Book Description
Presenting an introduction to the mathematics of modern physics for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this textbook introduces the reader to modern mathematical thinking within a physics context. Topics covered include tensor algebra, differential geometry, topology, Lie groups and Lie algebras, distribution theory, fundamental analysis and Hilbert spaces. The book also includes exercises and proofed examples to test the students' understanding of the various concepts, as well as to extend the text's themes.
Customer Reviews:
A fast introduction to mathematics in physics.......2006-01-02
The book does not assume prior knowledge of the topics covered. However, the reader will find use of prior knowledge in algebra, in particular group theory, and topology. Compared to texts, such as Arfken Weber, Mathematical Methods for Physics, A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics is different, and emphasis is on proof and theory. The text is reasonably rigorous and build around stating theorems, giving the proofs and lemmas with occasional examples. The style is not the strictest, although making the text more reader friendly, it is easy to get confused with which assumptions have been made, and the direction of the proof. Sometimes only the "if" part is proven.
Students familiar with algebra will notice that the emphasis is on group theory, interestingly the concept of ideals is left mostly untouched. For more on representation theory a good reference is Groups Representations and Physics by H.F. Jones where solutions to some of the exercises can be found, and examples of the use of the fundamental orthogonality theorem applied to characters of represenations.
The first 6 chapters are relatively straight forward, but in chapter 7 Tensors the text becomes much more advanced and difficult. Chapter 10 on topology offers some lighter material but the reader should be careful, these consepts are to re-appear in the discussion of differential geometry, differentiable forms, integration on manifolds and curvature. These are not the most simple subjects and it is clear that they deserve entire courses of their own.
The book has insight and makes many good remarks. However, chapter 15 on Differential Geometry is perhaps too brief considering the importance of understanding this material, which is applied in the chapters thereinafter. The book is suitable for second to third year student in theoretical physics.
Jumping over the Gap.......2005-12-30
Most physicists avoid mathematical formalism, the book attacks this by exposing mathematical structures, the best approach I've ever experience. After reading the first chapter of this books I can assure is a must for everyone lacking mathematical formation undergraduate or graduate.
It surely jumps over this technical gap experienced by most physics opening the gate for advanced books an mathematical thinking with physic intuition.
Unfortunately is very expensive, i hope i could have it some day.
A serious, wide spectrum introduction to modern mathematical physics.......2005-10-10
This book covers almost every subject one needs to begin a serious graduate study in mathematical and/or theoretical physics. The language is clear, objective and the concepts are presented in a well organized and logical order. This book can be regarded as a solid preparation for further reading such as the works of Reed/Simon, Bratteli/Robinson or Nakahara.
Not a review, only a little more information.......2004-12-11
Since I don't yet have this book, I cannot review it; however, I have found the contents of this book on the publisher's web site in case it would help anyone decide to purchase it or not.
Contents
Preface
1. Sets and structures
2. Groups
3. Vector spaces
4. Linear operators and matrices
5. Inner product spaces
6. Algebras
7. Tensors
8. Exterior algebra
9. Special relativity
10. Topology
11. Measure theory and integration
12. Distributions
13. Hilbert space
14. Quantum theory
15. Differential geometry
16. Differentiable forms
17. Integration on manifolds
18. Connections and curvature
19. Lie groups and lie algebras
I will return at a later date to properly review it in case I need to change the rating I gave it.
Book Description
Open Space Technology: A User's Guide is just what the name implies: a hands-on, detailed description of facilitating Open Space Technology (OST). Written by the originator of the method - an effective, economical, fast, and easily-repeatable strategy for organizing meetings of between 5 and 1,000 participants - this is the first book to document the rationale, procedures, and requirements of OST. OST enables self-organizing groups of all sizes to deal with hugely complex issues in a very short period of time. This practical, step-by-step user's guide details what needs to be done before, during, and after an Open Space event.
Customer Reviews:
Useful handbook of a counterintuitive approach.......2007-03-02
Open Space Technology is nearly identical to the "unconference" approach to workshop and event planning that's currently fashionable (see "Foo Camp" or "Bar Camp" or many other geek-oriented "camps). Basically, abandon a traditional agenda and force the workshop participants to self-organize a schedule, goals, and work. It's profoundly counter-intuitive, everyone assumes that a strict plan is necessary...but it turns out to work. People really enjoy participating in an event where their opinions matter, and where everyone's responsible for raising issues they find important.
This book can come across as annoyingly new agey and dippy at times (I see someone's tagged it "embracing group genius" here on Amazon...your mileage may vary a bit from that). It's probably more helpful in getting you the facilitator into the right mindset, and encouraging you not to fall back on the crutches of detailed schedules or keynote speakers. It's pretty dated when it talks about using computers in your event, but that doesn't really matter.
Bible of Open Space.......2006-07-12
This is a very good hand-book for open space newcomers.Easy to understand and easy to read.I strongly suggest this book for anybody who want to start learning open space technology
One of the most valuable books in the world.......2003-12-26
As Brookings revealed in 2000, most of the world's 10000 biggest organisations don't yet have the measures to govern the vast majority of value now produced in services and knowledge businesses because as our networking age blossoms value dynamics are mainly intangible, deeply woven into the human relationships we self-organise, not for precise planning and overpowering command and control from the top. Value multiplication is a core gravity which should be embedded in everyone's right to work, learn , behave openly.
Whilst some of those of the transparency communities interlinking at http://www.valuetrue.com open source the simplest maths of intangible systems, others have much more fun voting on what are the safest methods to protect your system from doing an Andersen or a NASA self-destruction of its greatest purpose. Open Space is voted as the number 1 method uniting transparency communities, and because of its simplicity I predict it will always be the gateway to anyone who prizes self-organising, a term which actually means making the most of everyone's time, learning and passions to make a diffeernce to our overall purpose. A very valuable book, which in my dreams would start any MBA course or any professional's training.
Open Space is now 21 years young and over 100000 experiences mature and networked by people who are both most open with their knowlhow and conscious that you learn something subly more about human relationship trust from every Open Space you particpate in. It is as near as organisations (seen as human relationship infrastructures) can get to a modern day miracle, and long may Harrison light up the open world. See his latest deep concerns with conflict resolution applications at http://www.practiceofpeace.com
a "How to" book.......2001-06-18
I recommend using open space tehcnology and/or other large scale intervention techniques to mine the collective emotional intelligence of a group of people (this may be your company, or people from an acadamic field you belong to).
This book gives you the details on HOW to organize and facilitate an open space meeting - (what kind of location you need, how to organize the room, how to use break up rooms, how to facilitate, ...). You'll also get imporatnt rules and lessons for making this technology work. In short, it's pretty good at doing this "HOW TO" part.
WARNING: If you want to know WHY it works and if you want some examples, there are 2 other books to take a look at:
- tales from Open space (Harrison Owen, Editor, 1995)
- Expanding our now (Harrison Owen, 1997)
Good luck!
Patrick E.C. Merlevede, MSc -- author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"
A Good Read!.......2001-04-24
Harrison Owen presents a hands-on, step-by-step manual for putting on an open space technology workshop. In OST workshops, participants basically set and facilitate the agenda with some guidance from a facilitator. Here, the book's examples are particularly handy. Owen suggests conference duration, agenda and techniques including how to set up a meeting, invite participants, prepare the logistics and meeting site, facilitate activities and more. While these workshops generally involve hundreds of people, you can also put on an OST event with as few as five. If you want to read gripping business philosophy, look elsewhere - this is a practical how-to manual, a task it accomplishes quite well. We [...] recommend this informative guided tour of the OST process to those who want to know how, because they already know why
Book Description
We are living through a time when old identities--nation, culture and ethnicity--are melting down.
Spaces of Identity examines the ways in which collective cultural identities are being reshaped under conditions of a postmodern geography in the communications environment of cable and satellite broadcasting. To address current problems of identity, the authors look at the contemporary politics of the relations between Europe and its most significant others--America, Islam and the Orient. They show that it is against these that Europe's own identity has been and is now being defined.
Spaces of Identity is a stimulating account of the complex and contradictory nature of contemporary cultural identities.
Customer Reviews:
The British view of television imperialism.......2001-09-29
In many ways this book didn't connect to me, because it has a powerful British perspective that fails to relate other readers to the material. Nonetheless, it is a well-written and much-needed analysis of the impact of media on the "global village."
The problem of mis-representations and of misappropriation of the right to represent other cultures comes through clearly with effective research to support the claims. It is particularly effective now, after the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in the US which I watched on TV in Cairo, Egypt. The local news channel carried the CNN footage with local announcers explaining the events in Arabic.
The monopoly of US news media is all the more obvious as I read this book with its discussions about the Gulf War being an extension of Orientalism -- where Saddam Hussein is demonized for his "inherent irrationality" and the "armies of Reason" must then suppress "the crazed monstrous Unreason."
"The media then allowed a kind of para-social, thrilled involvement in the obliteration of the monstrous Other."
This demonisation of the Other was taking place now with the CNN representation of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. The Taliban in particular are the target of the national news media and their primary crime seems to be in their choice of lifestyle. They have become for the US, the new "crazed, monstrous Unreason."
Morley's book is both particularly timely now, in the wake of the WTC attack and a bit outdated. His text does not address the Internet which is the real new media. He discusses only the One-Way conversation between the West (as producers of the world's news media and Hollywood cinema) and the Rest as the consumers of the Western media. After the WTC attack, some three-quarters of the US population went online to discuss the attack. In these chat rooms, they encountered people from other nations. What David Morley says of the news media is true, it is a one-way conversation. But it is not true of the chat rooms. In these rooms, people from all over the world contested the American view of Arabs or Muslims as the 'one true evil' on the planet and other similarly misguided stereotypes. In some conversations, Arab Muslims themselves contested views of their own cultures.
David Morley's text, published just six years ago, may already be out of date in respect to the media dialog. In today's new medias, anyone who can construct a Web site, anyone who can log on to a chat room may be able to contribute to the world's dialog. The question is now a Foucauldian one: Who speaks? Who listens? and who is silenced?
Amazon.com
Inspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. They were his ticket out of Coalwood, West Virginia, a mining town that everyone knew was dying--everyone except Sonny's father, the mine superintendent and a company man so dedicated that his family rarely saw him. Hickam's smart, iconoclastic mother wanted her son to become something more than a miner and, along with a female science teacher, encouraged the efforts of his grandiosely named Big Creek Missile Agency. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960--an unprecedented honor for a miner's kid--is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment. Hickam vividly evokes a world of close communal ties in which a storekeeper who sold him saltpeter warned, "Listen, rocket boy. This stuff can blow you to kingdom come." Hickam is candid about the deep disagreements and tensions in his parents' marriage, even as he movingly depicts their quiet loyalty to each other. The portrait of his ultimately successful campaign to win his aloof father's respect is equally affecting. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
"Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my home town was at war with itself over its children, and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives. I didn't know that if a girl broke your heart, another girl, virtuous at least in spirit, could mend it on the same night. And I didn't know that the enthalpy decrease in a converging passage could be transformed into jet kinetic energy if a divergent passage was added. The other boys discovered their own truths when we built our rockets, but those were mine."
So begins Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia-a hard-scrabble little company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high school football. But in 1957, after the Soviet satellite Sputnik shot across the Appalachian sky, Sonny and his teenaged friends decided to do their bit for the U.S. space race by building their own rockets—and Coalwood, Sonny and A powerful story of growing up and of getting out, of a mother's love and a father's fears, Homer Hickam's memoir
Rocket Boys proves, like Angela's Ashes and Russell Baker's Growing Up before it, that the right storyteller and the right story can touch readers' hearts and enchant their souls.
In a town where the only things that mattered were coal-mining and high-school football, where the future was regarded with more fear than hope, a young man watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik race across the West Virginia sky—and soon found his future in the stars. In 1957, Homer H. "Sonny" Hickam, Jr., and a handful of his friends were inspired to start designing and launching the home-made rockets that would change their lives and their town forever.
Looking back after a distinguished NASA career, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking readers into the life of the little mining town of Coalwood and the boys who would come to embody its dreams. Step by step, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a collection of unforgettable characters, the boys learn not only how to turn scrap into sophisticated rockets that fly miles into the sky, but how to sustain their dreams as they dared to imagine a life beyond its borders in a town that the postwar boom was passing by.
Rocket Boys has already caught the eye of Hollywood: The producer of Field of Dreams is now working to produce a major motion picture in time for next year's Academy Awards.
A uniquely endearing story with universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, Homer Hickam's
Rocket Boys is evocative, vivid storytelling at its most magical.
Download Description
With "October Sky" (originally titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam introduced millions of readers to Coalwood, West Virginia, a 1950s haven of small town charm and hometown magic:
-- "October Sky" was a three-week #1 New York Times paperback bestseller and has spent a full uninterrupted year on the New York Times extended list.
-- By popular demand, 8 pages of photos have been added.
Customer Reviews:
A fantastic book that will entertain and inspire the reader.......2007-06-20
I cannot believe it has taken me so long to getting around to reading this book. Our community had one of those reading together projects and the paper back version of this book was free. I cannot remember exactly when I got it (it was either the fall of 2001 or 2002) but I got it because I had seen and enjoyed the movie.
Well as is often the case the book is far superior top the movie. I found it hard to stop reading this at times keeping me up way past my bed time at times. I haven't had a book that grabbed my attention like this one in decades. It is moving and inspiring. It truly shows what you can accomplish with hard work and determination.
The book adds depth that the movie doesn't have time to cover. IT explores the family dynamics of Homer, Elsie, Jim and Sonny. It makes you feel like you are a part of that family living in Coalwood, WV in the late 50's. I have read many other books about NASA by people who were Astronauts or worked at NASA but this was by far the most engaging. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!
I would recommend this as a read to anyone, but especially to teens. It deals with the struggles of going through adolescence and trying to find your place in life.
One of the best Christmas gifts.......2007-03-26
As I have nephews, I'm always looking for something to share with them to encourage them to dream big. My friend gave me this book over Christmas after I talked about how great a movie that "October Sky" was.
Homer Hickam's memoir is a wonderful story of a young man growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia during the late 50's and early 60's just as the space race was in full bloom. However, Coalwood was in the process of dying.
Hickam beautifully describes how his life was growing as he decided that he wanted to build rockets. Even though, he was not doing so well in some subjects like algebra, once he discovered that understanding math and science would help him to build his rockets, then he definitely had a desire to understand both subjects to help him reach his goal.
From all of the reports about how the United States is lagging behind in math and science, this book should be a must read to help inspire young people to pursue a path in math and science.
Hickam shows with his memoir that it is always possible to dream big and that with persistence and determination you can achieve anything that you want. I would definitely recommend this book to adults and teenagers.
Inspirational True Story.......2007-03-22
This is the story of a boy growing up in a coal-mining community in West Virginia. In this town it is expected that every boy who grows up will eventually go into the coal mines to work. This is especially true for Homer, because his father runs the coal mine. But Homer has other ideas. He is enthralled with the idea of space, and after seeing the Russian launch of Sputnik that put so many Americans into a panic, he decides that he would like to build rockets.
Homer recruits several of his high school classmates to help him to gather supplies and build his rockets. They start off with crude designs that don't really fly and actually end up being dangerous. But Homer and his friends become more dedicated to building good rockets. With the encouragement of Homer's mother and his science teacher, Homer begins to take rocket-building seriously. The boys invent rocket fuels, build specialized nozzles, and Homer even teaches himself calculus so he can do the calculations for his rockets. The ultimate goal becomes the science fair. Can a group of boys from West Virginia actually will and gain national attention?
There is a lot more to this book than the story of rocket building. This is really the story of Homer growing up, and I enjoyed reading about his thoughts throughout high school. It made me a bit sad to read about how Homer described his town and how he related to his father and his brother, so that was a smudge on the inspirational story.
Boyhood dreams become reality.......2007-03-18
This is one classic must-read for anyone, child or adult, who thinks they can't live their dreams. Homer did, supported by his loving mother and his begrudging father.
Homer describes a life in West Virginia dominated by coal mining, Communist superiority with science, and 1950s norms of what one can and can not do. It was this setting that inspired this rocket-obsessed boy to go against the grain--within limits--to pursue his dream of making rockets. He tells this story with a boyish humor, a juvenile naivete and an adult's sense of reality in the end. He never gave up to pursue his dream no matter how many walls he broke with his rockets, or how many times he was banished to his room for creating a ruckus as one of the town's Rocket Boys. When other boys played football and lived to be heroes, Homer was a hero-in-waiting.
How can one even deny a boy presidency of the Big Creek Missile Agency? Reading about the BCMA reminded me of my own childhood fantasies of being Super Teacher or Super Explorer of the backwoods around Chicagoland, my hometown, all that was destroyed for new land development by the time I was a young adult.
Coalwood, WV knew what they had with this boy. Even though Homer did his share of scaring the begeesus out of some of the townsfolk, the town supported him anyway, knowing that Homer possessed something that many others in Coalwood didn't have: a chance to pursue his dreams. The narrative of this book, always written with that childish sense of humor, leaves the reader wanting more. I was hooked after just a few pages.
The final chapter was also touching, describing what happened to all the Rocket Boys, what they were doing now, and what happened to all those Football Fathers and boys. In the end, they all didn't achieve nearly as much as Homer did.
I can understand why this book was made into a movie (a movie I've yet to see). We need more such stories of childhood dreams and fantasies, childhood loves and community idealism.
Too many memoirs today are about adults who describe their negligent parents, their alcoholic father or their abusive mother, memoirs that are often filled with anger or pain. This story is non of that, and because of this uplifting tale, a must-read for everyone who even doubts they can not fulfill their dreams.
A Love Letter from a Son to his Father.......2007-01-31
I don't tend to read many memoirs - too romanticized, too maudlin, too many happy (or unbearably terrible) endings. *Rocket Boys* is an incredible exception. While there is much nostalgia, there is no overly romantic sentiment. Just reality, as it appears through the eyes of a man looking back to his boyhood.
There are many key elements that make the story work - Sonny Hickam's alternating love and repulsion for his town, his relationship with his mother and father, the coming-of-age dynamic in finding his rockets - but the facet that draws me in most deeply is the father/son relationship so powerfully depicted in his work. It is complex, painful, dynamic and stagnant . . . rewarding and unfulfilling . . . the paradox that lies at the center of many parent/child relationships.
It is easy to assume that the elder Homer understood nothing about Sonny, and that it is to his mother that he owes his personality and drive. And yet, if you read the book as it is written and don't rely too heavily on the film, you see a man who is much like his youngest son. Perhaps as a young man he WANTED to be Jim, and therefore he lives vicariously through the accomplishments of the star athlete, but it is Sonny with whom he shares his major accomplishment - his career, a position of prestige without the benefit of education, at the mine. And it is from Sonny that he feels the ultimate rejection when his son does not wish to follow in his footsteps.
It is this rejection, at war with his ambitions and dreams, that makes him deny Sonny help with his words while supporting the cause with his actions - allowing the supplies to be procured, etc. In the closing chapter, at the final launch, those dreams win out and he chases the rocket that his son has built. It is an ultimate moment of elation and understanding. And you wish it was the foundation of a close-knit tie between them. Yet, as the reader learns in the epilogue, it wasn't. Just another chain in the struggle.
For all of the complicated emotions, an adult "Sonny" seems to see his Dad as a whole individual. It is that portrayal that elevates this memoir to something very special, even if you don't know or care much about rockets.
But . . . a word about the rockets. In my region, manhood is defined by the "Jim"s in the crowd. What sports do you play? How good are you? School and good grades are mostly for girls. Sadly, you even see this attitude among coaches and teachers who just assume that the majority of young men will just naturally prefer video games to books and television to original thought. I hope that young men will read this book and understand that there is nothing feminine about schooling, education or excellence in academics. And that excellence of the mind is just as important as excellence in the body.
Book Description
The International Tables for Crystallography are jointly published with the International Union of Crystallography. Each print volume can be purchased individually. In addition the complete set of Vol A-G is available both in print and online (see right hand column).
Volume A treats crystallographic symmetry in direct or physical space.
The first five parts of the volume contain introductory material: lists of symbols and terms; a guide to the use of the space-group tables; the determination of space groups; synoptic tables of space-group symbols; and unit-cell (coordinate) transformations. These are followed by the plane-group and space-group tables.
The rest of the volume is at a much higher theoretical level than Parts 1 to 5; it has many features of an advanced textbook of crystallography. Parts 8 to 15 deal with the following aspects of symmetry theory: the mathematical approach to space groups; crystal lattices; point groups and crystal classes; symbols for symmetry operations; symbols for space groups; isomorphic subgroups of space groups; lattice complexes; and normalizers of space groups.
Volume A is designed not only for professional crystallographers, but also for chemists, physicists, mineralogists, biologists and material scientists who employ crystallographic methods and who are concerned with the structure and the properties of crystalline materials.
The fifth edition of Volume A has been reviewed by P. Paufler [Acta Cryst. (2004). A60, 641-642]. The first edition was reviewed by K. M. Stadnicka, B. J. Oleksyn and K. Z. Sokalski [Acta Cryst. (1987). A43, 156-159].
International Tables for personal use can be purchased at a discount. Contact Customer Service for further information and to place an order.
Book Description
The study of homogeneous spaces provides excellent insights into both differential geometry and Lie groups. In geometry, for instance, general theorems and properties will also hold for homogeneous spaces, and will usually be easier to understand and to prove in this setting. For Lie groups, a significant amount of analysis either begins with or reduces to analysis on homogeneous spaces, frequently on symmetric spaces. For many years and for many mathematicians, Sigurdur Helgason's classic Differential Geometry, Lie Groups, and Symmetric Spaces has been--and continues to be--the standard source for this material.
Helgason begins with a concise, self-contained introduction to differential geometry. He then introduces Lie groups and Lie algebras, including important results on their structure. This sets the stage for the introduction and study of symmetric spaces, which form the central part of the book. The text concludes with the classification of symmetric spaces by means of the Killing-Cartan classification of simple Lie algebras over $\mathbf{C}$ and Cartan's classification of simple Lie algebras over $\mathbf{R}$.
The excellent exposition is supplemented by extensive collections of useful exercises at the end of each chapter. All the problems have either solutions or substantial hints, found at the back of the book.
For this latest edition, Helgason has made corrections and added helpful notes and useful references. The sequels to the present book are published in the AMS's Mathematical Surveys and Monographs Series: Groups and Geometric Analysis, Volume 83, and Geometric Analysis on Symmetric Spaces, Volume 39.
Sigurdur Helgason was awarded the Steele Prize for Differential Geometry, Lie Groups, and Symmetric Spaces and Groups and Geometric Analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Superb Treatise and Indispensible Reference .......2007-06-26
The mere thought or mention of the name Helgason inspires respect and awe. This book gets five stars all the way on its merit alone, regardless of who wrote it. Difficult as it is, the book starts from the fundamentals and works up in a coherent logical manner, there are no gaps in his presentation. The negative review below is completely unjustified. If anyone would like to at least see some of what this book is like go to ocw.mit.edu and download Helgason's notes which use excerpts in this book. Some of the topics in this book are covered in a more easy going way in "Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Some of Their Applications" by Robert Gilmore. (If I'm not mistaken Gilmore was a student of Helgason.) This book is mathematical exposition at it's absolute finest and I don't think but 1 in 1,000 people reading this page need me to tell them that much less need a review to persuade them. This book has quite a reputation.
Unsurpassed, but demanding.......2007-05-28
As I reviewed this book at Amazon, I found only one review, which I considered to be too harsh. You should understand that Helgason is writing a graduate textbook. Students will learn about "modules" in their graduate algebra course. They will learn De Rham's theorem in an introductory analysis course or sometimes even in a topology course (yes, it can happen). So, most of the language for which another reviewer criticized him would usually be covered in other graduate courses.
Helgason writes tersely but extremely precisely. I know of no other author who gives similar sophistication of point of view and quick, to the point, proofs. He is a "best of breed," and I suppose that is part of the reason he has been a core member of the faculty at M.I.T. for such a long time. A serious student cannot really avoid reading the entire progression of these texts, particularly the "Groups and Geometric Analysis" title, perhaps second in the Helgason manuscripts.
Semisimple( Simple)->Bad.......2007-05-13
I certainly hate being cheated.
This book is advance as a textbook for a course in Lie Algebra.
I can picture the man who wrote this book lecturing to the future great minds of MIT
and putting them to sleep.
The fellow is the worst sort of pedant.
On page one he mentions one of the more difficult theorems in modern Mathematics,
De Rham's theorem, then drops it like it was too hot to handle.
On page three he introduces Hausdorff's difficult separation axiom
without any explanation at all.
Throughout the book he beats you over the head with terms like "module"
without adequate definition or explanation of terms.
He literally expects you to have learned
what he is supposed to be teaching
before you take his course?
In short , anyone taking the course with this book as a text book
will be hunting for a good text on Lie AlgebraSemi-Simple Lie Algebras and Their Representations (Dover Books on Mathematics) Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Some of Their Applications
and differential geometry,
since this one is entirely unreadable,
even by those who know and love the subjects.
Book Description
This book describes the global properties of simply-connected spaces that are non-positively curved in the sense of A. D. Alexandrov, and the structure of groups which act on such spaces by isometries. The theory of these objects is developed in a manner accessible to anyone familiar with the rudiments of topology and group theory: non-trivial theorems are proved by concatenating elementary geometric arguments, and many examples are given. Part I is an introduction to the geometry of geodesic spaces. In Part II the basic theory of spaces with upper curvature bounds is developed. More specialized topics, such as complexes of groups, are covered in Part III. The book is divided into three parts, each part is divided into chapters and the chapters have various subheadings. The chapters in Part III are longer and for ease of reference are divided into numbered sections.
Customer Reviews:
Fine book, don't order it from Amazon.......2006-08-17
I have ordered this book from Amazon more than FIVE MONTHS ago, every 6-7 weeks they send a computer generated email apologizing for the delay. Also their customer service is unable to provide a firm date for delivery.
Not yet shipped.......2006-08-01
I was asked in an email promotion to review this book. It was supposed to arrive a week ago, but it still has not shipped. It would be nice if Amazon would pay attention to getting items shipped before they asked for a review.
Amazon.com
The title of this book really ought to be Spacefarers, because unlike many space travel authors, Harrison, a professor of psychology, focuses primarily on the people doing the traveling. On the technological side, he explores astronaut selection and training, medical and environmental hazards, and issues of life support and habitation. He pays equal attention to "soft" science aspects of human space travel, such as the stresses that arise from working and surviving in space, group dynamics among astronauts, and even off-duty time (and it is here that Harrison boldly goes where few space authors have gone before--into the realm of sex in space).
Harrison notes that while NASA has gathered heaps of physiological data about astronauts, the agency makes little effort to collect psychological and behavioral information. In fact, such research has been discouraged. This may come from the idea that in the past, NASA astronauts were presented as "flawless individuals" and that any hints of emotional instability could possibly decrease funding. Conversely, the Russian space program, with its emphasis on long-duration flights, has always studied human behavior in space. Which leads us to one of the book's best didjaknows: Did you know that cosmonauts only played chess against groundside opponents, to avoid in-group competition and friction?
In the final chapters, Harrison does address the nuts and bolts of spacefaring, surveying prospects for lunar and Martian colonies, and even interstellar travel. The chapter on space tourism is quite comprehensive and contains a startling insight: tourism could create a push into space stronger than science or exploration. Says Harrison:
"Not only would making space accessible to a broad segment of the population give people exciting and new experiences, it would encourage many different kinds of human activities in space. Thus, the space tourism industry could develop both the technology and the popular support required to accelerate human progress in getting off our planet."
All told, Spacefaring is a broad and readable review of the hazards and issues that will confront future space travelers, and it creates a vivid picture of what daily life may be like for those lucky adventurers. --J. B. Peck
Book Description
The stars have always called us, but only for the past forty years or so have we been able to respond by traveling in space. This book explores the human side of spaceflight: why people are willing to brave danger and hardship to go into space; how human culture has shaped past and present missions; and the effects of space travel on health and well-being. A comprehensive and authoritative treatment of its subject, this book combines statistical studies, rich case histories, and gripping anecdotal detail as it investigates the phenomenon of humans in space--from the earliest spaceflights to the missions of tomorrow.
Drawing from a strong research base in the behavioral sciences, Harrison covers such topics as habitability, crew selection and training, coping with stress, group dynamics, accidents, and more. In addition to taking a close look at spacefarers themselves, Spacefaring reviews the broad organizational and political contexts that shape human progress toward the heavens. With the ongoing construction of the International Space Station, the human journey to the stars continues, and this book will surely help guide the way.
Customer Reviews:
Great book about an unexplored topic.......2001-12-12
Like many of you, I'm a total advocate for human space exploration. Sure, robots are great, with their industructability and unquestioning loyalty, but there are times when you really need to get some human hands and eyes on location to provide some solid data and deal with the unexpected. But humans are soft, fragile, and can sometimes get a little grumpy.
Spacefaring: the Human Dimension by Albert Harrison helps fill a niche that I've found largely unfilled in most of the space exploration books I've read - how to keep humans alive, and stop them from killing each other during long space trips. And by focusing only on this aspect of space travel, Harrison gives the subject matter the time and respect it deserves. Each element is covered in tremendous detail, including the basics of food, air, water, heat, etc. but also the more psycological elements of coping with stress, group dynamics, training, and dealing with mistakes and disasters. Harrison throws in a plenty of anecdotes to give real world examples to the topics covered.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who finds this aspect of space exploration fascinating. I'd especially recommend it to folks like the Mars Society, as many of the issues have been largely ignored by NASA so far. And I'd force scriptwriters and directors to read this book before they make another Mission to Mars. Great book!
Review by Pascal Lee, SETI Institute.......2001-06-01
Al Harrison's book "SPACEFARING" has the qualities of an instant classic. It deals brilliantly with the central element in our ventures into space, the human being. It is a book about human factors in space. The work has the thoroughness and completeness of an academic treatise, but still reads easily. It is packed with little-known anecdotes and many cool historical and technical facts. The book's clear organization is particularly helpful, not just for guiding the layreader through a complex subject, but also for serving as a quick reference for space exploration professionals needing to read up on a specific topic. The book offers both a summary of lessons learnt and an analysis of our possible spacefaring future. For planners of a human mission to Mars, this is an ideal synthesis of where we stand on the subject of human factors.
must-have for space scientists and sci-fi authors.......2001-05-11
Al Harrison's new book is simply the best resource on the human side of spaceflight ever written. From radiation hazards to ergonomics to sex in space, Harrison provides a readable, comprehensive overview of the state of our knowledge. There are details aplenty, enough brilliant tidbits to add verisimilitude to any novel.
Harrison focuses on NASA's hostility to human-factors research, particularly in contrast to the Russians' long history of interest in crew selection and the effects of long-duration spaceflight. Given NASA's recent objections to the flight of Dennis Tito, this context is extremely timely.
His concluding chapter, on the drive to explore space, why we came so far so quickly, then walked away from human exploration, is well-reasoned, insightful and deeply passionate.
Excellent and important.......2001-04-15
Al Harrison, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, is doing some far-reaching and somewhat unique work on the psychological impact of the "high frontier". His previous book, After Contact, explored some of the possible psychological and social implications of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Now, in Spacefaring, he tackles these same issues as they apply to long-term human habitation, exploration, and settlement in space. This book is not just for the academic or space specialist. Soon, we shall all be involved and affected in some way with the human migration into the solar system and beyond. Essential - and entertaining - reading for those who want to know what lies on the journey ahead!
Book Description
This is the softcover reprint of the English translation of 1974 (available from Springer since 1989) of the later chapters of Bourbaki's
Topologie générale. It completes the treatment of general topology begun in Part I (Ch. 1-4, also available in English in softcover). The real numbers having been introduced in Ch. 4, the first chapters of this volume study subgroups and quotients of R (with applications to the 'measurement of magnitudes' and to the log and exp functions), then real vector spaces and projective spaces, then the additive groups Rn (subgroups, quotients, homomorphisms, infinite sums and products). Analogous properties are then studied for complex numbers, in Ch.8. Chapter 9 illustrates the use of real numbers in general topology, studying different important kinds of topological spaces: uniformizable, metric, normal Baire, Polish, Borel spaces.The final chapter deals with the various topologies of function spaces,ending with a section on approximation of functions.
Books:
- Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 2)
- An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
- An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Volume 88, Fourth Edition (International Geophysics)
- An Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering
- Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, Media Edition (with InfoTrac®)
- Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization
- Classical Electromagnetic Radiation
- Clays, Muds, and Shales (Developments in Sedimentology)
- Data Assimilation: The Ensemble Kalman Filter
- Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Introducing Statistical Methods S.) (2nd Edition)
Books Index
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General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition (Graduate Student Series in Physics)
Mathematical Physics
Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists (World Scientific Lecture Notes in Physics)
The Geometry of Physics: An Introduction, Second Edition
Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity
