Search result for measurement

Measurement | Historyworld

HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

including headings Length, Weight, Volume, Time, Sundial and water clock, ...

Measurement is conventionally done in multiples | INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES

Measurement is conventionally done in multiples of 2, 3 and 4, so Fahrenheit splits his scale into 12 sections, each of them divided into 8 equal parts. This gives him a total of 96 degrees, zero being the freezing point...

Measurement is conventionally done in multiples | HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

Mercury thermometer

Measurement is conventionally done in multiples of 2, 3 and 4, so Fahrenheit splits his scale into 12 sections, each of them divided into 8 equal parts. This gives him a total of 96 degrees, zero being the freezing point...

More precise measurements in the 20th | HISTORY OF THE CALENDAR

Gregorian calendar

More precise measurements in the 20th century have introduced a further refinement of the Gregorian calendar, though not one of immediate significance. As adjusted for pope Gregory, the present system adds one day in eve...

A Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz, builds | DISCOVERIES - ARCHAEOLOGY

Ice Age

A Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz, builds a hut in 1836 on the ice of the Aar glacier. With this as their base, he and various colleagues from the university of Neuchâtel take measurements over the following weeks a...

Hipparchus has no way of explaining | HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

Hipparchus

Hipparchus has no way of explaining this phenomenon (which is due to a slow wobble of the earth's axis, completing one cycle every 26,000 years), but his accuracy is astonishing. Modern measurements give a figure close t...

Hipparchus has no way of explaining | HISTORY OF GREEK SCIENCE

Hipparchus

Hipparchus has no way of explaining this phenomenon (which is due to a slow wobble of the earth's axis, completing one cycle every 26,000 years), but his accuracy is astonishing. Modern measurements give a figure close t...

Artemidorus, a younger contemporary of Hipparchus, | HISTORY OF MAPS

Artemidorus

Artemidorus, a younger contemporary of Hipparchus, is exactly the type of cartographer criticized by the older man. Born in Ephesus, he spends years travelling round the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, making his own...

One of the most rigorous of | HISTORY OF MAPS

A grid before its time

One of the most rigorous of Greek scientists, the astronomer Hipparchus, foresees in the 2nd century BC the requirements of a modern map. He is critical of mapmaking efforts by his Greek contemporaries, based on measurem...

One of the most rigorous of | HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY

A grid before its time

One of the most rigorous of Greek scientists, the astronomer Hipparchus, foresees in the 2nd century BC the requirements of a modern map. He is critical of mapmaking efforts by his Greek contemporaries, based on measurem...

Once Cassini has this first astronomical | HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

Distance of the sun

Once Cassini has this first astronomical distance, he is able to apply it to each of the other planets by means of Kepler's work on their elliptical orbits. But his real quarry is the distance between the earth and the s...

Once Cassini has this first astronomical | HISTORY OF COSMOLOGY

Distance of the sun

Once Cassini has this first astronomical distance, he is able to apply it to each of the other planets by means of Kepler's work on their elliptical orbits. But his real quarry is the distance between the earth and the s...

Even the first clocks can measure | HOURS, MINUTES AND SECONDS

The hour

Even the first clocks can measure periods less than an hour, but soon striking the quarter-hours seems insufficient. With the arrival of dials for the faces of clocks, in the 14th century, something like a minute is requ...

Even the first clocks can measure | HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

The hour

Even the first clocks can measure periods less than an hour, but soon striking the quarter-hours seems insufficient. With the arrival of dials for the faces of clocks, in the 14th century, something like a minute is requ...

Until the arrival of clockwork, in | HOURS, MINUTES AND SECONDS

The hour

Until the arrival of clockwork, in the 14th century AD, an hour is a variable concept. It is a practical division of the day into 12 segments (12 being the most convenient number for dividing into fractions, since it is...

Until the arrival of clockwork, in | HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

The hour

Until the arrival of clockwork, in the 14th century AD, an hour is a variable concept. It is a practical division of the day into 12 segments (12 being the most convenient number for dividing into fractions, since it is...

Astronomical observation begins with the early | HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

Mesopotamia and the Babylonians

Astronomical observation begins with the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, where prominent constellations (the patterns formed by stars in the galaxy) are recognized and named soon after 3000 BC. Similarly the sky-watc...

Astronomical observation begins with the early | HISTORY OF ASTROLOGY

Mesopotamia and the Babylonians

Astronomical observation begins with the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, where prominent constellations (the patterns formed by stars in the galaxy) are recognized and named soon after 3000 BC. Similarly the sky-watc...

The Babylonians use a numerical system | COUNTING SYSTEMS AND NUMERALS

Babylonian numbers

The Babylonians use a numerical system with 60 as its base. This is extremely unwieldy, since it should logically require a different sign for every number up to 59 (just as the decimal system does for every number up to...