A Tenth of a Second: A History

摘要

A tenth of a second can make a difference. Consider the 100-meter dash, where sprinters aim to cut tenths, sometimes mere hundredths, of a second from their time in order to win races and set records. Or take the National Basketball Association's Knicks player Trent Tucker's controversial game-winning basket-made in a tenth of a second, the only time remaining on the clock-in Madison Square Garden twenty years ago. Finally, rue (or celebrate) the recent determination by a pair of psychologists that it takes only a tenth of a second to make a lasting first impression. Astronomy, physics, psychology, and philosophy first brought a tenth of a second to notice in the nineteenth century; this is the story that Jimena Canales, an associate professor of the history of science at Harvard University, tells in A Tenth of a Second: A History.