Measuring the Metre - Postponed

Newcomen Society

The  Revolution in Metrology began with the redefinition of the Metre in terms of  the Wavelength of Light. An in-person & online event

Alan Baxter Gallery

This is both an IN-PERSON and ONLINE (ZOOM) event - you can choose either option when reserving your ticket. TIn 1960 the great revolution in metrology began with the redefinition of the Metre in terms of the wavelength of light. From antiquity, practical dimensional measurement standards had all been based upon material artifacts and measurement of time on the rotation of the Earth.All of that changed in 2018 when the base units of the SI were redefined in terms of fixed values of a set of fundamental and atomic constants. In my lecture I shall explain how practical measurement standards can be obtained from such definitions.The Speaker - Terry Quinn.Terry Quin graduated from Southampton University in physics in 1959 and then moved to Oxford for his D. Phil in what was then the Metallurgy Department. His thesis supervisor was Professor William Hume-Rothery FRS. In 1962 he joined the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington where he worked on high- temperature measurement and standards. In 1967/68 he spent a year at the then National Bureau of Standards in Washington. Hemoved to the BIPM in Paris in 1977 as Deputy Director becoming Director in 1988 and was Lady Margaret Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambrdge in 1984/84. He retired from the BIPM in 2003. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002Photo : The Toise du Perou.The “Toise du Perou”. The official unit of length in France just before the metric system. This is one of two Toises that were used to decide between two theories for the shape of the Earth. One by Newton in which the earth was flattened at the Poles and one supported in France by Cassini, who maintained that it is pointed like an upright rugby football. One Toise was taken to Lapland (the Toise du Nord) and one (this one) to Perou where the length on the ground of one degree of latitude was measured. The expeditions lasted some years in the 1740’s and, of course, the results supported Newton’s theory. (photo TJQ at the Paris Observatory 2017).

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Measuring the Metre - Postponed

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Measuring the Metre - Postponed

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