BBC - Precision The Measure of All Things (2013) Part 1 Time and Distance

Series in which Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores why we are driven to measure and quantify the world around us and why we have reduced the universe to just a handful of fundamental units of measurement. From the first cave paintings of Cro-Magnon man to today's atomic clocks, he shows how our human desire for ever greater precision has changed the course of history and society.

Part 1: Time and Distance

Professor Marcus du Sautoy tells the story of the metre and the second - how an astonishing journey across revolutionary France gave birth to the metre, and how scientists today are continuing to redefine the measurement of time and length, with extraordinary results.

BBC Site