Knowing The Nature Of Physical Law Author:Michael Munowitz How is the world put together, and how does it work? Why does an apple crash to the ground but the Moon does not? What are apples made of? What is the Moon made of? What are we made of? Is there any sense to it all? What are the rules of the game? — To be human is to ask questions, to wonder, to want to know. We ask question afte... more »r question of an indifferent universe that would just as soon remain mute; and slowly, patiently, one sentence at a time, we write our own version of the book of nature. It is called science, from the Latin word for knowledge, and it is a book everybody should read.
With simplicity and elegance, Knowing interprets the book of nature for curious readers of all sorts -- but especially for those hoping to appreciate the beauty of physics without getting lost in the mathematics. Glimpse a world of scientific understanding in the pages of this gracefully written and inviting book, where hundreds of little diagrams substitute for the equations that physicists otherwise need to tell their tale.
Dig in, and ask about the way things work: how big things (like Earth and Moon) come from small things (like quarks and electrons)... how tiny particles push and pull, and how the world hangs in the balance...how an "unbiased" observer and a fixed speed of light, nothing else, conjure up E=mc2 and four-dimensional space-time. See how Newton's clockwork universe of unwavering determination differs (but not in every respect) from Heisenberg's quantum universe of hazy uncertainty. See how a world of chaos throws a wrench into everybody's mechanical ideal.
From tiny atoms to vast galaxies, the universe is ours to explore and to know; its particles, its interactions, its laws, its unending surprises. And if in the end you still have questions, well, so much the better. That's what makes knowing (even just a little bit) so much fun.« less