Overview

"At the start of the 18th century there were no maps, anywhere in the world. No one knew, with any certainty, the shape of the earth or what lay beneath its surface. Was it hollow or solid? Were the Andes the highest mountains on the Earth or was it the peak of Tenerife? Was the Earth a perfect sphere or slightly squashed as Sir Isaac Newton prophesized? In Weighing the World, master-surveyor and bestselling author Edwin Danson presents the stories of the scientists and scholars who cut their way through jungles, crossed the artic tundra, and braved the world's highest mountains to discover the truth about our Earth. Danson also recounts the extraordinary experiment, conducted on a desolate Scottish peak by Astromer Royal Neville Maskelyne, to understand the so-called ""attraction of mountains,"" the curious capability mountians have to bend gravity, without which it would be impossible to accurately map Earth's surface. A spell-binding scientific adventure story, Weighing the World will intrigue anyone curious about the shape of our planet and how we have come to know it."

Full Product Details

Author:   Edwin Danson (Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors, Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.10cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 15.50cm
Weight:   0.436kg
ISBN:  

9780195384956

ISBN 10:   0195384954
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   14 May 2009
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Preface 1: I Cannot Be Wrong 2: The Titan King 3: A Calm And Gentle Character 4: The Galileo Of France 5: Extreme Science 6: Robberies And Depredations 7: A Magnificent Military Sketch 8: Persons Well Versed 9: Very Expert In His Business 10: A Passage With My Horse 11: Frankenstein And Other Experiments 12: A Remarkable Hill 13: Important Observations 14: So Great A Noise 15: The Attraction of Mountains 16: The Best Of The Position 17: Distinguished Merit 18: Late A Whole Year 19: Geodetic Experiments 20: I Know It Will Answer 21: Offering Violence To Nature 22: A Meritorious Foreigner 23: Men Worthy Of Confidence 24: Irregularities We Have Discovered Explanations and Definitions

Reviews

This is history writ large, with a long list of characters, and a background of wars, where good maps could be the key to victory. --The New Scientist

This is history writ large, with a long list of characters, and a background of wars, where good maps could be the key to victory. * The New Scientist *

This is history writ large, with a long list of characters, and a background of wars, where good maps could be the key to victory. --The New Scientist<br>

<br> This is history writ large, with a long list of characters, and a background of wars, where good maps could be the key to victory. --The New Scientist<br>

Author Information

Edwin Danson is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors. He is the author of Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America.

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