The Mafia Method: Extort the building's height from the superintendent, using the barometer as a
weapon.
The Ballistic Method: Fire the barometer from ground level with a mortar, just high enough to reach
the top of the building. You may need to take some ranging shots to get the explosive charge and
firing elevation just right. A table of standard ballistic calculations will then yield the height reached
by the projectile.
The Paperweight Method: Use the barometer as a paperweight while looking over the building plans.
The Sonic Method: Drop the barometer from the top of the building, and time the interval between
seeing the barometer hit the ground and hearing it. For practical distances, the sight will be
instantaneous, and the sound will travel at the speed of sound (1150 feet/second at standard
temperature-pressure and mean sea level), giving the height.
The Reflective Method: Use the glass face of the barometer as a mirror and time the interval it takes
light to traverse the round trip between the top of the building and the ground. Since the speed of light
is a known quantity, the distance can be calculated.
The Mercantile Method: Sell the barometer, and buy some proper equipment.
The Analog Method: Attach the barometer to a string, wind the string around the shaft of a small
generator, and measure the amount of electrical energy produced as the barometer falls from the top of
the building to the ground. The generated energy is proportionate to the number of revolutions of the
shaft, and hence the distance to the ground.
The Trigonometric Method: Pick a spot on the ground a known distance from the building, go to the
top of the building with the barometer and a protractor level, and wait for the sun to reach the horizon.
Then, using the barometer as a mirror, aim a spot of sunlight at the place you previously picked and
measure the angle of the mirror with the level. Use trigonometry to calculate the building's height.
The Proportion Method: Measure the height of the barometer. Bring a friend and a tape measure.
Stand at a known distance from the building and sight past the barometer to the building. Move the
barometer toward or away from you until the top and bottom of the barometer line up with the top and
bottom of the building. Then have your friend measure the distance from the barometer to your eye.
Compute the building height by proportion.
The Photographic Method: Set up a tripod with a camera at a known distance from the building. Hold
the barometer a known distance from the camera and take a picture. From the relative heights of the
barometer and the building in the picture, you can compute the height of the building.
The Gravitational Method I: Suspend the barometer from a yard of string. Measure the oscillation
period of the pendulum thus formed at the top and bottom of the building. Compute the building's
height from the difference in gravitational acceleration.
The Gravitational Method II: Weigh the barometer at the top and bottom of the building with a spring
balance (a beam balance won't work for this!). Differences in the readings will be due to the different
gravitational acceleration, due to the differing distances from Earth. (A reader tells me that the Lacoste
Romberg gravimeter provides a practical way of getting the required accuracy.) Compute the
building's height from the two measurements.