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Season 1981
1981x1
From Magna Carta to Microchip: Principles, Standards and Methods
Episode overview
Measurement enables us to express our observation of objects in precise terms by converting into numbers. Using these numbers, be they inches, feet or millimetres, it is possible to
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Measurement enables us to express our observation of objects in precise terms by converting into numbers. Using these numbers, be they inches, feet or millimetres, it is possible to duplicate exactly something we have measured in another place at another time. Without this capability our modern, industrial society could not have evolved.
Time and its measurement has always preoccupied man. First he utilised natural time keepers: the rotation of the earth round the sun, giving the day and the year. But to divide the days
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Time and its measurement has always preoccupied man. First he utilised natural time keepers: the rotation of the earth round the sun, giving the day and the year. But to divide the days into minutes and hours an accurate device was required. Galileo realised that he had one available in his own body-his heartbeat; and by counting his pulses while watching the incense-burning pendulum swinging in Padua Cathedral he made a fundamental discovery.
1981x3
From Magna Carta to Microchip: More and More About Less and Less
Episode overview
Today we can measure with such a high degree of precision that one might ask the question, ' Is there a limit to the smallness of things we can measure? '
Today we can measure with such a high degree of precision that one might ask the question, ' Is there a limit to the smallness of things we can measure? '
The range of measurement now possible has enabled us to know not only the size of atoms only a few 100-millionths of a centimetre across, but also the distance of galaxies so far away
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The range of measurement now possible has enabled us to know not only the size of atoms only a few 100-millionths of a centimetre across, but also the distance of galaxies so far away that light travelling from them takes thousands of millions of years to reach us. Between these extremes we shall see how the scale of our everyday life fits intricately into the immensity of the universe.
1981x5
From Magna Carta to Microchip: Measurement and Navigation in War
Episode overview
During World War II, scientists on both sides were much concerned with the difficult problem posed by accurate navigation. However, as with so many war-time inventions, the consequent
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During World War II, scientists on both sides were much concerned with the difficult problem posed by accurate navigation. However, as with so many war-time inventions, the consequent improvement in navigational methods were also used to drop bombs precisely and to guide long-range missiles to their distant targets. The subsequent development of early radio and radar guidance systems, today enables intercontinental rockets to be aimed with an accuracy of a few hundred yards from their intended target at a range of 8,000 miles.
1981x6
Season finale
From Magna Carta to Microchip: Some Impacts of Measurement on Life - And Can We Take it too Far?
Episode overview
In this lecture we shall look at two triumphs of modern technology which enable us to measure and to control mechanisms with a precision of better than one ten thousandth of a
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In this lecture we shall look at two triumphs of modern technology which enable us to measure and to control mechanisms with a precision of better than one ten thousandth of a centimetre. The first is familiar enough - the video disc - which gives us an instant replay of a football goal, or records a whole television programme. And the second is the microchip which involves the manufacture and positioning of minute stencils to etch electronic circuits - parts of which may be less than one thousandth of a centimetre across - and to reproduce them precisely by the million. Without such accuracy the microchip revolution could never have occurred.
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