PDF Ebook Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman
The benefits to take for checking out guides Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman are involving enhance your life high quality. The life top quality will not only concerning how significantly knowledge you will certainly gain. Also you read the fun or amusing books, it will certainly help you to have boosting life high quality. Feeling fun will certainly lead you to do something completely. Moreover, the e-book Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman will certainly give you the driving lesson to take as an excellent need to do something. You might not be ineffective when reading this book Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman
PDF Ebook Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman
Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman. Provide us 5 minutes as well as we will certainly reveal you the best book to review today. This is it, the Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman that will be your ideal choice for much better reading book. Your five times will certainly not spend wasted by reading this internet site. You can take guide as a resource making better principle. Referring guides Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman that can be positioned with your demands is at some time tough. But right here, this is so simple. You could find the very best thing of book Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman that you could check out.
If you want truly obtain guide Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman to refer currently, you need to follow this web page consistently. Why? Remember that you require the Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman source that will offer you best requirement, don't you? By seeing this web site, you have begun to make new deal to consistently be up-to-date. It is the first thing you could begin to obtain all profit from being in a website with this Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman as well as various other collections.
From currently, discovering the completed site that sells the finished publications will be several, yet we are the relied on site to go to. Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman with simple web link, easy download, and also completed book collections become our great services to obtain. You can locate as well as use the benefits of selecting this Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman as everything you do. Life is consistently developing and you need some new publication Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman to be reference always.
If you still require a lot more publications Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman as references, visiting look the title as well as motif in this site is readily available. You will discover more whole lots publications Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman in different self-controls. You could likewise when possible to read the book that is currently downloaded and install. Open it and save Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman in your disk or device. It will reduce you wherever you require the book soft file to check out. This Great Ideas In Physics, By Alan Lightman soft documents to read can be recommendation for every person to improve the ability and capacity.
The conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanicstogether, these concepts form the foundation upon which modern physics was built. But the influence of these four landmark ideas has extended far beyond hard science. There is no aspect of twentieth-century cultureincluding the arts, social sciences, philosophy, and politicsthat has not been profoundly influenced by them.
In Great Ideas in Physics, Alan Lightman clearly explains the physics behind each of the four great ideas and deftly untangles for lay readers such knotty concepts as entropy, the relativity of time, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Throughout the book he uses excerpts from the writings of scientific luminaries such as Newton, Kelvin, Einstein, and de Broglie to help place each in its proper historical perspective. And with the help of expertly annotated passages from the works of dozens of writers, philosophers, artists, and social theorists, Lightman explores the two-way influences of these landmark scientific concepts on our entire human culture and the world of ideas.
- Sales Rank: #1072872 in Books
- Published on: 2000-06-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.80" h x .89" w x 6.00" l, 1.02 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 300 pages
From the Back Cover
The conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanicstogether, these concepts form the foundation upon which modern physics was built. But the influence of these four landmark ideas has extended far beyond hard science. There is no aspect of twentieth-century cultureincluding the arts, social sciences, philosophy, and politicsthat has not been profoundly influenced by them.
In Great Ideas in Physics, Alan Lightman clearly explains the physics behind each of the four great ideas and deftly untangles for lay readers such knotty concepts as entropy, the relativity of time, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Throughout the book he uses excerpts from the writings of scientific luminaries such as Newton, Kelvin, Einstein, and de Broglie to help place each in its proper historical perspective. And with the help of expertly annotated passages from the works of dozens of writers, philosophers, artists, and social theorists, Lightman explores the two-way influences of these landmark scientific concepts on our entire human culture and the world of ideas.
About the Author
Alan Lightman, Ph.D., currently Senior Lecturer in Physics at M.I.T., received the Association of American Publishers Award for the best book in physical science for Origins. His writing appears in the Atlantic, Granta, Harpers, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Einstein's Dreams and Good Benito.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Amazon Customer
On time
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
I have to agree with the reviewer Jesse Engelberg...
By Amazon Customer
A book like this is sort of a double-edged sword. Sure, when dealing with the lay person whose interest in physics (and the like) is sparked more by a temporal curiosity than by a need to know, 'popular' works like this tend to cover as much as necessary in as little space as possible, and in a way that translates easily for the non-specialist. As such, I applaud Dr. Lightman for not only attempting to educate the "simply curious" on very complicated areas of science but actually doing a noble job in the process.
Nevertheless, there are problems by which educators and science enthusiasts alike will simply cringe when reading (as Jesse Engelberg intimated). One example from among the questionable portions of the text will serve to prove this point. In the opening section concerning the Conservation of Energy, the author does a remarkable job in deriving many of the equations leading up to the first law of thermodynamics; however, he makes a much-too-often-committed mistake concerning molecular motion at absolute zero. From page 44 the text reads:
"Zero degrees Kelvin is called absolute zero. It is the coldest that any substance can be. From [Equation (I-14){provided on page 43}], we see that absolute zero means that =0, which can be achieved only if every single molecule in the substance is motionless (aside from ordered motions). If even a single molecule is moving, then will be larger than zero, and the substance will have a temperature higher than absolute zero."
Aside from the author's unexplored meaning of what an "ordered motion" is (perhaps this is the vibrational motion contended for in the following), anyone amply versed in Physical Chemistry and Thermodynamics is well aware that molecules are motionless at absolute zero only when referring to translational and rotational motion--not vibrational motion. Again, this is where a book like this would lose some of its luster by having to explain the difference to a general reader, but to say that molecules become motionless at absolute zero is utterly wrong and serves only to perpetuate misconceieved and erroneous notions of science among those reading such works for the first time. In fact, one of the fundamental tenets of quantum theory is this idea that all matter continues to execute vibrational motion, EVEN AT ABSOLUTE ZERO. It would be hard to believe that someone as educated as the author actually believes such a common, grievous error to be the case; hence, he should have qualified the statement a little more clearly by pointing out that translational and rotational motion are being referred to in the context (which of course would have demanded a longer and more arduous discussion on each type of motion) or he should have simply taken this portion out of the text.
As such, I am in agreement with the final comment made by Jesse Engelberg, namely: "buy this book if you are already conversant with the physics it discusses (thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and relativity) and want to read about the history and philosophy of them." While I do not see the need to "only" buy the book if one is already well exposed to physics and has a desire to learn its history, I would warn new readers to pay more attention to the history and development of the ideas delineated in the work rather than some of the final equations (which do not always conform to scientific convention anyway) and quantitative data.
Very simply, get a feel for what is being said as a whole and seek the meat of the details elsewhere.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Great Ideas in a Digestible Format
By Daniel R. Sanderman
Alan Lightman, Senior Lecturer in Physics at MIT and author of the recent best-seller _Einstein's Dreams_, serves up four fundamental concepts that form the foundation of modern physics in an easy-to-read, comfortable manner. Not being a physics buff, I was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which Lightman commands and communicates his subject. After developing a beginner's understanding of the conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, and quantum mechanics, it is fascinating to watch each of these ideas find traction in the world around you. For those who might view physics as an esoteric field that bears no real relevance to the lives of ordinary people, Lightman encourages them to look at the impact of these ideas, not only the science of the modern world, but on the social, spiritual, and intellectual aspects of the modern era as well. By weaving passages from writers, philosophers, theologians, and social theorists, Lightman explores the wide-ranging impact that physics has had on every academic field imaginable.
While some may find the text to be pedestrian and lack the hard math of more ambitious texts, this book is not geared towards experts and should not be considered anything more than a fun read for the informed. If you're ready to begin exploring the world of physics, this is a nice place to start. Just be prepared to view the world differently after you're done.
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman PDF
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman EPub
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman Doc
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman iBooks
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman rtf
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman Mobipocket
Great Ideas in Physics, by Alan Lightman Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar