Everyone is welcome. This conference is in-person and livestreamed online.

This conference will examine the history of measurement, starting from the ancient world and following the evolution of measuring methodologies and the development of measuring instruments over the eras up to the present day. It will discuss the establishment of the metric system and consider examples of famous experiments across the centuries. The conference will conclude with a philosophical perspective on measurement.

Date: Saturday 7 June

Time: 10:30 – 17:00 BST

Registration to attend this conference is free but booking is required to attend the conference either in person or online as below.

The programme for the day is below:

MORNING CHAIR:

10.30 am WELCOME

10.40 am James Vincent (author of “Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement”) – Ancient Measures: From the Body to the State

11.30 am Dr Jane Wess (formerly University of Edinburgh) – A History of Measuring Instruments

12.20 pm Professor Richard Brown (National Physics Laboratory) – The Measure of All Things: The Development of the Metric System and the International System of Units

1.15 pm LUNCH BREAK

AFTERNOON CHAIR:

2.15 pm Professor Hasok Chang (University of Cambridge) – ‘To See a World in a Grain of Sand’: Measuring Unobservables through the Ages

3.05 pm Dr Jo Wolff (University of Edinburgh) – Can We Be Realists about Measurement?

4 pm TEA/COFFEE BREAK

4.30 pm SUMMARY OF THE DAY’S PROCEEDINGS – Professor Robert Fox (University of Oxford)

There will be a special conference dinner at St Cross College in the evening following the end of the conference with an after-dinner talk by Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner (Chief Curator, Royal Institute of British Architects) on the history of the development of the golden ratio in architecture. Booking to attend the conference dinner can be made here.