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Title: EVOLUTION OF PHYSICS by Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld ISBN: 0-671-20156-5 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 30 October, 1967 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Science as Human Creation
Comment: This book provides a still useful account, from 'the horses' mouths', of what Alfred Korzybski called the Newtonian and non-Newtonian views in physics. As Korzybski noted, all human beings form a view of so-called 'reality'. Understanding how scientists do this can have value for the rest of us. In this excellent book, the authors emphasize general formulations and a non-mathematical approach: "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone" (29). The book includes chapters on "The Rise of the Mechanical View," "The Decline of the Mechanical View," "Field, Relativity," and "Quanta." Readers will be rewarded with clear explanations of some potentially forbidding notions. These are interspersed with useful comments on physico-mathematical method, theory and the goals of science. Einstein's and Infeld's discussion demonstrates their view that "Science is not just a collection of laws, a catalogue of unrelated facts. It is a creation of the human mind, with its freely invented ideas and concepts. Physical theories try to form a picture of reality and to establish its connection with the wide world of sense impressions. Thus the only justification for our mental structures is whether and in what way our theories form such a link" (310).
Rating: 5
Summary: Science, history, and a bit of philosophy
Comment: Physics can be difficult to learn when theories and formulae are thrown at you with no historical context. You begin learning about motion, and then electricity and magnetism, and it's almost impossible to see a coherent connection between the ideas. Many people have heard of relativity and quantum theory, but do not have even a general notion of what they aim to explain.
Like mathematics, you can learn physics without knowing about the people behind its development (though you will encounter many of their names in important expressions), but it never hurts to study how such ideas began, and how they came to be what they are today. Einstein and Infeld's book is aptly titled. They show how and why certain concepts came into being and what significance they hold. Beginning with "The Rise of the Mechanical View," they describe vectors, motion, forces, and energy. With "The Decline of the Mechanical View," they show how the behavior of electricity, magnetism, and light waves poses problems for the mechanical view.
The next two (and most interesting) sections explore field, relativity, and quanta, and how they have proved more accurate in describing physical phenomena than what was previously known. Einstein and Infeld describe everything with a minimum of mathematics so that anyone with an interest in the development of physics can understand the contents. Although such math is necessary for a precise understanding of physics, the aim of the authors, which they frequently repeat throughout, is to give the reader a broad understanding of the general underlying principles. They have succeeded in giving an account of where the human construction of physics started, what has been covered since then, and where it is heading. It is a simply written book, suitable for readers who don't know physics and want to learn, but also helpful for students of physics who want to see a broader picture of its evolution.
Rating: 5
Summary: A very good book.
Comment: This is a really good book which clearly explains the evolution of physics from Newtons laws to Quantum mechanics in a simple and lucid language.
Einstein was not only a genuis mathematician and physicist but also a great author and story-teller and no one else could have told the story of evoultion of physics better than Einstein
A book that should be in every phisicists library
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Title: Relativity : The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein ISBN: 0517884410 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 06 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein ISBN: 0691023522 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 November, 1966 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Principle of Relativity by et al., Albert Einstein ISBN: 0486600815 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1952 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Ideas & Opinions by ALBERT EINSTEIN ISBN: 0517003937 Publisher: Gramercy Pub. Date: 12 December, 1988 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: A Brief History of Time : The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition by STEPHEN HAWKING ISBN: 0553380168 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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