The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology PDF Download

Author: John David North
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 754

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Book Description
The big bang, black holes, space travel and life in other galaxies - this is the stuff of science fiction and the subject of much current speculation and research on the part of astronomers and cosmologists. This book shows how man's chronological needs helped scientific developments.

Author: Arne Hessenbruch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134263015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 986

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Book Description
The Reader's Guide to the History of Science looks at the literature of science in some 550 entries on individuals (Einstein), institutions and disciplines (Mathematics), general themes (Romantic Science) and central concepts (Paradigm and Fact). The history of science is construed widely to include the history of medicine and technology as is reflected in the range of disciplines from which the international team of 200 contributors are drawn.

Author: Michael Hoskin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191577731
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Astronomy, perhaps the first of the sciences, was already well developed by the time of Christ. Seventeen centuries later, after Newton showed that the movements of the planets could be explained in terms of gravitation, it became the paradigm for the mathematical sciences. In the nineteenth century the analysis of star-light allowed astrophysicists to determine both the chemical composition and the radial velocities of celestial bodies, while the development of photography enabled distant objects invisible to the human eye, to be studied and measured in comfort. Technical developments during and since the Second World War have greatly enlarged the scope of the science by permitting the study of radiation. This is a fascinating introduction to the history of Western astronomy, from prehistoric times to the origins of astrophysics in the mid-nineteenth century. Historical records are first found in Babylon and Egypt, and after two millennia the arithmetical astronomy of the Babylonians merged with the Greek geometrical approach to culminate in the Almagest of Ptolemy. This legacy was transmitted to the Latin West via Islam, and led to Copernicus's claim that the Earth is in motion. In justifying this Kepler converted astronomy into a branch of dynamics, leading to Newton's universal law of gravity. The book concludes with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century applications of Newton's law, and the first explorations of the universe of stars. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author: John Lankford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136508341
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 616

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Book Description
This Encyclopedia traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts.

Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198508410
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This book contains a series of articles summarizing the technical, institutional and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century when the electronic spreadsheet changed the way information is processed.

Author: Allan Chapman
Publisher: Lion Books
ISBN: 0745980309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This book will take the story of astronomy on from where Allan Chapman left it in Stargazers, and bring it almost up to date, with the developments and discoveries of the last three centuries. He covers the big names - Halley, Hooke, Herschel, Hubble and Hoyle; and includes the women who pushed astronomy forward, from Caroline Herschel to the Victorian women astronomers. He includes the big discoveries and the huge ideas, from the Milky War, to the Big Bang, the mighty atom, and the question of life on other planets. And he brings in the contributions made in the US, culminating in their race with the USSR to get a man on the moon, before turning to the explosion of interest in astronomy that was pioneered by Sir Patrick Moore and The Sky at Night.

Author: A.J. Kox
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0817644547
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Outgrowth of 6th Int'l Conference on the History of General Relativity, held in Amsterdam on June 26-29, 2002 Contributions from notable experts offer both new and historical insights on gravitation, general relativity, cosmology, unified field theory, and the history of science Topics run gamet from detailed mathematical discussions to more personal recollections of relativity as seen through the eyes of the public and renowned relativists

Author: Bruce Dorminey
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475750013
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Recent discoveries of planet-like objects circling other sun-like stars have stirred enormous interest in what other planets may exist in the universe, and whether they could support intelligent life. This book takes us into the midst of this search for extrasolar planets. Unlike other books, it focuses on the people behind the searches -- many known personally by the author -- and the extraordinary technology that is currently on the drawing boards. The author is an experienced, award-winning science journalist who was previously technology correspondent for the Financial Times of London. He has written on many topics in astronomy and astrobiology in over 35 different newspapers and magazines worldwide.

Author: Bruce Stephenson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521791434
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
The Universe Unveiled documents the human desire through history to explore and understand our world. Taking a unique approach, it focuses on the instruments, books, and maps people have created to decipher the Universe from the late fifteenth through to the nineteenth century. Throughout, the book is richly illustrated with over 270 full-color images, including those of rare and unusual artifacts from all over the world kept in the world-renowned collection at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago. With clear and informative text, it covers our discovery of Space and Time, and our ever-expanding understanding of Earth and the Heavens, describing in particular the shift from an Earth-centered to a Sun-centered view of the Universe, and the mapping of the stars using telescopes. It also examines the technologies of navigation and of measuring and mapping the Earth, as well as the discovery of ways to keep time.

Author: Jean-Claude Pecker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662044412
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 606

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Book Description
The author, a well-known astronomer himself, describes the evolution of astronomical ideas, touching only lightly on most of the instrumental developments. Richly illustrated, the book starts with the astronomical ideas of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian philosophers, moves on to the Greek period and then on to the golden age of astronomy, that of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. Finally, Pecker concludes with modern theories of cosmology. Written with astronomy undergraduates in mind, this is a fascinating survey of astronomical thinking.