Chapter 4 Chapter Four About Rice

It is certain that a unit of measurement that is universal, eternal, and whose essence can provide precise measurement has always existed in the minds of human beings.Therefore, no matter what kind of mutation has occurred on the earth, this unit of measurement should be accurately discovered.I believe that the predecessors also thought so, but they lacked the methods and instruments to conduct such experiments with sufficient approximation. The best way to obtain an eternal unit of measurement is to transfer it to the oblate spheroid of the earth, because the circumference of the earth can be regarded as eternal and unchanging, and thus the full length or part of the circumference can be accurately measured.

The ancients tried to determine this unit of measurement.According to some scientists contemporaneous with Aristotle, he put the Stad [Note: Ancient Greek unit of length, about 180 meters. ] Or the era of Sesostia [Note: That is, the period from the twentieth century BC to the nineteenth century BC when the ancient Egyptian king Sesostrum was in power. 】Egyptian ancient Thailand as one-tenth of the length from the earth's poles to the equator.Lives in Ancient Greece Putoreme [Note: The name of the ancient Greek monarch. ] Eratosthena in the era (first century BC) [Note: Ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. ] used a more approximate way to measure the length of the meridian between Seyena and Alexandria along the Nile.Posidonius [Note: Ancient Greek philosopher. ] and Pudoreme likewise failed to give sufficient accuracy to the geodetic experiments they carried out.Subsequent scientists failed to make breakthroughs.

It was Picard who first began to adjust the method of measuring the length of a longitude line of latitude in France.In 1669, he determined the distance between Paris and Amiens, and believed that the length of each degree of longitude was 57,060 tuises 1.949 metres. 】. Picard's survey was continued in 1683 by Dominique, by Cassini and by Laille in 1718 to Dunkirk and Gaulioul.In 1739, Francois.Cassini and Lakai measured again between Dunkirk and Perpignan.Finally, the measurement of this meridian was extended by Méchan to Barcelona, ​​Spain.And yet Méchan died, of such an exhausting scientific operation.This measurement was not recovered in France until 1807 by Arago and Biot.The two scientists continued it to the Balearic Islands (Spain), and the arc of meridian then stretched from Dunkirk to Formente, cut in the middle by the forty-fifth parallel north, just between the poles and the equator In this case, the calculation of the quarter length of the longitude does not take into account the flatness of the earth.This measurement gave in France an average length of fifty-seven thousand and twenty-five tuises per degree of meridian arc.

It can be seen that until then exclusively French scientists were engaged in this tricky determination.Likewise, in 1790, the Constituent Assembly, at the suggestion of Talleyrand, decided that the Academy of Sciences would be charged with conceiving an eternal system of weights and measures for all lengths and weights.At that time, reports signed by such famous names as Borda, Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, Condorcet suggested that one-tenth of the length of a quarter of the warp should be used as a universal unit of length, and The weight of distilled water is used as the standard to measure the weight of all objects, and the decimal system is used as the decimal system for weights and measures.

Later, experiments to measure the average arc length per degree of meridian were carried out in different places on the earth, because the earth is not an oblate spheroid, but an ellipsoid, and many experiments should give the flattening rate relative to the pole. In 1736, Moporti, Clairau, Camus, and Lemony, the Egyptian and Swede Selesess, measured the length of one degree of meridian arc in the Lapland area near the Arctic Circle to be 57,400. One hundred and nineteen tuises. In 1745, La Condamine, Bugor and Godin met the Spaniards Juan and Antonio.With the help of Froa, the value determined in Peru was 56,737 tuises.

In 1752, Lakai measured the value at the Cape of Good Hope at 57,037 tuises. In 1754 the Abbes Maire and Boscove determined the length of the arc of meridian between Rome and Rimini to be 56,973 tuises. In 1762 and 1763, the value measured by Pocaria in the Piedmont region of Italy was 57,468 tuises. In 1768, astronomers Mason and Dixon determined that the length of each meridian arc was 56,888 tuises in the border areas of Maryland and Pennsylvania in North America. Then, in the nineteenth century, numerous meridians were measured: in the Bay of Bengal, the East Indies, Piedmont, Finland, Kurland (in Latvia), Hannover, East Prussia, Denmark, and others.The British and Russians, however, have not been as active as other peoples in this delicate assay, the most important of which was carried out in 1784 by Roy, the chief of the general staff, in order to put the French The measurements are linked to those of the British.

From the above descriptions of many measurements, it can be concluded that the average length of each degree of meridian arc is about 57,100 tuises, which is equivalent to twenty-five guli in France [note: one guli ∥ four kilometers. ], multiply this value by 360 to get the circumference of the earth's circumference is 9,000 Guli. However, the various figures derived from the above, that is, the determinations made in different regions of the earth, do not agree absolutely. However, from the average value of 57,000, the value of the meter can be deduced, that is, the length of a quarter of the meridian. One ten-millionth is 0.513074, which is three French feet eleven and two ninety-six thousandths.

In fact, this number is a bit too convincing.The recent calculations replace the previously accepted 34/4 with the earth flattening rate of 1/299.15, and the obtained 1/4 meridian length is no longer 10 million meters, but 1 Ten thousand and eight hundred and fifty-six meters.The error of 856 meters is negligible for such a long length.However, the meter, as it is accepted, does not exactly reflect one ten-millionth of the length of a quarter warp, with an error of about one fiftieth of a French minute. However, rice thus determined cannot be accepted by all civilized countries.The former Spanish colonies of Belgium, Spain, Piedmont, Greece, the Netherlands, the Equatorial Republic, the Republic of New Granada, and Costa Rica accepted almost immediately.Although the metric system has obvious advantages over other systems, Britain has always refused to accept it.

Perhaps this system would have been accepted by the people of the United Kingdom were it not for the political strife that marked the end of the eighteenth century.When the Constitutional Convention issued its decree on May 8, 1790, scientists from the Royal Society were invited to join the French scientists.For the determination of meters.Still to decide whether it should be based on the length of a simple pendulum moving regularly, or in terms of a portion of some great circle on the earth as the unit of length.Those events hindered the envisioned unity. It was not until 1854 that the British government had already felt the superiority of the metric system and saw some scientists and businessmen forming groups to promote the reform, so it decided to accept it.

However, the British government intends not to make this secret decision public until its own geodetic experiments have determined a more precise length for each degree of meridian arc.At the time, on this issue, the British government thought it could work in solidarity with the Russian government, which was also leaning towards the metric system. A scientific committee of three British and three Russian scientists was thus formed among the most eminent members of science from both countries.We have seen that the three in England were Colonel Everett, John.Mr. Murray and William.Amory, and Mathieu in Russia.Strux, Nicola.Ballandre and Michelle.Zorn three gentlemen.

The scientific committee gathered in London and decided to first conduct a measurement experiment in the southern hemisphere, then immediately re-measure it in the northern hemisphere, and then combine the two experiments, hoping to deduce an accurate value that meets all the conditions in the plan. They have yet to choose an experimental site among the British territories in the southern hemisphere: Cape Colony, Australia and New Zealand.New Zealand and Australia are on equal points in Europe, and the scientific committee has to travel a long way to get there.And the Maori and Australians there are at war with their invaders for a long time, which may make the experiment very difficult.On the contrary, the Cape Colony has real advantages: 1.It is at the same longitude as some parts of the European part of Russia, and after measuring a certain length of the meridian in the southern hemisphere, it is possible to return to Tsarist Russia to secretly measure another length of the same meridian.two.The journey to the British Southern Hemisphere territories is relatively short.three.In the end, the British and Russian scientists saw this as an excellent opportunity to test the results of the French astronomer Lakai.They could carry out experiments in the same place, to check whether his determination of fifty-seven thousand and thirty-seven tuises at the Cape of Good Hope was accurate. So it was decided to choose Cape Town for this geodetic experiment.The governments of the two countries agreed with the decision of the Anglo-Russian Committee and allocated large sums of money.All triangulation instruments were made in duplicate.Astronomer William.Amory was invited to be in charge of preparations for the expedition.The battleship HMS Augusta of the Royal Navy was ordered to take the members of the committee and their entourage to the mouth of the Orange River. To scientific issues, there should be added the issue of national pride that motivates these scientists to work together in a common mission.The problem, in fact, was to surpass France in numerical calculations, and to overthrow exactly what had been achieved by the more famous French scientists in a largely unknown and uncivilized region.Therefore, the members of the Anglo-Russian Committee were ready to sacrifice everything, even their lives, for a result which would be favorable to the progress of science and at the same time to the glory of the Fatherland. This is the end of January 1854, the astronomer William.The reason why Amory appeared under the Molcutta Falls, by the Orange River.