Seeking Ultimates an Intuitive Guide to Physics.Pdf
‘[Landsberg]...offers us his vision of a great spectrum of topics, rang- ing from fundamental particles to models of the universe, from the periodic table to the origins of life, from the global energy supply to Gödel’s theorem. We go on a...ride starting with thermodynamics (...mass, perpetual motion), moving on to...elements, particles, for- ces...continuing to time and entropy...(self-organization,...chaos and...the origins of life), and quantum theory (waves and particles, wave functions and probabilities, quantum gravity, nonlocality, Schrödinger’s cat...), arriving finally at cosmology (...black holes, ...physical constants, the anthropic principle), mathematics (...com- plexity), and even religion. Landsberg treats all of this and more in his inimitable style: terse, concise, and to the point, but chock full of insights and humor.’ ‘This book is not only illuminating but also entertaining. It is embel- lished throughout by illustrations,...examples of correspondence be- tween scientists, and anecdotes.... Each chapter is given a hero...Pascal, Rumford, Mendeleev, Boltzmann, Darwin, Planck, Einstein, Eddington. These serve...to show how important a love of science for its own sake is to genuine progress in understanding.’ ‘I heartily recommend this book.... If you have not been waiting for this book, you should have been, and if you have not read it yet, you should.’ American Journal of Physics October 2000 Seeking Ultimates An Intuitive Guide to Physics Peter T Landsberg University of Southampton Institute of Physics Publishing Bristol and Philadelphia ᭧ IOP Publishing Ltd 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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