 Measurement in the early modern period
		2.1 ‘Measured by the King’s iron rod’
		2.2 Measuring the world
		2.3 The pendulum: the world’s first precision measuring device
		2.4 ‘Dear boy …’
		Further reading
CH003.pdf
	Chapter 3 Measurement in the modern world (I)
		3.1 Surveying and measuring the Earth
		3.2 The circumference of the Earth
		3.3 The Chinese survey
		3.4 La Révolution Française
		3.5 Defining the size of the world
		3.6 The metric survey
		3.7 The error in all things
		Further reading
CH004.pdf
	Chapter 4 Measurement in the modern world (II)
		4.1 Envy, money, terror, and the Metric System
		4.2 The endgame
		4.3 Avez-vous l’heure s’il vous plait?
		4.4 Falling out of favour with the Metric System
		Further reading
CH005.pdf
	Chapter 5 Creating the language that is science
		5.1 Dividing apples with oranges to make … something different
		5.2 The consequences of mixing units
		5.3 Derived units
		5.4 A final comment on the value of a quantity
		Further reading
CH006.pdf
	Chapter 6 What was not in the original Metric System?
		6.1 Energy, work, and power
		6.2 Electricity
		6.3 The molecule meme
		6.4 Unit conversion in electromagnetism
		Further reading
CH007.pdf
	Chapter 7 Measurement in the age of scientific certainty
		7.1 The Convention du mètre
		7.2 Conférence générale des poids et mesures (CGPM)
		7.3 Comité international des poids et mesures (CIPM)
		7.4 Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM)
		Further reading
CH008.pdf
	Chapter 8 A true universal language: the SI
		8.1 Even scientists cannot always agree on units
		Further reading
CH009.pdf
	Chapter 9 20th Century confusions and refinements in measurement
		9.1 International politics
		9.2 Events at the BIPM during the Fall of France, June 1940
		9.3 Two peoples separated by a common system of weights and measures
		Further reading
CH010.pdf
	Chapter 10 The birth of the Quantum-SI
		10.1 The need for change
		10.2 The problem that was the kilogram
			10.2.1 The ‘smoking gun’
		10.3 The background to the redefinition
		Further reading
CH011.pdf
	Chapter 11 The base units of the Système International des Unites (I)
		11.1 The base unit of length is the metre (m)
		11.2 The base unit of mass is the kilogram (kg)
		11.3 The base unit of electric current is the ampere (A)
			11.3.1 The Kibble balance
		11.4 The base unit of thermodynamic temperature is the kelvin (K)
			11.4.1 The Boltzmann constant
		11.5 The base unit of light intensity is the candela (cd)
		11.6 The base unit of amount of substance is the mole (mol)
		Further reading
CH012.pdf
	Chapter 12 The base units of the Système International des Unites (II)
		12.1 The base unit of time is the second (s)
			12.1.1 Atomic time
			12.1.2 High-resolution atomic spectroscopy and time metrology
			12.1.3 The width of an observed absorption
			12.1.4 Hydrogen maser
			12.1.5 Caesium beam oscillator
			12.1.6 Caesium fountain oscillator
		12.2 The future of frequency standards
		12.3 The mechanism of an optical clock
			12.3.1 Femtosecond comb
			12.3.2 Optical clocks
		12.4 Secondary representations of the second
		12.5 Possible applications of optical clocks
		Further reading
CH013.pdf
	Chapter 13 The new Système international des unites
		13.1 Some further details of the Quantum-SI
		13.2 Experimental measurements of the elementary charge, e
			13.2.1 In terms of the Avogadro constant and Faraday constant
			13.2.2 Oil-drop experiment
			13.2.3 Shot noise
			13.2.4 The Josephson and von Klitzing constants
		13.3 The problem of the permeability of space in the new SI
		13.4 Determination of the Planck constant
			13.4.1 Josephson constant
			13.4.2 Kibble balance
		13.5 Measurement of NA by x-ray diffraction
		Further reading
CH014.pdf
	Chapter 14 For this is science
		14.1 Units of measurement must evolve, because science evolves
		14.2 The constants of Nature
		14.3 Final thoughts on the evolution of units of measurement