MEASURING EXTRAORDINARY.
A marvellous instrument, the compound interferometer, has been invented by Professor C. W. Chamberlain, president and head of the physics department of Denison University. With this instrument it is possible to measure a distance as small as l/20,000,000th of an inch. This instrument will in ail probability be the most delicate measuring instrument of its kind for many years to come. It is practically impossible for the human mind to realise the smallness of the distance measurable by the compound interferometer, which is 400 times as powerful as the most perfect compound microscope, but some idea can be formed by the use of comparisons. This l/20,000,000th of an inch is the apparent size of the head of an ordinary pin Viewed at a distance of 227 miles, or the size of half a crown viewed at a distance of 9,000 miles, or the size of a human face viewed at a distance equal to twice the circumference of bur mother earth.
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Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 10287, 8 January 1917, Page 3
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163MEASURING EXTRAORDINARY. Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 10287, 8 January 1917, Page 3
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