Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe - Hardcover

Clark, David H.; Clark, Matthew D.H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813534046 ISBN 13: 9780813534046

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2004

Synopsis

The skies have inspired reflection on the vastness of space, the wonder of creation, and humankind's role in the universe. In just over 100 years, science has moved from almost total ignorance about the actual distances to the stars and earth's place in the galaxy to contemporary knowledge about the enormous size, mass and the age of the universe. We are reaching the limits of observation, and therefore the limits of human understanding. Beyond lies only imagination, seeded by the theories of physics. Here, science writers David and Matthew Clark tell the stories of both well-known and the unsung heroes who played key roles in these discoveries. These true accounts reveal ambitions, conflicts, failures, as well as successes, as the scale and age of the universe were finally established. Few areas of scientific research have witnessed such drama in the form of geo clashes, priority claims, or failed (or even falsified) theories as that resulting from attempts to measure the universe.

About this title

Product Description

The book is brand new and will be dispatched from UK.

Review

"From the Greek thinkers to modern astronomers using the sharpest tools of today's technology, Measuring the Cosmos shows how we've learned mankind is not at the center of things, but located on one small planet circling an ordinary star at the outskirts of the Milky Way in a large, expanding, accelerating universe of galaxies. The Clarks are expert guides on this journey of exploration." From the Greek thinkers to modern astronomers using the sharpest tools of today's technology, Measuring the Cosmos shows how we've learned mankind is not at the center of things, but located on one small planet circling an ordinary star at the outskirts of the Milky Way in a large expanding, accelerating universe of galaxies. The Clarks are expert guides on this journey of exploration.--Robert P. Kirshner "author of The Extravagent Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accele "

Edition details

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813534046
• ISBN 13: 9780813534046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224