Bill Potts wrote in USMA 24361:
In October, Ken Alder, the author of The Measure of All Things, gave a
one-hour talk (including a question and answer period) at a bookstore in
Winnetka, IL.
I recommend the bo0k. It contains much fascinating detail
about the survey of M�chain and Delambre. However, Alder is no
physicist. He gives an incorrect description of the 1793 draft
metric system and he got the ratios of the pre-revolutionary monetary
system interchanged. His sub-title "Hidden Error that
Transformed the World" is quite unjustified by the text, in which
he states "the final determination of the meter was based
on the very data they [M�chain and Delambre] had been sent to
supersede". He goes on in the next paragraph to state
"Seven years of labor had only succeeded in making the meter less
accurate".
On page
250 Alder wrote "the earth's radius at the poles was 1/300 (or
0.3 percent) shorter than its radius at the equator".
I would rephrase that as "the radius of curvature of the
meridians of longitude is 1/300 greater at the poles than at the
equator". It is true that the distance to the center of the
earth is less from the poles than from the equator. However, the
distance on the surface of the earth between latitude 89� and the
pole is greater than the distance from the equator to latitude 1�.
I admit that I am not sure how "aplatissement " was
defined.
--
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8
Telephone 416-486-6071
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8
