Measuring the World

{{short description|2005 novel by Daniel Kehlmann}}

{{for|the film|Measuring the World (film)}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Measuring the World

| title_orig = Die Vermessung der Welt

| translator = Carol Brown Janeway

| image = Measuring the world bookcover.jpg

| caption = First edition (German)

| author = Daniel Kehlmann

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = Germany

| language = German

| series =

| genre = Novel

| publisher = Rowohlt Verlag
Pantheon Books

| pub_date = September 2005

| english_pub_date = November 7, 2006

| media_type =

| pages = 304 (German hardcover edition)
272 (English hardcover edition)

| isbn = 3-498-03528-2 |isbn_note= (German hardcover edition)
{{ISBN|0-375-42446-6}} (English hardcover edition)

| congress = PT2671.E32 V47 2005

| oclc = 61714982

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

Measuring the World ({{langx|de|Die Vermessung der Welt}}) is a novel by German-Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann, published in 2005 by Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek. The novel re-imagines the lives of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and German geographer Alexander von Humboldt—who was accompanied on his journeys by French explorer Aimé Bonpland—and their many groundbreaking ways of taking the world's measure,{{ cite book | last=Daum | first=Andreas W.|author-link=Andreas Daum | year=2024 | title=Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography | location=Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J. | publisher=Princeton University Press | isbn=978-0-691-24736-6 }} as well as Humboldt's and Bonpland's travels in America and Humboldt's meeting with Gauss in 1828. One subplot fictionalises the conflict between Gauss and his son Eugene; while Eugene wanted to become a linguist, his father decreed that he study law. The book was a bestseller; by 2012, it had sold more than 2.3 million copies in Germany alone.[http://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/kino/kinostarts/die-vermessung-der-welt-26859516.bild.html Zwei Genies erforschen die Welt – in 3D!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819011031/https://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/kino/kinostarts/die-vermessung-der-welt-26859516.bild.html |date=2018-08-19 }}, bild.de, 25 October 2012

A film version directed by Detlev Buck was released in 2012.{{Cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571401/ |title=Measuring the World IMDb |website=IMDb |access-date=2024-05-03 |archive-date=2022-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308230101/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571401/ |url-status=live }}