Measurement forms an
essential part of our view of the world. Our world is measured and calibrated,
and we are all subject to the tyranny of these numbers. In this updated and
extended edition, Jeffrey Huw Williams outlines the history of measurement;
particularly of the International System of units (SI). Since the
previous edition, the base units of the SI have been redefined; realizing a
150-year-old dream for a measurement system based on unchanging, fundamental
quantities of nature. This change has created a new SI, a Quantum SI, which
will significantly change the way we look at nature in a quantitative manner,
and greatly facilitate the advance of science.
Key Features
Significantly updated and
extended new edition
The first book to include the
new Quantum SI base unit definitions
Features wider societal and
philosophical implications of a move away from physical standards
Outlines the history of the
science of measurement, and the origin of the Metric System
More than a textbook of
metrology, it is also a history of how we have arrived at the Quantum SI
Author
Jeffrey H Williams: Following a PhD in chemical physics from Cambridge University, Jeffrey worked as a research scientist in the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Illinois, and subsequently as a physicist at the Institute Laue-Langevin, France. Leaving research Jeffrey moved to the world of science publishing and the communication of science by becoming the European editor for the physical sciences for the AAAS's Science and subsequently, the Assistant Executive Secretary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Most recently, 2003–2008, he was the head of publications at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Sèvres. It was during these years at the BIPM that he became interested in, and familiar with the origin of the Metric System, its subsequent evolution into the SI, and the coming transformation into the Quantum-SI. At the BIPM, he was the editor of their journal Metrologia. Jeffrey has written widely about science, technology, the impact of science on society and the individual for general-interest magazines such as New Scientist and for more specialized magazines (Chemistry in Britain, Physics Today, Chemical & Engineering News, Physics World and Chemistry and Industry).
