Article ID: CBB000931353

La mesure de l'envol à la fin du XVIIIe siècle: Les premiers ballons: affaires d'opinions ou d'exactitude ? (2006)

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Thébaud-Sorger, Marie (Author)


Histoire & Mesure
Volume: 21, no. 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 35-78


Publication Date: 2006
Edition Details: Translated title: [Measuring Flight: Aerostatic Experiments, Public Opinion and Precision at the End of the 18th century] In French.
Language: French

In 1783, the first aerostatic experiments opened a new physical and mathematical question: How is it possible to measure the balloons' altitude? Three kinds of measures could be used: a calculation based on "upward force", triangulation or a barometer (in the balloon). These different techniques and instruments all aimed to increase precision in measurement, but articles from the local press suggest that they were also the source of many conflicts within the wider public. Ultimately, it appears that the measures of flight were a social construction -- one of their primary aims being a celebration of the cities that organized the flights.

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Description On various ways of measuring altitude.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000931353/

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Authors & Contributors
Kershaw, Michael
Boistel, Guy
J. E. Wolff
Miguel Ohnesorge
Wang, Yumin
Virol, Michèle
Concepts
Measurement
Exactness; precision; accuracy
Mathematics
Geodesy
Measuring instruments
Standards and standardization
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
17th century
Enlightenment
Places
France
Greenwich (England)
London (England)
Spain
Portugal
Polar regions
Institutions
Convention du mètre (1875)
Royal Observatory Greenwich
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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