measurement

Table of Contents

References & Edit History Related Topics

Videos

Understanding Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in subatomic particles

For Students

measurement summary

Read Next

Centimetres vs inches, metal rulers on a white background with clipping path.

15 Questions About Units of Measurement Answered

Discover

earthquake. Heavily damaged school in the town of Yingxiu after a major earthquake struck China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008.

The 6 Deadliest Earthquakes Since 1950

Binary Computer Code, Binary Code, Internet, Technology, Password, Data

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.

Did George Washington Really Say, “I Can’t Tell a Lie”?

Odissi Indian classical female dancer on white background. (Indian dancer; classical dancer; Indian dance)

6 Classical Dances of India

Young man skeet shooting with airborne shell

6 Unusual Olympic Sports

In this aerial photo, structures are damaged and destroyed October 15, 2005 in Balakot, Pakistan. It is estimated that 90% of the city of Balakot was leveled by the earthquake. The death toll in the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck northern Pakistan on October 8, 2005 is believed to be 38,000 with at least 1,300 more dead in Indian Kashmir. SEE CONTENT NOTES.

6 of the World’s Deadliest Natural Disasters

winter ice melting salt on the ground, pattern as background

Why Does Salt Melt Ice?

measurement: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Videos

Understanding Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in subatomic particles

See All Videos →

Topics

oscilloscope radiation measurement psychological testing measurement system productivity balance ecological validity optical interferometer thermometer strain gauge materials science medicine information processing energy conversion nanotechnology surveying weather modification machine engineering tool

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Carl F.W. Ludwig, detail of an engraving

Carl F.W. Ludwig

German physiologist

Henry Maudslay

British engineer and inventor

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose.

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose

Indian plant physiologist and physicist

Edmund Gunter

English mathematician

Edward Weston

Edward Weston

American engineer and industrialist

Jesse Ramsden

British tool maker

George Dollond

British optician

Hipparchus

Greek astronomer

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe

Danish astronomer

Edmond Halley

Edmond Halley

British scientist

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel

German astronomer

Ernst Mach

Austrian physicist

Jean-Sylvain Bailly

Jean-Sylvain Bailly

French astronomer

Norman Robert Campbell

British physicist and philosopher

Gerard Peter Kuiper

American astronomer

Anders Jonas Ångström

Swedish physicist

Joseph Loschmidt

Austrian chemist

Stephen Hales

Stephen Hales

English scientist

Pierre Bouguer

French scientist

Johann Lambert, detail of a lithograph by Gottfried Englemann, after a portrait by Pierre-Roch Vigneron

Johann Heinrich Lambert

Swiss-German scientist and philosopher

Quiz

Garden in front of Mao Zedong Memorial Hall where Mao's body rests in state at Tiananmen Square, one of the largest public squares in the world, Beijing, China. Near the Forbidden City. Mausoleum.

Largest, Tallest, and Smallest Around the Globe Quiz

barometer. Antique Barometer with readout. Technology measurement, mathematics, measure atmospheric pressure

Fun Facts of Measurement & Math

Three graduated beakers with yellow, blue and gree fluid on white background. Chemistry measurement, science experiment, science demonstration

Measurement Mania

List

Centimetres vs inches, metal rulers on a white background with clipping path.

15 Questions About Units of Measurement Answered