Measuring the Universe: The Historical Quest to Quantify Space

by Kitty Ferguson

If you want to measure how big a stick is, you can use a ruler. Want to know how tall a windmill is? Don't waste time climbing to the top with a long measuring tape. Instead, use the old shadow trick--measure the length of a yardstick's shadow, then measure the windmill's shadow and use ratios to figure out the windmill's height. Even though the windmill is big and intimidating, you can find out its size while remaining safely on the ground. This is the first example in science author Kitty Ferguson's fine book Measuring the Universe, and it sets the reader's brain firmly on the right track for understanding.

The topic here is measurement of faraway, distant, difficult things. Starting with Eratosthenes, who found a way of measuring the earth's circumference, and continuing through to modern astrophysicists' quest to measure the universe itself, Ferguson takes us on a full tour of the seemingly immeasurable. Readers are treated to enthusiastic chapters covering all the basic steps astronomers (dating back to Aristarchus of Samos) have taken to understand the arrangement of astronomical objects. How big are stars? Is that black hole moving toward us or away from us? Where is the edge of everything? And how big will the universe get before it stops expanding? You'll meet the men and women who have sought answers to these seemingly impossible questions in this accessible history. Ferguson brilliantly illuminates their personal quests and demonstrates the usefulness of each discovery in driving the next attempt to measure the universe. --Therese Littleton

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Astronomy, Physics, Space, Popular Science

306 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Kitty Ferguson, a former professional musician with a life long interest in science, is an independent scholar and lecturer who lives in Cambridge, England, and South Carolina.

Reviews

[Michael Huang · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books gives a pretty good account of our understanding of the universe through ages. For instance, ancient Greeks already knew the earth is round with a diameter roughly half of what we know together. Not a bad error at all. But it’s not until 1923 when Hubble estimated that Andromeda is about 900,000 light years away (and name it extra-galactic nebula) that we realized that the universe is bigger than Milky Way. Later on through Cephid, red shift, and spectroscopy, our understanding of the size (and thus age) of universe gradually deepened.

The book also contained a lot of interesting tidbits. To me, the most surprising bits are the attitude of the Church. I remember being taught that Bruno was burnt at the stake for holding heretic views. It turns out, it’s more nuanced than that. In fact, when Copernicus invented solar-centric trajectories, it was accepted by the Church and even taught there. However, it was pretty esoteric and just not a lot of people understood it. Bruno was burned really for calling Christ a rogue. Center of universe didn’t even come up in the trial (p. 94). Galileo’s house arrest is partly due to his personality that may have help enemies change the pope’s mind. Even then, it’s mostly to get even on perceived insult rather than the danger of the idea (p 102-104). In other words, it was personal, rather than ideological.

[Elisif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good! Especially liked the early astronomy history. Had never heard of the early astronomers. Once it got to the 20th century it got harder to understand and more dry, but still good.

[B.J. Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last chapter is in some ways the most interesting because the book was written right as the first evidence for accelerated expansion of the universe was coming in. I almost didn't read this book because it was written in 1998/9, but most of the history is just history. Reading about the speculation and craziness that was hitting cosmology - the dust has largely settled on that (for now, it appears to me as a general science reader) - actually was MORE interesting. Don't be afraid of this one, especially if you aren't familiar with the history of the evolution of our understanding (such as it is, was and has been) of the universe. Then again, plenty of newer books are available that tell mostly the same story and include the consensus of new data from the last 20 years.

[ALICIA MOGOLLON · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful primner on the history of cosmology that took me three whole years to read. It was slow going and tedious at points but overall Kitty Ferguson writes science ingestibly for the layman. I enjoyed reading it, and learnt things what I had not before known. It was written in 1999 and reading this inspires me to read further about all of the new discoveries and breakthroughs in science and cosmology since then. I look forward to seeking out and learning more about the expansion of the universe, wormhole theory; quantum physics, dark matter and more. Check me out on TikTok to hear an excerpt of this book.

https://www.tiktok.com/@piamogollonar...

[Mark Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was both a fun and highly informative book. Although my forte is military history, I have a fascination for the ancient world and astronomy. This book told the FULL story from the time of Eratosthenese to the modern science of cosmology in a way that anyone can understand. I highly recommend it.

[Paul Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this a few years ago, incredibly interesting

[jane benedetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

A very insightful work filled with wonderful people whose lives brought us closer to an understanding of the human experience.

[Michael Deletetsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that the book is good for the historical explanations on the subject but the book is missing the last 20 years of progress. Her writing style felt like it did not flow smoothly at times.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly outdated but none the less very informative. Amazing how the modern age blows much of the “romance” out of the ancient art of astronomy, even without having all the answers.

[Cabra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough to finish, but not great for me.

[S.P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ferguson charts the history of measuring stuff in the sky from the ancients to the end of the 20th century. The viewpoint is always from the viewer of the time, making the interesting perspective of what was not known when the discoveries are made.

The historical chapters concerning Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Cassini, etc are very interesting, then, as we move forward in time there is less concentration on the individuals and the simple yet controversial theories that they develop and more of the theory. Explained by Ferguson as limited by the sheer numbers of people involved in such work these days compared to centuries past.

The fact, with the more modern chapters, much of what we know is based on speculation and supposition would seem to suggest that what we know in modern times is on shaky ground - and it may well be, and there is much discussion!

I found the chapter on the Omega equation to be particularly interesting, because here is an example of something we think we know, but which we don't actually understand or cannot provide the terms for (kind of like the Drake equation, not covered in this book).

So the universe, in 1999, is somewhere between 10 and 15 billion years old, is probably an open or flat universe (meaning the big bang won;t end in a big crunch) there is about 75% of the universe that we don't know what it is (dark energy) and about 20% we can't see (Dark matter). We only think we can measure how far it is to a distant galaxy (by the brightness and red shift of supernovae in those galaxies) and we are not really sure if the cosmological constant is a fudge or actually represents something real...

The fact that we make progress at all is a testament to those individuals who ponder these questions. The fact that is is possible to understand these things, even in rudimentary layman's terms is amazing. The fact that the latter theories are quite baffling is probably not surprising!

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some great insights, and really made me think at times. There were a few chapters that felt more like a textbook but sticking with it was worth it because it always came back around again for something interesting and thought provoking. I've heard about inflation theory many times, but I really feel like I understand it better now. I also appreciated the chapter about how the Earth's size was first calculated, I don't remember hearing that story before. While this book wasn't too heavy handed on the math and scientific stuff, you should be expecting some of it. I love it when I can find a good science or math writer that knows how to communicate using layman's terms, and Kitty did this well.

[Nanci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this journey through the history of the exploration of the universe, presented in an intelligent and entertaining fashion for those of us who aren't strongly gifted in the math department :) Kitty Ferguson has done an admirable job of researching her topic and giving an overview of how scientists through the ages have worked to understand the realms beyond Earth.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter largely carries the book for me. While Im all for dumbing down this stuff (Lord knows I often need it), this sometimes goes too far in that regard, but I still enjoyed it.

[Joelichtenauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

sweet