The revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century England, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools--machines that make machines....

Since our ancestors first counted the passing seasons, humans have used measurement to help master and understand our world. Hosted by Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, this program shows how measurements have shaped the course of history, science, and civilization; and changed every aspect of our daily lives.

How much? How many? How far? Millions of transactions each day depend on a reliable network of weights and measures. But achieving such a network was anything but easy, as Robert P. Crease, physicist and philosopher, demonstrates in this endlessly enlightening, always enjoyable look at how this international system evolved.

"Describes the different ways we use measurements in everyday life and how and when to use them. As readers use scientific inquiry to learn about the many different units and tools for measuring, an activity based on real world situations challenges them to apply what they've learned in order to solve a puzzle"--