David Gray
09-20-2005, 06:48 PM
delambre and mechain; the two men who were responsible for the measurement of
1/10 millionth of a quarter meridian (1/4 of the total distance from the equator
to the north pole ) by triangulating across france and extrapolating the results
they obtained a measurement that was to become the modern day meter.
mechain was tortured by an error he had introduced into the results and what was
to be the most precise work of its type was inaccurate. future adaptation of the
meter recognized that the bar of platinum was not actually correct however it
was irrelevant as standardization of something already accepted was the aim.
in my previous post i commented that it would have been elegant if the result
they obtained had conformed to the accepted current value of the equator to pole
mesurment 10,002,290 modern day meters, or the modern day speed of light as is
299,792,458 meters per second had the 'error ' mechain made been a little
different or our knowledge of lights exact speed been know then; the meter could
have been
adjusted to make our measurement of light speed be expressed as a 'round'
300,000,000 meters per second,
the earth's surface varies from point to point being not a perfect ellipsoid at
any specific longitude the result is different. in the past it may well have
measured a 'round' 10,000,000. 2,290 meters not a great amount of change over
several billion years.
now we have defined the meter (based exactly on the original measurement of the
1790's ) defined in 1983 as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in one
second counted by an atomic clock, amazingly this number is 1/299,792,458 of a
second. hence by almost total chance mechains "error" had it been just a
fraction different is 207,542 millionths parts 'off'; what would be an elegant 3
millionth of a second for the speed of light to travel 1 of our modern day
arbitrary meters.
my point here is that for mechain to have come so close even in error (of
something that was never standard in the first place, the shape of the earth at
all longitudes)
its almost like his higher self was trying for an ultimate number that we would
look back upon now as 'wow isn't that an amazing coincidence' 200 years ago they
almost pegged the speed of lights path over a 1/3 of a second. the actual error
itself is well beyond what his instruments could measure and the poor man died
of malaria trudging through swamps trying to correct it at age 65.
the story is recounted in the book "the measure of all things" by ken alder
although ken did not see the coincidence / sincronicity being a purely
historical account. (mechains son measured the great pyramid and deduced the
egyptians had used the earth's dimensions in its construction).
the moral of the story is i guess is to admit your mistakes as in the long view
of science mistakes / inconsistency of data sometimes shows the way to greater
things. at least it would have made life a lot easier for mathamaticians
working with the constant c. (299,792,458 meters per second )
ll david
[non-text portions of this message have been removed]
1/10 millionth of a quarter meridian (1/4 of the total distance from the equator
to the north pole ) by triangulating across france and extrapolating the results
they obtained a measurement that was to become the modern day meter.
mechain was tortured by an error he had introduced into the results and what was
to be the most precise work of its type was inaccurate. future adaptation of the
meter recognized that the bar of platinum was not actually correct however it
was irrelevant as standardization of something already accepted was the aim.
in my previous post i commented that it would have been elegant if the result
they obtained had conformed to the accepted current value of the equator to pole
mesurment 10,002,290 modern day meters, or the modern day speed of light as is
299,792,458 meters per second had the 'error ' mechain made been a little
different or our knowledge of lights exact speed been know then; the meter could
have been
adjusted to make our measurement of light speed be expressed as a 'round'
300,000,000 meters per second,
the earth's surface varies from point to point being not a perfect ellipsoid at
any specific longitude the result is different. in the past it may well have
measured a 'round' 10,000,000. 2,290 meters not a great amount of change over
several billion years.
now we have defined the meter (based exactly on the original measurement of the
1790's ) defined in 1983 as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in one
second counted by an atomic clock, amazingly this number is 1/299,792,458 of a
second. hence by almost total chance mechains "error" had it been just a
fraction different is 207,542 millionths parts 'off'; what would be an elegant 3
millionth of a second for the speed of light to travel 1 of our modern day
arbitrary meters.
my point here is that for mechain to have come so close even in error (of
something that was never standard in the first place, the shape of the earth at
all longitudes)
its almost like his higher self was trying for an ultimate number that we would
look back upon now as 'wow isn't that an amazing coincidence' 200 years ago they
almost pegged the speed of lights path over a 1/3 of a second. the actual error
itself is well beyond what his instruments could measure and the poor man died
of malaria trudging through swamps trying to correct it at age 65.
the story is recounted in the book "the measure of all things" by ken alder
although ken did not see the coincidence / sincronicity being a purely
historical account. (mechains son measured the great pyramid and deduced the
egyptians had used the earth's dimensions in its construction).
the moral of the story is i guess is to admit your mistakes as in the long view
of science mistakes / inconsistency of data sometimes shows the way to greater
things. at least it would have made life a lot easier for mathamaticians
working with the constant c. (299,792,458 meters per second )
ll david
[non-text portions of this message have been removed]