The Incroyable Pique-nique and the Méridienne Verte -- The Size of France -- Shape of the Earth -- The Meridian and the Sun -- The Revolution and the Meter -- The Paris Meridian in the Napoleonic Wars -- Past its Prime -- The Greenwich and Paris Meridians in the Space Age -- On the Trail of The Da Vinci Code -- Walking the Line: the Arago Memorial
Summary
The Paris Meridian is the name of the line running north-south through the astronomical observatory in Paris. The French government financed the Paris Academy of Sciences to determine and measure this line in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. It employed both astronomers and geodesists. This book discusses about what they did and why
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-171) and index
