Gravity Books

Reinventing Gravity: A Physicist Goes Beyond Einstein

John W. Moffat

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A bold revision of one of the most successful theories of all time: Einstein's general theory of relativity. Physicists have long known that something is wrong with gravity. Einstein's relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics are fundamentally incompatible, which has prompted the last 30 years of work in string theory and quantum gravity. However, John Moffat has identified a bigger problem: not only does Einstein's theory not work in the world of the very small; it does not seem to work in the world of the very large either. Moffat has developed a modified theory of gravity, or MOG, that can explain the behaviour of our universe as well as Einstein's, without resorting to dubious, yet long-claimed excuse for the existence of invisible "dark matter.” As John Barrow of the University of Cambridge asserts, the simplicity of Moffat's model demands that physicists take this daring new theory seriously. Now, for the first time, "Reinventing Gravity" introduces general readers to Moffat's groundbreaking new ideas about the universe.

What Is Life?: with "Mind and Matter" and "Autobiographical Sketches"

Erwin Schrodinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl Popper hailed it as a 'beautiful and important book' by 'a great man to whom I owe a personal debt for many exciting discussions'. It appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Schrodinger asks what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, published and translated here for the first time. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable additon to the shelves of scientist and layman alike.

The Story of Science: Newton at the Center

Joy Hakim

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 23 people found this review helpful.

I notice that one negative review has been repeated on multiple Joy Hakim books verbatim.

I LIKE the sidebars and pictures. There is a ton of ART history and beautiful graphic design work in the books. Perhaps it is because my husband, son and I are all artists, but we particularly enjoyed the layout of the books. I felt a fusion of science with art in the presentation.

The history is sound, well presented, and detailed enough in scope to touch on mathmatical concepts supporting the science.

I'd reccomend this book for lovers of science history and for older homeschoolers. It is a bit too serious for younger homeschoolers. To me, this is more a book for a older preteen or teen audience.

Editorial Review:

The story of science continues with the reclusive Copernicus and his astounding theory that the sun is at the center of the universe, and closes with the basics of atomic theory, offering intriguing portraits of the scientists who built on each other's theories in their tireless pursuit of answers. 300 color photographs, illustrations, and maps.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

Lee Smolin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Holy Grail of modern physics is the search for a theory of "quantum gravity." It is a search for a view of the universe that unites two seemingly opposing pillars of modern science: Einstein's theory of general relativity, which deals with large-scale phenomena (planets, solar systems and galaxies), and quantum theory, which deals with the world of the very small (molecules, atoms, electrons). In Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, cosmologist and science writer Lee Smolin provides the first concise and accessible overview of current attempts to reconcile these two theories in a final "theory of everything." Other books and articles have painted an incomplete picture by exposing only one of the different approaches, including string theory and loop quantum gravity. Here is the closest anyone has ever come to devising a completely new theory of space, time, and the universe to replace the Newtonian ideas that were the foundation of all science until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Mr Tompkins in Paperback: Comprising 'Mr Tompkins in Wonderland' and 'Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom'

George Gamow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An alltime favorite! 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

A lovely reprinted edition of a peral from Gamow. The original edition has been out of print for a number of years. This 1993 edition has added commentary and a fascinating bio of Gamow. He was born in Odessa, in what was then Russia, --before the Soviet Union. The story of his escape to the West is straight out of a thriller. Only it is real! Gamow was referred to by a journalist, some time during the Cold War, as "the only scientist in America with a real sense of humor". He can take the most technical stuff and make it simple. Fun too! The book:--Intellectual treats, whimsy, but deep. Illustrated with lovely drawings by Gamow himself. Much of it can be understood by a child, and other parts might require a little concentration. All of it is great fun. Follow your imagination, and while you explore, you will learn about Einstein's theory of relativity. And in unexpected ways! You will see the wonders of physics thru the eyes of a child. With his unexpected thought experiments, Gamow has captured the imagination of generations of readers, and he has inspired a degree of curiosity that comes naturally to children.
The author George Gamow started in nuclear physics, during the Golden Age of Physics, worked with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, then later in the US, on the Manhattan Project during WWII; and after the War, he was professor in Boulder Colorado. He has a building on campus of The University of Colorado named after him! He is one of the few scientists who wrote popular books. They are precious pearls, and they have been equally popular with my parent's generation as with mine. For awhile they were out of print, but luckely some have now been reprinted in recent years!
Other Gamow titles: Biography of Physics, Atomic Energy [dedicated to the hope of lasting peace], Physics of the Strapless Evning Gown,...We are lucky that Dover has reprinted some of them. Gamow's list of scientific accomplishments includes a 1948 landmark paper on the origin of chemical elements, the Big Bang model, and later work with F. Crick on DNA and genetic coding.-- Do more Gamow editions, Dover!
Review by Palle Jorgensen, September 2003.

Editorial Review:

Mr Tompkins has become known and loved by many thousands of readers (since his first appearance over fifty years ago) as the bank clerk whose fantastic dreams and adventures lead him into a world inside the atom. George Gamow's classic provides a delightful explanation of the central concepts in modern physics, from atomic structure to relativity, and quantum theory to fusion and fission. Roger Penrose's new foreword introduces Mr Tompkins to a new generation of readers, and reviews his adventures in the light of current developments in physics today.

Gravity

George Gamow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A pearl. 5 out of 5 stars.
54 of 58 people found this review helpful.

A lovely reprinted Dover edition of a peral from Gamow. The original 1962 edition has been out of print for a number of years. This 2003 edition has added commentary and a fascinating bio of Gamow. He was born in Odessa, in what was then Russia, --before the Soviet Union. The story of his escape to the West is straight out of a thriller. Only it is real! Gamow was referred to by a journalist, some time during the Cold War, as "the only scientist in America with a real sense of humor". He can take the most technical stuff and make it simple. Fun too! The book:--Intellectual treats, whimsy, but deep. Illustrated with lovely drawings by Gamow himself. Much of it can be understood by a child, and other parts might require a little concentration. All of it is great fun. The author Gamow started in nuclear physics, during the Golden Age of Physics, worked with Niels Bohr, then later in the US, on the Manhattan Project during WWII, and after the war, he was professor in Boulder Colorado. He has a building on campus named after him! The books he wrote are pearls, and they have been equally popular with my parent's generation as with mine. Luckely some have been reprinted! Other Gamow titles: Biography of Physics, Atomic Energy [dedicated to the hope of lasting peace], Physics of the Strapless Evning Gown,...We are lucky that Dover has reprinted some of them. Gamow's list of scientific accomplishments includes a 1948 landmark paper on the origin of chemical elements, the Big Bang model, and later work with F. Crick on DNA and genetic coding.-- Do more Gamow editions, Dover!

Editorial Review:

A distinguished physicist takes an enlightening look at three scientists whose work unlocked many mysteries: Galileo, the first to examine the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.

Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity

James B. Hartle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

More math than text 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 14 people found this review helpful.

It was probably my error, I suppose I did not read enough reviews about this text book, but I bought this book believing it would contain more text and less math. I was wrong! I read into about a third of the book and started losing interest. It is not that it is a bad book, nor am I saying it is not interesting, but the caveat here is ... interesting to who?

I believe this book is aimed more at those with an interest in math and or the explanation of all theory at the mathematical level. I understand mathematics is the underlying point behind Einstein's theory of gravity, but I am not well educated in complicated mathematical formulas (they tend to put me to sleep) and when I purchased the book I was more interested in someone's explanation(s) of the underlying theories by way of the English language and not by way of mathematics. I prefer formulas be translated to English, similar to how computers translate lower-level assembly languages to higher-level languages for user-friendly interaction with a computer.

Bottom line: Buy the book if you have at least a rudimentary background in mathematical formulas or if you are willing to read between the pages and pages of formulas to pick up the useful and informative information in the book. Otherwise, I suggest looking elsewhere.

Editorial Review:

The aim of this groundbreaking new text is to bring general relativity into the undergraduate curriculum and make this fundamental theory accessible to all physics majors. Using a "physics first" approach to the subject, renowned relativist James B. Hartle provides a fluent and accessible introduction that uses a minimum of new mathematics and is illustrated with a wealth of exciting applications. The emphasis is on the exciting phenomena of gravitational physics and the growing connection between theory and observation. The Global Positioning System, black holes, X-ray sources, pulsars, quasars, gravitational waves, the Big Bang, and the large scale structure of the universe are used to illustrate the widespread role of how general relativity describes a wealth of everyday and exotic phenomena. For anyone interested in physics or general relativity.

Gravity Is a Mystery (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)

Franklyn M. Branley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Favorite for my 3 year old! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In 1990, my husband went to the library and brought home " gravity is a mystery" for our son to read. He loved it! It was his favorite book for weeks! Every night one of us would have to read it to him. This is a fun book that everyone should get a chance to read.

Gravity is a mystery 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is as important as it is wonderful. It brings home the Big Secret about science that escapes most people: Science is about the unknown, not the known. There are lots of mysteries out there; the business of science is to change the unknown into the known, which is the lesson, I think, of Franklyn Branley's masterpiece.

Not Just for Preschoolers 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Although this book will painlessly teach your four year old what science is and what that abstract concept, gravity, is, it is also excellent for a teenager who is struggling through a physics course. As Einstein said, you don't really understand a concept until you can explain it to your grandmother. Well, this is a book for Grandmother.

Editorial Review:

What goes up must come down.

Everybody knows that. But what is it that pulls everything from rocks to rockets toward the center of the earth? It's gravity. Nobody can say exactly what it is, but gravity is there, pulling on everything, all the time. With the help of an adventurous scientist and his fun-loving dog, you can read and find out about this mysterious force.

Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (Helix Books)

Michael White

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

"For alchemy does not trade with metals as ignorant vulgars think"---Sir Isaac Newton 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer is a well-written, well-researched, and insightful account of the life of one of the (maybe THE) most influential and important scientists and mathematicians in history. Michael White, as implied by the title of his work, has an ambitious thesis to his study: that alchemy was key to Newton's ground-breaking discoveries. According to White, without his controversial pursuit of alchemical goals like the Philosopher's Stone, Newton would not have established his theory on gravity, etc. While the idea is intriguing and probably true (one's interests and studies in specific areas will often influence what one discovers and how one understands other areas), White provides very little evidence to support his thesis and relies mostly on speculation and guessing.

As a biography, I found this book intellectually stimulating, yet very readable with many interesting details that help the reader understand Newton as a scientist and as a person. Although the author claims at the beginning to concentrate on Newton's alchemical research, the book is a thorough biographical account that covers his troubled youth, his autodidactic study at Cambridge, his most important findings (theory on light and colors, gravity, calculus), his religious views and study in prophesy, his work at the Mint (he was instrumental in England's recoinage), his Presidency in the Royal Society, and his relationships with fellow intellectuals including feuds with Robert Hooke, John Flamsteed, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. White also devotes what I believe to be too many pages on Newton's niece and her affair/marriage with Lord Halifax.

White examines many different areas of Newton's life and also provides background information to help the reader understand the intellectual and scientific foundation that led to Newton as well as the popular biographical accounts of Newton until the 1930s when John Maynard Keynes purchased some of Newton's documents on alchemy from Sotheby's. Newton claims that earlier biographers ignored or covered up Newton's interest in alchemy. White does an excellent job explaining how Plato and Aristotle's reliance on syllogistic logic rather than experimentation stifled the growth of knowledge for centuries (31). Newton was the first to apply fully the scientific method that is used today (182). As to Newton's findings, White is very adept in scientific principles, but does not bog down his work with too much esoteric jargon. He describes Newton's research (he experimented with light in dangerous ways that almost damaged his eye sight, pp. 58-61), his thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses found in his notebooks, documents, and correspondence.

Where White's work becomes weak is when his branches off into alchemy (mostly in chapters 6 and 7). It is not that White does not explain alchemy well, or does not outline Newton's work in alchemy, or ignores the influence of alchemists like Michael Maier and Robert Boyle; it is that White makes the sweeping claim that alchemy was key to Newton's discoveries with little to back it up. He will introduce alchemy, its history, its disciples, and its influence on Newton and how Newton went about his alchemical studies with a furnace in his room at Cambridge, and then will throw in statements like "The creation of the Star Regulus was PROBABLY one step along this road [to a full-blown theory of gravity]" (146), "It is QUITE POSSIBLE that, by manipulating the tale [about documents Newton lost in a fire at Cambridge], they managed to neatly dismiss Newton's alchemical interests" (148). White maintains that the popular apple story was created by Newton to cover up alchemy's role in his theory on gravitation (no evidence provided). In examining Newton's biblical study, White makes a connection between Solomon's temple and Newton's concept on universal gravitation and then admits "There is no surviving record of an explicit reference to the Star Regulus or the Temple of Solomon to support the idea that they may have symbolized an attractive force" (pp. 159-62). Later in the book, White becomes preoccupied by Newton's relationship with upstart intellectual Fatio de Duillier and, while discussing their relatively intimate correspondence (White implies a possible homosexual relationship), suggests that the censored parts of the letters had to do with alchemy (238). White adds that Fatio "may have" spoken of alchemy in front of other intellectuals and that he possibly got Newton interested in the black arts (291-99). Of course, White seized on Newton burning his papers at the Mint weeks before his death: "the burning incident MAY have some bearing on the conclusion we reach about this. Did Newton venture along paths leading far from his study of alchemy-paths we would now consider those of pure magic, pure heresy?" (355).

I am not criticizing White for asking these questions or for speculating about Newton's secret endeavors. My problem is that White makes the claim that alchemy was key to Newton's discoveries and makes it the thesis of this book and not only doesn't cover alchemy throughout the book (mainly only in 2 chapters and sporadically sprinkled through the rest of the work) but his proof is only speculation and rumor. He doesn't, for example, draw connections between Newton's alchemical documents and his theories. Near the end of his book, White throws in this puzzling paragraph: "Unlike the central theme of this biography-that Newton arrived at his theory of gravity PARTLY [he backs off a little from his thesis here] through his exploration of alchemy and early biblical theory---the notion that he crossed the line into black magic is not supported by any hard evidence, but the circumstantial evidence available offers an intriguing possibility" (358). This sentence applies to his central thesis as well. I almost gave this book 3 stars but decided to compromise as it would be head and shoulders above other books I've given 3 stars. Actually, I would have given this book 5 stars, as it shows excellent care and scholarship, if he wasn't so adamant in claiming to prove a thesis he did not support with information provided in The Last Sorcerer.

Editorial Review:

Unknown to all but a few, Newton was a practicing alchemist who dabbled with the occult, a tortured, obsessive character who searched for an understanding of the universe by whatever means possible. Sympathetic yet balanced, Michael White’s Isaac Newton offers a revelatory picture of Newton as a genius who stood at the point in history where magic ended and science began.

The Life of Isaac Newton (Canto original series)

Richard S. Westfall

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Insight into a Genius 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Life of Isaac Newton, by Richard Westfall, addresses the life and work of one of the greatest scientists of all time. Indeed, many consider Isaac Newton to be the greatest scientist of all time, because his work was the culmination of the Scientific Revolution. Westfall covers Newton's unhappy childhood, from which he escaped to Cambridge University where he emerged as a solitary, studious individual. Newton's genius found expression during the anni mirabilis, 1664-1666, when Cambridge was closed due to the plague. During these years, Newton explored a wide range of scientific issues, including mathematical physics, optics, mechanics, and celestial dynamics. He expanded upon Descartes' geometry, to develop the calculus. He conducted experiments with light, concluding that white light is made up of a series of colors. Newton also pursued studies of the movement of objects, following up on the work of Gallileo. Westfall covers Newton's lengthy career at Cambridge, where he devoted his life to his studies, avoiding most relationships and incurring animosity and resentment among many of his fellow scientists, including Robert Hooke. Newton's masterpiece was the Principia, in which he laid out his three laws of motion: inertia; acceleration; and action and reaction. Newton also presented the laws of universal gravitation. Westfall was compelled to write this biography - which is a shortened version of his larger, more technical study - to share the unfolding of the amazing genius who discovered so many of the laws underlying the physical world. This book is worth reading because it provides in an accessible form insights into the discoveries in the fields of mathematics and physics that ushered in the world of modern science.

Editorial Review:

One of the greatest scientists in history, Isaac Newton's achievements in mathematics and physics marked the culmination of the movement that brought modern science into being. Richard Westfall's biography captures in engaging detail both his private life and scientific career, presenting a complex picture of Newton the man, and as scientist, philosopher, theologian, alchemist and public figure. An abridged version of his Never at Rest, this concise biography makes Westfall's highly acclaimed portrait of Newton accessible to general readers.