Explaining the Universe: The New Age of PhysicsPrinceton University Press, 2002 - 226 Seiten In this fascinating book, John Charap offers a panoramic view of the physicist's world as the twenty-first century opens--a view that is entirely different from the one that greeted the twentieth century. We have learned that the universe is billions of galaxies larger than we imagined--and billions of years older. We know more about how it came to be and what it is. Because of physics, we live in a world of greater danger and more convenience, smaller particles and bigger ideas. Charap introduces these ideas but spares us the math behind them. After a review of the twentieth century's thorough transformation of physics, he checks in on the latest findings from particle physics, astrophysics, chaos theory, and cosmology. His tour includes ongoing efforts to find the universe's missing matter and to account for the first moments after the big bang. Taking readers right to the field's speculative edge, he explains how superstring theory may finally unite quantum mechanics with general relativity to produce a consistent quantum theory of gravity. Along the way, Charap poses the questions that continue to inspire research. Why is the universe flat? Why can't we forecast weather better? Can Schrodinger's cat really be simultaneously dead and alive? Why does fractal geometry keep showing up in strange places? Might spacetime have eleven dimensions? What does quantum mechanics mean about the nature of our world? In this book's pages, the nonphysicist will accept as commonsensical Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and physicists can meet across specialties. Students can access physics' critical concepts, and poets can learn a new language to describe the universe's many wonders. Taking us from the ultraviolet catastrophe that undid the Newtonian world to tomorrow's Theory of Everything, Charap brings today's most fascinating science down to Earth, where we can all enjoy it. |
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Ergebnisse 1-5 von 36
... structure of space and time , to particular problems— the safe disposal of nuclear waste , for example . I could not hope to give even a survey account of all of them . But I do want to convey some indication of the enormous strides we ...
... structures as small as 10"1S meters . We have now " seen " atoms , broken apart their nuclei ; and much of our industry and prosperity is based on the physics of the electron . Techniques developed in research laboratories in the ...
... structure and content . We learned that the Milky Way , the galaxy of stars of which our sun is just one of a 100 billion others , is itself just one among at least a 100 billion other galaxies . The universe is now known to be not only ...
... structure that cannot be properly described or understood without transforming the funda- mentals of mechanics as passed on from Galileo and Newton . The invention of this new mechanics — quantum mechanics , the subject of chapter 4 ...
... structure of spacetime and matter . To some these ideas may seem to have no more foundation than the imaginings of ancient philos- ophy or New Age mysticism . But that is not the way I see it ! I hope at least to be able to persuade you ...
Inhalt
PHYSICS 1900 | xiv |
HEAVENS ABOVE | 22 |
CHANCE AND CERTAINTY | 41 |
ORDER OUT OF CHAOS | 62 |
YOUR PLACE OR MINE | 75 |
MANY HISTORIES MANY FUTURES | 84 |
MICROCOSM | 98 |
WEIGHTY MATTERS | 117 |
IN THE BEGINNING | 149 |
DOWN TO EARTH | 170 |
EPILOGUE | 186 |
Notes | 193 |
Glossary | 207 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 213 |
Index of Names | 217 |
221 | |