Six Roads from Newton: Great Discoveries in Physics (Wiley Popular Science) - Hardcover

Speyer, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471305030 ISBN 13: 9780471305033

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1994

Synopsis

Although he made his discoveries more than three centuries ago, all roads in modern physics lead back to Sir Isaac Newton. This book begins with a lucid summary of Newton's laws. These fundamental theories changed contemporary concepts about space, time and motion. The author then moves on to explain six of the most important theoretical developments since Newton and to show how they have changed our understanding of how science has developed. These developments include wave theory, field theory, statistical probability, special relativity theory, quantum theory and general relativity theory.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author EDWARD SPEYER teaches physics at California State University, Fullerton. He has thirty years of experience as a research physicist in industrial laboratories and has served as chief investigator for the National Science Foundation.

From the Inside Flap

Six Roads from Newton Isaac Newtons discovery of his famous laws of physics forever shattered the medieval picture of the cosmos, laying the foundations for all the great discoveries in physics since. We are now in the midst of another monumental scientific revolution, set in motion by the discoveries of the relativity of time and quantum acausality at the beginning of this century. The "Great Clockwork" view of the universe based on Newtons laws has been radically challenged, altering once again our concept of the cosmos and mankinds place in it. To understand where physics is heading today and how fundamentally the Newtonian world has been shattered, Edward Speyer takes us on a trip down the main roads physics has traveled since Newtons time. Six Roads from Newton is a lively tour through six important theoretical developments in physics: wave theory, field theory, statistical physics, special relativity, quantum theory, and general relativity. Requiring no advanced mathematics, this book makes all crucial concepts of both Newtonian and non-Newtonian physics extraordinarily accessible to nonscientists, even the mind-boggling world of quantum theory. Your tour begins in seventeenth century England with an introduction to Isaac Newton and his laws of space, time, and motion. Advancing chronologically, Edward Speyer takes you through each of the monumental breakthroughs that have occurred since. He demonstrates how each development has either built on or challenged Newtons work, and in the case of quantum theory, forced a thorough reexamination of even the most basic of Newtonian principles. To help you to make sense of some of the knottier concepts and controversies, Speyer provides dozens of cogent real-world examples, as well as a few of the playfully bizarre mindbenders physicists have dreamed up to test their theories, such as The Twin Paradox, Einsteins Man in the Elevator, and the deliciously diabolical, Schrodingers Cat. In the final chapter, Edward Speyer makes an intriguing foray into the most perplexing moral, ethical, and philosophical "Big Questions" raised by modern science and speculates on what the future may hold. A delightfully clear and entertaining journey through nearly three centuries of scientific discovery, Six Roads from Newton offers nonscientists an unparalleled opportunity to explore the strange and fascinating world of modern physics.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471305030
• ISBN 13: 9780471305033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208