| Document Type
|
:
|
BL
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
635172
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
dltt
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Ferguson, Kitty.
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
Measuring the universe : : our historic quest to chart the horizons of space and time /\ Kitty Ferguson.
|
| Publication Statement
|
:
|
New York :: Walker and Company,, 1999.
|
| Page. NO
|
:
|
viii, 342 p. :: ill. ;; 24 cm.
|
| ISBN
|
:
|
0802713513
|
|
|
:
|
: 9780802713513
|
| Bibliographies/Indexes
|
:
|
Includes bibliographical references and index.
|
| Contents
|
:
|
Prologue: Tilting with windmills (1951) -- Sphere with a view (400-100 B.C.) -- Heavenly revolutions (100-1600 A.D.) -- Dressing up the naked eye (1564-1642) -- Orbit with a view (1630-1900) -- Upscale architecture (1750-1958) -- Coming apart in all directions (1929-92) -- Deciphering ancient light (1946-99) -- Quest for Omega (1930-99) -- Lost horizons -- Epilogue: Magnificent Enigma.
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
A veteran popularizer of science, Ferguson traces how people in western history have attempted to measure space from the ancient Greeks to modern physicists and astronomers. She begins with Eratosthenes' accurate measurement of the circumference of the Earth in the third century BC and progresses to the theories of Stephen Hawking and his contemporaries. Her account is for general readers. She includes a glossary that does not indicate pronunciation.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Cosmology.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Cosmological distances.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Measurement.
|
| Dewey Classification
|
:
|
523.1
|
| LC Classification
|
:
|
QB981.F346 1999
|