The metre is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of 312,696 km2 (120,733 sq mi). Poland has a population of 38 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.
Volume is a measure of three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units or by various imperial or US customary units. The definition of length (cubed) is interrelated with volume. The volume of a container is generally understood to be the capacity of the container; i.e., the amount of fluid that the container could hold, rather than the amount of space the container itself displaces.
1617 (MDCXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1617th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 617th year of the 2nd millennium, the 17th year of the 17th century, and the 8th year of the 1610s decade. As of the start of 1617, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Evangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician, and a student of Galileo. He is best known for his invention of the barometer, but is also known for his advances in optics and work on the method of indivisibles. The Torr is named after him.
Wilhelm Schickard was a German professor of Hebrew and astronomy who became famous in the second part of the 20th century after Franz Hammer, a biographer of Johannes Kepler, claimed that the drawings of a calculating clock, predating the public release of Pascal's calculator by twenty years, had been discovered in two unknown letters written by Schickard to Johannes Kepler in 1623 and 1624.
A mechanical calculator, or calculating machine, is a mechanical device used to perform the basic operations of arithmetic automatically, or (historically) a simulation such as an analog computer or a slide rule. Most mechanical calculators were comparable in size to small desktop computers and have been rendered obsolete by the advent of the electronic calculator and the digital computer.
The year 1623 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Livio Berruti is an Italian former athlete who was the winner of the 200-meter dash in the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Cosimo II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until his death. He was the elder son of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Christina of Lorraine.
Sir Samuel Morland, 1st Baronet, or Moreland, was an English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician of the 17th century, a polymath credited with early developments in relation to computing, hydraulics and steam power.
Leopoldo de' Medici was an Italian cardinal, scholar, patron of the arts and Governor of Siena. He was the brother of Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Marie Louise Gonzaga was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania by marriage to two kings of Poland and grand dukes of Lithuania, brothers Władysław IV and John II Casimir. Together with Bona Sforza (1494–1557), she is regarded as one of the most influential and powerful queen consorts of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
John William Lambert was an American automobile manufacturer pioneer and inventor. He is the inventor of the first practical American gasoline automobile. In 1891, he built a working gasoline automobile and took it on the streets of Ohio City for experimental drives. He had over 600 patents.
Some approaches in the branch of historic metrology are highly speculative and can be qualified as pseudoscience.
An aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope, built in the second half of the 17th century, that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swivel ball-joint. The observer stood on the ground and held the eyepiece, which was connected to the objective by a string or connecting rod. By holding the string tight and maneuvering the eyepiece, the observer could aim the telescope at objects in the sky. The idea for this type of telescope may have originated in the late 17th century with the Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens and his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr., though it is not clear if they actually invented it.
The history of the metre starts with the Scientific Revolution that is considered to have begun with Nicolaus Copernicus's publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. Increasingly accurate measurements were required, and scientists looked for measures that were universal and could be based on natural phenomena rather than royal decree or physical prototypes. Rather than the various complex systems of subdivision then in use, they also preferred a decimal system to ease their calculations.
Poland is a country that extends across the North European Plain from the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south to the sandy beaches of the Baltic Sea in the north. Poland is the fifth-most populous country of the European Union and the ninth-largest country in Europe by area. The territory of Poland covers approximately 312,696 km2 (120,733 sq mi), of which 98.52% is land and 1.48% is water. The Polish coastline was estimated at 770 km (478 mi) in length. Poland's highest point is Mount Rysy, at 2,501 m (8,205 ft).
Ludwik Antoni Birkenmajer, Polish historian of science, physicist, astronomer, professor of the Jagiellonian University.
Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance is a 1996 illustrated biography of Leonardo da Vinci authored by the Italian art critic Alessandro Vezzosi, translated from Italian into French by Françoise Liffran, and published by Éditions Gallimard in the same year as the 293rd volume in their "Découvertes" collection. The book was adapted into a documentary film in 2001, by the title Léonard de Vinci.
