The Physicist's World PDF Download

Author: Thomas Grissom
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421400847
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Thomas Grissom explains what physics really is: the science of understanding how everything in the universe works. This book tells the unfolding story of our attempt to quantify the material world and to conceptualize the nature of physical laws.

Author: Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
A comedy melodrama concerning three mad physicists in a Swiss sanatorium.

Author: Bernard d'. Espagnat
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780521329408
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book investigates the nature of reality from the viewpoint of a physicist. Contemporary physics, especially quantum theory, has raised profound questions about the relationship between the methods of science and the reality these methods seek to investigate. These questions, and how we should answer them, are the subject of this book. Part I examines the practices of contemporary physicists and addresses the criticisms that philosophers of science have made of these practices. The doctrine of physical realism, adopted by most physicists and many philosophers of science, is subjected to detailed investigation in Part II. When tested against recent discoveries and developments in physics, it is shown to be in considerable difficulty. Part III explores the consequences of this for our understanding of what science can seek to know of reality, and concludes by outlining the position contemporary physics indicates we should take on the nature of reality generally considered.

Author: Ken Wilber
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834822830
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The mystical writings of the world’s great physicists—now in one eye-opening volume that bridges the gap between science and religion Quantum Questions collects the mystical writings of each of the major physicists involved in the discovery of quantum physics and relativity, including Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Planck. The selections are written in nontechnical language and will be of interest to scientists and nonscientists alike.

Author: Thomas Grissom
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 1421401193
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
“A clear and succinct account of what physics fundamentally explains about the universe” (Choice). How do students learn about physics without picking up a 1,000-page textbook chock-full of complicated equations? The Physicist’s World is the answer. Here, Thomas Grissom explains clearly and succinctly what physics really is: the science of understanding how everything in the universe moves. From the earliest efforts by Pre-Socratic philosophers contemplating motion to the principal developments of physics through the end of the twentieth century, Grissom tells the unfolding story of our attempt to quantify the material world and to conceptualize the nature of physical laws. Through the centuries, questions about why things move proved to be unanswerable in any absolute, satisfying way. Instead, the question became how things move, a direction of thought that led to the rise of modern science. Physics emerged as a mathematical description of the motion of matter and energy, a description believed to be complete and exact, limited only by the precision of measurement. Grissom shows that in one of the great intellectual ironies, advancements in twentieth-century physics affirmed instead that this quantitative theory was capable of discovering its own limits. There is only so much that physics can reveal about the world. This is physics for the thinking person, especially students who enjoy learning concepts, histories, and interpretations without becoming mired in complex mathematical detail. A concise survey of the field of physics, Grissom’s book offers students and professionals alike a unique perspective on what physicists do, how physics is done, and how physicists view the world.

Author: Mary Anna Evans
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1464215561
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and Kate Quinn, The Physicists' Daughter is "a fascinating and intelligent WWII home front story." —Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook. No one can be trusted. The fate of a country is at stake. And everything depends on the physicists' daughter. New Orleans, 1944. Sabotage. That's the word on factory worker Justine Byrne's mind as she is repeatedly called to weld machine parts that keep failing with no clear cause. Could someone inside the secretive Carbon Division be deliberately undermining the factory's Allied war efforts? Raised by her late parents to think logically, she also can't help wondering just what the oddly shaped carbon gadgets she assembles day after day have to do with the boats the factory builds. When a crane inexplicably crashes to the factory floor, leaving a woman dead, Justine can no longer ignore her nagging fear that German spies are at work within the building, trying to put the factory and its workers out of commission. Unable to trust anyone—not the charming men vying for her attention, not her unpleasant boss, and not even the women who work beside her—Justine draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly very close to home.

Author: William H. Cropper
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199832080
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Here is a lively history of modern physics, as seen through the lives of thirty men and women from the pantheon of physics. William H. Cropper vividly portrays the life and accomplishments of such giants as Galileo and Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, right up to contemporary figures such as Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, and Stephen Hawking. We meet scientists--all geniuses--who could be gregarious, aloof, unpretentious, friendly, dogged, imperious, generous to colleagues or contentious rivals. As Cropper captures their personalities, he also offers vivid portraits of their great moments of discovery, their bitter feuds, their relations with family and friends, their religious beliefs and education. In addition, Cropper has grouped these biographies by discipline--mechanics, thermodynamics, particle physics, and others--each section beginning with a historical overview. Thus in the section on quantum mechanics, readers can see how the work of Max Planck influenced Niels Bohr, and how Bohr in turn influenced Werner Heisenberg. Our understanding of the physical world has increased dramatically in the last four centuries. With Great Physicists, readers can retrace the footsteps of the men and women who led the way.

Author: Jimena Canales
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400865778
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
The explosive debate that transformed our views about time and scientific truth On April 6, 1922, in Paris, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time. Einstein considered Bergson's theory of time to be a soft, psychological notion, irreconcilable with the quantitative realities of physics. Bergson, who gained fame as a philosopher by arguing that time should not be understood exclusively through the lens of science, criticized Einstein's theory of time for being a metaphysics grafted on to science, one that ignored the intuitive aspects of time. The Physicist and the Philosopher tells the remarkable story of how this explosive debate transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between science and the humanities that persists today. Jimena Canales introduces readers to the revolutionary ideas of Einstein and Bergson, describes how they dramatically collided in Paris, and traces how this clash of worldviews reverberated across the twentieth century. She shows how it provoked responses from figures such as Bertrand Russell and Martin Heidegger, and carried repercussions for American pragmatism, logical positivism, phenomenology, and quantum mechanics. Canales explains how the new technologies of the period—such as wristwatches, radio, and film—helped to shape people’s conceptions of time and further polarized the public debate. She also discusses how Bergson and Einstein, toward the end of their lives, each reflected on his rival’s legacy—Bergson during the Nazi occupation of Paris and Einstein in the context of the first hydrogen bomb explosion. The Physicist and the Philosopher is a magisterial and revealing account that shows how scientific truth was placed on trial in a divided century marked by a new sense of time.

Author: Charles River
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading It would be impossible to overstate the accomplishments and legacy of a man history has dubbed the "Father of Modern Science". In his lifetime, Galileo straddled the epochs of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, and it was his work and technological advances that helped usher in a brand new understanding of the solar system and the scientific method. Stephen Hawking himself has asserted, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science." Sir Isaac Newton is widely considered the most influential scientist in history, best known for the discovery of gravity and the subsequent laws of motion that he theorized. Schoolchildren around the world are still taught the famous legend about an apple falling on Newton's head, but that colorful story and the preoccupation with Newton's work in physics tend to make people forget Newton's work in other fields. Using empirical studies, Newton developed theories about light prisms, how matter cools, and even tried studying and calculating the speed of sound. And those are just the sciences; Newton also helped develop several mathematical fields, including calculus. Michael Faraday, an endlessly luminous mind equipped with an unflagging hunger for knowledge, possessed a hunger so ungovernable that not even poverty or social norms could stand in the way of his ambitions. Indeed, it was reportedly Albert Einstein's expertise in the lives of Maxwell and Faraday, as well as his mastery of their work and accomplishments, that landed him his first job at the Swiss Patent Office after months of job-scouring. Moreover, Einstein's admiration for Faraday was so profound that when a friend gifted him a biography of his "hero" for his birthday, Einstein cherished it to the utmost degree. Nikola Tesla was one of history's greatest scientists, and though he is best known for his pioneering work with electricity, the fact that he is mostly remembered solely for that actually does a disservice to his legacy. Born a Serb in the Austrian Empire, Tesla came to the United States and worked in a laboratory for none other than the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison. It was through his work on behalf of Edison that Tesla flourished and became a well-known figure in his own right. Max Planck has been remembered as the theoretical physicist whose revolutionary discovery of energy quanta and formulation of fundamental quantum theory allowed for countless others to expand on the knowledge of atomic processes. The immensity of Max Planck's legacy is difficult to condense into mere words. Albert Einstein needs no formal introduction. He is known around the world as one of history's most brilliant geniuses, and one of its most influential scientists. Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics, and he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". And though he is best known for his contributions to science with over 300 scientific papers, the witty Einstein also wrote over 150 non-scientific works, many of them infused with his humor. One of the most famous, and important, physicists is Niels Bohr, a world-famous physicist and one of the patriarchs of quantum theory. Given the vibrant, peaceful haven that is Denmark today, it's somewhat ironic that Bohr played an instrumental role in the development of the atomic bomb. Even so, the truth and depth of the matter, much like the self-professed pacifist himself, is far more complex.

Author: Michael Silberstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192533835
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Theoretical physics and foundations of physics have not made much progress in the last few decades. Whether we are talking about unifying general relativity and quantum field theory (quantum gravity), explaining so-called dark energy and dark matter (cosmology), or the interpretation and implications of quantum mechanics and relativity, there is no consensus in sight. In addition, both enterprises are deeply puzzled about various facets of time including above all, time as experienced. The authors argue that, across the board, this impasse is the result of the "dynamical universe paradigm," the idea that reality is fundamentally made up of physical entities that evolve in time from some initial state according to dynamical laws. Thus, in the dynamical universe, the initial conditions plus the dynamical laws explain everything else going exclusively forward in time. In cosmology, for example, the initial conditions reside in the Big Bang and the dynamical law is supplied by general relativity. Accordingly, the present state of the universe is explained exclusively by its past. This book offers a completely new paradigm (called Relational Blockworld), whereby the past, present and future co-determine each other via "adynamical global constraints," such as the least action principle. Accordingly, the future is just as important for explaining the present as is the past. Most of the book is devoted to showing how Relational Blockworld resolves many of the current conundrums of both theoretical physics and foundations of physics, including the mystery of time as experienced and how that experience relates to the block universe.