- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix (15 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753819910
- ISBN-13: 978-0753819913
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,221,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Weighing the Soul
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Product Description
Review
'This distinguished physicist describes here the evolution of scientific beliefs. Throughout history scientists have pursued ideas that seemed bizarre, peculiar or even downright daft, and in this sharp and witty overview of the great - and the not so great - moments of scientific experimentation, Fisher illuminates the true process of discovery.' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
'This is a highly readable, funny and thought-provoking history.' (HERALD (GLASGOW) )
'This is a highly readable, funny and thought-provoking history.' (HERALD (GLASGOW) )
Jerome Burne, FT MAGAZINE (4.12.04)
'Len Fisher...takes us on a very accessible and entertaining tour of various historical moments where contemporary commonsense ideas about how the world worked clashed with scientific findings...WEIGHING THE SOUL is a mine of delightful oddities.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
This book tells the stories of scientists whose ideas appeared bizarre, peculiar or downright daft to their contemporaries, but who stuck to their guns through ridicule, oppression and persecution. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This book tells the stories of scientists whose ideas appeared bizarre, peculiar or downright daft to their contemporaries, but who stuck to their guns through ridicule, oppression and persecution. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book may be educative for lay readers on the current "Mainstream Science," but I have almost completed my paper for refuting the author's 'Convection Current' theory for trying to refute the 100 year old speculation of "the weight of soul substance" by physician Duncan MacDougall. Abstract of my paper follows:
Abstract: A scientific rebuttal has been given against a recently (in 2004) suggested "Convection Current" theory for explaining the unexplained sudden loss of weight of patients upon their deaths in the Duncan MacDougall's experiment published in 1907. Because the theory was originated from a review of the Count Rumford's experiment of "Weighing the Heat" in the 1780s, a review of the experiment has been given with thermo-hydraulic analyses. Also given are analyses of the MacDougall's experiment to examine the theory. These analyses have shown that there is no possibility for the convection air currents to explain the MacDougall's data, because (1) there is no possibility of a sudden occurrence of a change in the convection currents upon human death because of the thermal inertia of dead body with a shortest time constant of 4 hours, (2) convection air current required to hydrodynamically compensate the reported apparent loss of weight (10 to 70 gf) is too energetic (30 to 104 cm/s updraft required against the 1 to 2 m2 bed bottom or more than 2 m/s downdraft on the weight) to be realized upon human death, and (3) the theory is wrong from the start because the suggested "convection currents" definitely give results that are contrary to the experimental data of both Rumford's and MacDougall's. A speculative idea has been described about how to understand the MacDougall's results based on the existing psychical knowledge.
Abstract: A scientific rebuttal has been given against a recently (in 2004) suggested "Convection Current" theory for explaining the unexplained sudden loss of weight of patients upon their deaths in the Duncan MacDougall's experiment published in 1907. Because the theory was originated from a review of the Count Rumford's experiment of "Weighing the Heat" in the 1780s, a review of the experiment has been given with thermo-hydraulic analyses. Also given are analyses of the MacDougall's experiment to examine the theory. These analyses have shown that there is no possibility for the convection air currents to explain the MacDougall's data, because (1) there is no possibility of a sudden occurrence of a change in the convection currents upon human death because of the thermal inertia of dead body with a shortest time constant of 4 hours, (2) convection air current required to hydrodynamically compensate the reported apparent loss of weight (10 to 70 gf) is too energetic (30 to 104 cm/s updraft required against the 1 to 2 m2 bed bottom or more than 2 m/s downdraft on the weight) to be realized upon human death, and (3) the theory is wrong from the start because the suggested "convection currents" definitely give results that are contrary to the experimental data of both Rumford's and MacDougall's. A speculative idea has been described about how to understand the MacDougall's results based on the existing psychical knowledge.
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