50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know
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Product Description
Product Description
In this, the second volume in an important new series presenting core concepts across a range of critical areas of human knowledge, author Joanne Baker unravels the complexities of 20th-century scientific theory for a general readership. She explains ideas at the cutting-edge of scientific enquiry, making them comprehensible and accessible to the layperson.
About the Author
Joanne Baker studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and took her PhD at the University of Sydney in 1995. She is a physical science editor at Science magazine, where her speciality is space and earth science.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Learning is a bit like climbing a mountain. Every step is a little bit harder than the last but the view gets better all the time.
In this excellent book, the author takes us through fifty of the most important laws of physics, by way of a series of short and entertaining essays. Beginning with the fundamental laws of heat, motion and energy - those we learn at school and brush up against in the trials of everyday life - we gently ascend through to more recent advances in understanding -bits of the picture that fall well outside the realms of everyday experience: the sub-atomic world of waves and particles: the forces, such as dark energy, that are at work within (and outside?) our expanding universe. Amongst the highlights are an extremely lucid explanation of Einstein's theories of General Relativity and Special Relativity.
Not only does the book demonstrate and celebrate how humankind has slowly begun to unravel the mysteries of life but, for the average reader, it helps us shuffle a few steps up that mountain of learning.
For me, one of the real triumphs of the book is the way that the author shows how even the fundamental laws fit in to the broader picture. For instance, I don't remember my college lecturer explaining how the Second Law of Thermodynamics could determine the ultimate fate of the universe. He should of done - how often do physics students ask the question, "Why do we need to know this?" Well, this book might have the answer and step by step, inch by inch (or should that be nanometre by nanometre) you will be ascending a bit of that mountain I talked about before. I even found myself going back to re-read some of the essays, so clear is the progression between them.
If, like me, you have an interest in science and physics but are by no means a great intellect, this book is a great place to gain a better insight into the way everything sticks together and stays together. Or doesn't, as the case may be !
In this excellent book, the author takes us through fifty of the most important laws of physics, by way of a series of short and entertaining essays. Beginning with the fundamental laws of heat, motion and energy - those we learn at school and brush up against in the trials of everyday life - we gently ascend through to more recent advances in understanding -bits of the picture that fall well outside the realms of everyday experience: the sub-atomic world of waves and particles: the forces, such as dark energy, that are at work within (and outside?) our expanding universe. Amongst the highlights are an extremely lucid explanation of Einstein's theories of General Relativity and Special Relativity.
Not only does the book demonstrate and celebrate how humankind has slowly begun to unravel the mysteries of life but, for the average reader, it helps us shuffle a few steps up that mountain of learning.
For me, one of the real triumphs of the book is the way that the author shows how even the fundamental laws fit in to the broader picture. For instance, I don't remember my college lecturer explaining how the Second Law of Thermodynamics could determine the ultimate fate of the universe. He should of done - how often do physics students ask the question, "Why do we need to know this?" Well, this book might have the answer and step by step, inch by inch (or should that be nanometre by nanometre) you will be ascending a bit of that mountain I talked about before. I even found myself going back to re-read some of the essays, so clear is the progression between them.
If, like me, you have an interest in science and physics but are by no means a great intellect, this book is a great place to gain a better insight into the way everything sticks together and stays together. Or doesn't, as the case may be !
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had bought this book after having read the previous three Amazon reviews so should have been prepared. The book has a steady and ultimately illuminating theme of bringing all the theories together, and from this perspective it does so well if the reader perseveres. However, although the summaries are good I felt that the explanations are often far from clear (so disappointing that at times I felt that the equations would have added some clarity), and the editing is unsatisfactory so that I would question whether most readers would stick it out. This is a shame as dipping in and out of the book will lose its message of coherence and development of the ideas in physics.
49 of 57 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I really wanted to like this book, and for the most part I do. There is a need for a book that can cover the basic physics and theories about the world around us in an interesting and engaging way. This book is pretty good at that. However, I think it is flawed because there are some glaring errors, and this will not help those who didn't understand these things at school, whether because they were not interested or because the teacher wasn't up to it (they can have bad days too).
Two examples are these:
1. In the Introduction on page 3 it reads "Our mobile 'phones connect us via invisible electromagnetic threads to satellites orbiting overhead". Normal mobile 'phones do not do this. Only satellite 'phones do this, and they are relatively expensive and bulky.
2. In Newton's Laws of Motion on page 9 it reads "Acceleration is a change of speed over some time". Whilst this is true, acceleration is really a change of velocity over time, and velocity is a vector and has a component of both speed and direction. So acceleration can be a change in speed or direction (or both) over some time.
These examples may seem pedantic, but it is an important distinction. Perhaps this book tries to avoid anything tricky by dumbing down. Anyway, I still like the book. But it could be better.
Two examples are these:
1. In the Introduction on page 3 it reads "Our mobile 'phones connect us via invisible electromagnetic threads to satellites orbiting overhead". Normal mobile 'phones do not do this. Only satellite 'phones do this, and they are relatively expensive and bulky.
2. In Newton's Laws of Motion on page 9 it reads "Acceleration is a change of speed over some time". Whilst this is true, acceleration is really a change of velocity over time, and velocity is a vector and has a component of both speed and direction. So acceleration can be a change in speed or direction (or both) over some time.
These examples may seem pedantic, but it is an important distinction. Perhaps this book tries to avoid anything tricky by dumbing down. Anyway, I still like the book. But it could be better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent Introduction
I found this book an excellent Introduction into the world of Physics, I am 16 and have a keen interest in physics. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Louis
50 Physics Ideas
I will not advise this book to anyone. First of all, it is badly written. Secondly for a science textbook, it is not rigorous enough.
Published 9 months ago by Guvernor
Confusing as often as illuminating
If I had been able to open this book before ordering, I never would have bought it. If you like a book whose layout is a crazy quilt of blocks of type in different styles, plus... Read more
Published 15 months ago by R. K. Ltd
Very disappointed with the obvious errors
I bought this book in an airport, with the hope of skimming over some of the quantum theory that I missed at University. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Tracy
A clearly written introduction to the main ideas
I am a non-physicist and a non-scientist, so I am coming at this book purely from the perspective of a layperson who is seeking to know more about a complex subject. Read more
Published on 3 May 2010 by Steven J. Uttley
50 Physics ideas
A very handy small book with about four pages on each subject. They range from Newton's laws of motion to the behaviour of gases, electricity, light, and eventually on to quantum... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2010 by J. Wilkinson
Entertaining and mind-expanding!
This book covers 50 key concepts in physics building chronologically from the ideas of forces, planetary motion and gravity, the nature of waves and light, through quantum... Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2009 by John M
Brilliant introduction to the laws physics
I picked this book up after completing a 6 month course in chemistry as part of a qualification to become a science teacher. Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by Mr. L. Kavanagh
A reasonably good overview of key physics ideas
From Brownian motion to black holes, from dark matter to antimatter, 50 key key physics topics are presented here in the same 4-page format as other Quercus titles in the series,... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2009 by Steve M
Very Disapponted
Such a good idea, but so disappointing.
In spite of reading the comments from the earlier reviewer who considered it 'flawed', I bought 2 copies as presents. Read more
In spite of reading the comments from the earlier reviewer who considered it 'flawed', I bought 2 copies as presents. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2007 by Alan Boxer
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