Physical Science, its Structure and Development From Geometric Astronomy to the Mechanical Theory of Heat

Kemble, Edwin C.

ISBN 10: 0262110180 / ISBN 13: 9780262110181

Published by The MIT Press, 1966

About this Item

Bump on spine head, light soil; 10.0 X 7.0 X 1.1 inches; 498 pages.

Seller Inventory # 53957

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Physical Science, its Structure and Development From Geometric Astronomy to the Mechanical Theory of Heat
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication Date: 1966
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262110180
• ISBN 13: 9780262110181
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

This introduction to physical science combines a rigorous discussion of scientific principles with sufficient historical background and philosophic interpretation to add a new dimension of interest to the accounts given in more conventional textbooks. It brings out the twofold character of physical science as an expanding body of verifiable knowledge and as an organized human activity whose goals and values are major factors in the revolutionary changes sweeping over the world today.

Professor Kemble insists that to understand science one must understand not only what the scientists have discovered, but how the discoveries were made, why the growth of scientific knowledge had to begin slowly, and what it has done to our habits of thought. He has written neither a history of science nor an introduction to the philosophy of science but an introduction to scientific concepts and principles that supplies as much of their historical and philosophical context as limits of space permit.

The volume takes up in turn the story of the astronomy of ancient Greece, the Copernican revolution, the idea of the expanding sidereal universe, the rise of Newton's classical mechanics with its many astronomical applications, the concept of energy and its relation to heat, to steam engines, and to thermodynamics. The volume ends with an account of the successes and failures of classical kinetic-molecular theory of heat.

Though written for students the book had an obvious appeal to the general reader.