A series after my own statistical heart, tracing the evolution of weights and measures from those of ancient times to the modern SI units. Last Monday's first episode dealt with time and distance, from sundials through mediaeval clocks through atomic clocks basing the second on the rotation of caesium atoms, similarly distance has evolved from the Revolutionary metre bar to the speed of light over time. Currently, weight is under discussion - the master kilogram is losing mass, requiring urgent replacement!
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Precision
Fascinating topic indeed. Probably so interesting, in fact, that it can survive the burden of having "I'm Professor Marcus" Du Sautoy as presenter. -
Precision
I've just seen the last episode and really enjoyed it.
It suffered a bit from the BBC documentary template of the presenter embarking on a passionate personal journey to blahblahbah and popping up all over the world to do so, and it was a little light on hard science, but they're minor quibbles.
I've never seen a programme about metrology before and I learnt a lot from it. I also now have serious misgivings about the kilogram and the candela is a fucking disgrace. The sooner they get that sorted out the better.
I don't see what's so wrong with Du Sautoy. The Professor Marcus/Brian/Alice/Jim/whoever thing does grate a bit, but we should be glad the BBC at least does that. There's nothing even remotely comparable in most (if any) other countries.Comment
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