Does Measurement Measure Up? How Numbers Reveal and Conceal the Truth.

DOES MEASUREMENT MEASURE UP? How Numbers Reveal and Conceal the Truth JOHN M. HENSHAW

People use measurements to quantify and analyze just about everything: time, weight, sports records, school grades. Henshaw poses tough questions about people's dependence on measurements. For example, can some things, such as intelligence, be too much measured for the good of society? Is measurement truth? Henshaw, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Tulsa, analyzes the role of measurement, numbers, and scale in mathematics and the sciences. He recounts the transition of measurement from unreliable units, such as the cubit, to today's precisely standardized units. Danger lurks in quantification extended to entities such as education, human intelligence, and even restaurant quality, Henshaw asserts. Measurements, he reminds his readers, can easily be fudged. Measurements also often falsely determine importance. For instance, a business's net profits usually take precedence over customer satisfaction, which is less quantifiable. The author looks at other controversial areas of measurement, such as the accuracy of academic testing, readings of worldwide climate change, election outcomes, and even the line between life and nonlife. Finally, Henshaw offers suggestions to readers wishing to filter out the erroneous and incessant measuring that goes on around them. Johns Hopkins, 2006, 248 p., hardcover, $26.95.