Weighing the World: The Quest to Measure the Earth

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Edwin Danson (Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors, Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors)

Weighing the World

The Quest to Measure the Earth

Edwin Danson (Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors, Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
30 July 2009

British & Irish history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; History of science; Popular science; Geographical discovery & exploration; Geodesy & surveying for maps & charts

"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."

By: Edwin Danson (Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors Member of Royal Institution of Chatered Surveyors)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 155mm, Width: 231mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 436g
ISBN: 9780195384956
ISBN 10: 0195384954
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 30 July 2009
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

Reviews for Weighing the World: The Quest to Measure the Earth

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 *