Ben Waber reviewed Seven Measures of the World by Piero Martin
A Fascinating Scientific Deep-Dive
4 stars
This book sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: how can people measure fundamental physical properties in a way that relies only on immutable properties of the universe? Martin takes us through a physics-infused journey to reveal the extremely recent derivation of unchangeable, objective units for the meter, second, kilo, kelvin, amp, mole, and candela. My only complaint is I wish this book were longer - there's a bit of history about how people used to measure different physical quantities but it's too short for my liking. Highly recommend