Amazon.com
As a scientist, Albert Einstein is undoubtedly the most epic among 20th-century thinkers. Albert Einstein as a man, however, has been a much harder portrait to paint, and what we know of him as a husband, father, and friend is fragmentary at best. With Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (author of the bestselling biographies Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger) brings Einstein's experience of life, love, and intellectual discovery into brilliant focus. The book is the first biography to tackle Einstein's enormous volume of personal correspondence that heretofore had been sealed from the public, and it's hard to imagine another book that could do such a richly textured and complicated life as Einstein's the same thoughtful justice. Isaacson is a master of the form and this latest opus is at once arresting and wonderfully revelatory. --Anne Bartholomew
Read "The Light-Beam Rider," the first chapter of Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Five Questions for Walter Isaacson
Amazon.com: What kind of scientific education did you have to give yourself to be able to understand and explain Einstein's ideas?
Isaacson: I've always loved science, and I had a group of great physicists--such as Brian Greene, Lawrence Krauss, and Murray Gell-Mann--who tutored me, helped me learn the physics, and checked various versions of my book. I also learned the tensor calculus underlying general relativity, but tried to avoid spending too much time on it in the book. I wanted to capture the imaginative beauty of Einstein's scientific leaps, but I hope folks who want to delve more deeply into the science will read Einstein books by such scientists as Abraham Pais, Jeremy Bernstein, Brian Greene, and others.
Amazon.com: That Einstein was a clerk in the Swiss Patent Office when he revolutionized our understanding of the physical world has often been treated as ironic or even absurd. But you argue that in many ways his time there fostered his discoveries. Could you explain?
Isaacson: I think he was lucky to be at the patent office rather than serving as an acolyte in the academy trying to please senior professors and teach the conventional wisdom. As a patent examiner, he got to visualize the physical realities underlying scientific concepts. He had a boss who told him to question every premise and assumption. And as Peter Galison shows in Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps, many of the patent applications involved synchronizing clocks using signals that traveled at the speed of light. So with his office-mate Michele Besso as a sounding board, he was primed to make the leap to special relativity.
Amazon.com: That time in the patent office makes him sound far more like a practical scientist and tinkerer than the usual image of the wild-haired professor, and more like your previous biographical subject, the multitalented but eminently earthly Benjamin Franklin. Did you see connections between them?
Isaacson: I like writing about creativity, and that's what Franklin and Einstein shared. They also had great curiosity and imagination. But Franklin was a more practical man who was not very theoretical, and Einstein was the opposite in that regard.
Amazon.com: Of the many legends that have accumulated around Einstein, what did you find to be least true? Most true?
Isaacson: The least true legend is that he failed math as a schoolboy. He was actually great in math, because he could visualize equations. He knew they were nature's brushstrokes for painting her wonders. For example, he could look at Maxwell's equations and marvel at what it would be like to ride alongside a light wave, and he could look at Max Planck's equations about radiation and realize that Planck's constant meant that light was a particle as well as a wave. The most true legend is how rebellious and defiant of authority he was. You see it in his politics, his personal life, and his science.
Amazon.com: At Time and CNN and the Aspen Institute, you've worked with many of the leading thinkers and leaders of the day. Now that you've had the chance to get to know Einstein so well, did he remind you of anyone from our day who shares at least some of his remarkable qualities?
Isaacson: There are many creative scientists, most notably Stephen Hawking, who wrote the essay on Einstein as "Person of the Century" when I was editor of Time. In the world of technology, Steve Jobs has the same creative imagination and ability to think differently that distinguished Einstein, and Bill Gates has the same intellectual intensity. I wish I knew politicians who had the creativity and human instincts of Einstein, or for that matter the wise feel for our common values of Benjamin Franklin.
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Book Description
By the author of the acclaimed bestseller Benjamin Franklin, this is the first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available.
How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.
Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk -- a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate -- became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.
These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.
Customer Reviews:
A well orchestrated mix of personal history and revolutionary scientific discovery.......2007-10-09
A story of amazing power of reason in Einstein's early years but in the later years a sad story of his reason being foiled by of all things, scientific observations ("spooky" ones to be sure). When he died Einstein was still struggling with the idea that..."The reasonable thing just doesn't work.".
Excellent!.......2007-10-09
Excellently written and researched book. Very fascinating and engaging.
Even the scientific discussions were easy to understand.
I highly recommend this book.
A Must Read.......2007-10-07
A wonderful book which gives full and equal weight to both the man and the ideas which made him great, as well as the lasting place of those ideas in the history of scientific thought, if not of human thought itself. And on that latter point, the reader's debt to Isaacson is undoubtedly primarily for his continuing emphasis on Einstein's modus operandi: thought experiments, by which through the exercise merely of pure thought and a perspective unhampered by received wisdoms, a man was able to change millennia-old views of how we viewed the universe, and by extension, changed the universe itself. Whose thinking could remain uninfluenced by such a display of the power of thought?
Absolutely Fantastic.......2007-10-03
This biography reads like a story, creating suspense and other emotions that you experince while reading fiction. Einstein provides great insight into Einstein's mind and life. Highly recommended.
Greatest Book Ever on Einstein.......2007-10-03
I am 75 years old and have read over a dozen books on Einstein and his work, including his own. This is the best book ever on the personal life and tribulations of a great scientist as he trys to get his work done. With all the flaws and worts of a human the scientist struggles on.
Book Description
It is a widely known but insufficiently appreciated fact that Albert Einstein and Kurt Goedel were best friends for the last decade and a half of Einstein's life. They walked home together from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study every day; they shared ideas about physics, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German-Austrian science in which they had grown up. What is not widely known is that in 1949 Goedel made a remarkable discovery: there exist possible worlds described by the theory of relativity in which time, as we ordinarily understand it, does not exist. He added a philosophical argument that demonstrates, by Goedel's lights, that as a consequence, time does not exist in our world either. If Goedel is right, Einstein has not just explained time; he has explained it away.
Without committing himself to Goedel's philosophical interpretation of his discovery, Einstein acknowledged that his friend had made an important contribution to the theory of relativity, a contribution that he admitted raised new and disturbing questions about what remains of time in his own theory. Physicists since Einstein have tried without success to find an error in Goedel's physics or a missing element in relativity itself that would rule out the applicability of Goedel's results. Philosophers, for the most part, have been silent.
_A World Without Time_, addressed to experts and non experts alike, brings to life the sheer intellectual drama of the companionship of Goedel and Einstein, and places their discoveries -- which can only be measured on a millennial scale -- in the context of the great and disturbing intellectual movements of the twentieth century -- in physics, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and the arts. It contains, as well, a poignant and intimate account of the friendship between these two thinkers, each put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day -- and ours -- and attempts to rescue from undeserved obscurity the work Goedel did, inspired by Einstein, which made clear for the first time the truly revolutionary nature of the theory of relativity, which to this day is hardly recognized.
Customer Reviews:
more about philosophy than about physics or math.......2007-02-27
A World Without Time is a book about the friendship between Einstein and Godel that occurred toward the end of their lives. The friendship was fruitful in that Godel used Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to prove the existence of what are now called Godel Universes. Godel Universes are universes where time loops back on itself so, if you go sufficiently fast, you would end up back where you started in time. This is interesting but perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book for me was it's philosophical aspect. The author mentions the Vienna Circle and some concepts of philosophy such as positivism and ontology and epistemology which I found very interesting. I found the explanations of Godel's theories hard to follow but got the basic idea. I recommend this book for it's philosophical content. If you want to learn about Godel's Incompleteness theorem I recommend reading Godel, Escher Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid.
Should we dispense with clocks ?.......2007-02-12
The title of the book suggests time does not exist. The justification is a certain solution to Einstein cosmological equation, where the universe is rotating and time travel is possible. A path could reach into the past going around the universe.It is the Godel solution.
Modern cosmology is based on the Robertson Walker metric , or model,where there is a universal time. It fits the obseved universal expansion.The universe was born in a big bang fifteen billions years ago.
Goodel gave too much importance to his solution. After all any equation can allow many mathematical solutions which bear no relation to physical reality or fact.
The book is good reading with old and rare photos.It compelled me to reread "The Godel Solution" in Adler ,Bazin and Schiffer General Relativity.
Early in the century,Kurt Godel had laid a golden egg with his incompleteness theorem, pertaining to pure mathematics, causing some stir among Hilbert and Russell.But his attempt to abolish time, much later in 1949, felt in deaf ears among physicists and cosmologists.This is not about to change any time soon.
Yourgrau does an elegant work in rescuing an old story.It takes us through Europe and the beginnings of the Princeton Advanced Study Institute.
A World Without Time.......2007-01-23
Great book about Godel & Einstein. It tells much about their human side & their friendship. Does good job explaining some of their work.
Very bad book: a waste of your money.......2007-01-17
It is a heap op philosophy, not science. No formula, math, explanation, working examples whatsoever. Just small-talk to fill up the pages. This is NOT a physics book. I was lured into buying it thinking to get a complete textbook on Gödel's explanation of time. Forget it, this book is not worth your money. Go check the internet for PDF's or webpages containing the original publications of Gödel, they are there allright.
A World Without Time.......2007-01-04
I bought this book because I loved the cover. Everyone knows Einstein but it is amazing how few know the equally revolutionary Godel and still fewer know of their freindship. This is an invaluable book for those that (somehow) don't know about Godel's work. I didn't expect much from this book because I know of Godel's revolving universe time paradox. However, I found this book to be extremely interesting. The author's minimalist definition of Godel's theorm (syntax does not equal semantics) was worth the price alone. Unfortunatley the last chapter of the book is muddled in philosophic musings, since I am a Physicist I am less appreciative of pure philosophy.
Average customer rating:
- A qualified recommendation
- Still The Best
- Worthwhile Read
- Readable, for the Science-Minded
- Not as good as the real thing
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Relativity: The Special and the General Theory
Albert Einstein
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
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ASIN: 0517884410
Release Date: 1995-06-06 |
Amazon.com
How better to learn the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity than directly from their creator, Albert Einstein himself? In Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, Einstein describes the theories that made him famous, illuminating his case with numerous examples and a smattering of math (nothing more complex than high-school algebra). Einstein's book is not casual reading, but for those who appreciate his work without diving into the arcana of theoretical physics, Relativity will prove a stimulating read.
Book Description
Redesigned inside and out to have a fresh, appealing look, this new edition of a classic Crown Trade Paperback is a collection of Einstein's own popular writings on his work and describes the meaning of his main theories in a way virtually everyone can understand.
Customer Reviews:
A qualified recommendation.......2007-09-18
As at least one reviewer has noted there are several editions of this book. (This exact edition is also available in paperback.) Definitely get this one (or another 15th edition) because it is the 1952, fifteenth edition, which is the last one that Einstein prepared and is the one that contains all five of his appendices. My local bookstore has several editions put out by different publishers. Side by side were two, one was a 1916, third edition, that contained only three appendices and the other was the complete 1952, fifteenth edition, which actually cost a dollar LESS than the incomplete version. The 1916 version is in public domain, so the publisher does not have to pay anything to the Einstein estate. Thus, the publisher makes more money from purchasers who are not savvy enough to realize that they are getting an inferior edition for the same or even a higher price than a complete one. Caveat emptor.
The four stars do not in any way refer to my view of Einstein or his work. Were they the basis of the review I would have given it five stars. I am qualifying my recommendation because I believe that only some readers will find the book to be suitable for their needs. Thus, I am giving it only four stars because this book is too elementary for someone studying relativity in a graduate course but too complex for someone with little or no physics background. Thus, the readership is somewhat limited.
Pros:
1) This book is Einstein's classic presentation of his special and general theories of relativity, prepared for a general audience. As such, it has interesting historical value as well as being illuminating for some readers. The fifteenth edition contains all of Einstein's corrections and all of his appendices.
2) A reasonably good presentation of the special theory.
3) Good for someone with a physics background (engineers, physicists at the BS or MS level, chemists, etc.) It is, however, too elementary for someone studying relativity at a graduate level. For them, it is primarily useful as a historical document. They would probably get more from Einstein's papers than from this book, which was written for the general public.
Cons:
1) The bulk of this book was written in 1916, in German, and then translated into English. As such, it is somewhat convoluted in places and generally has the typical flavor of 19th century prose.
2) I feel that while the special theory is presented in a reasonably straightforward manner the general theory is not. Einstein uses a little math here, but it is insufficient for a physicist and is probably incomprehensible for someone with little or no math or physics background. I believe that Martin Gardner's book "Relativity Simply Explained" is a better choice for someone with little or no science background. It does a very much better job of explaining the general theory for a general audience.
3) While Einstein explains how the basic assumptions of his theories differ from those of classical physics, these differences are not, in my opinion, highlighted sufficiently. I recommend Isaacson's recent biography of Einstein for those who wants these differences more clearly delineated. Isaacson clearly shows why Einstein's theories were so radical a departure from those of Newton.
All in all, this is a good book for the right audience.
Still The Best.......2007-08-11
After reading books by Hawking, Kaku, Greene, and others on the topic, none are more lucid as Einstein himself in describing relativity to the non-physicist.
Worthwhile Read.......2007-07-12
This is a very short book and is quick reading. I have read other books with better explainations of relativity. I didn't like the writing style -- it was translated by an Englishman in the early 20th century so the sentence structure doesn't flow like normal reading.
Readable, for the Science-Minded.......2007-06-05
This is a good, concise exposition of general and special relativity from the man who wrote the book. However, it will be above the heads of some... If you're interested in reading this book, I'd suggest looking for it in the library to see if it's really the book for you. Or even browse the text in a bookstore before you buy. If you think you'll need a course in Calculus, find a review of the theories that you can follow.
Not as good as the real thing.......2007-05-23
Having owned a 1968 paperback reprint of the genuine, 1954, Methuen, London, 15th edition publication, for many years, I was extremely disappointed to receive this Penguin out-of-copyright-rip-off replacement for my original (now falling apart) paperback copy. The vitally important (1956) fifth appendix is missing, as is the earlier 4th appendix. The reason for this is obvious. Penguin have merely re-published that part of the real thing which is now already more than 70 years old, and, therefore, out of copyright.
Even the quality of the employed paper is at, or below, newspaper standard. I now know why the Amazon price seemed cheap. As Einstein's definitive final word on this subject, this particular excuse for Einstein's popular exposition is, IMO, not even worth the paper it is written on.
Book Description
From the Commentary by Robert Geroch (The corresponding section of Einstein's text can be found below the comment. Please note that in the book, the Commentary is placed after the complete text of Relativity.)
Section 17. Space-Time
Minkowski's viewpoint represents a "geometrization" of relativity. These ideas have, over the years, come to the forefront: They reflect the perspective of the majority of physicists working in relativity today. Let us expand on this viewpoint. The fundamental notion is that of an event, which we think of as a physical occurrence having negligibly small extension in both space and time. That is, an event is "small and quick," such as the explosion of a firecracker or the snapping of your fingers. Now consider the collection of all possible events in the universe—all events that have ever happened, all that are happening now, and all that will ever happen; here and elsewhere. This collection is called space-time. It is the arena in which physics takes place in relativity. The idea is to recast all statements about goings-on in the physical world into geometrical structures within this space-time. In a similar vein, you might begin the study of plane geometry by introducing the notion of a point (analogous to an event) and assembling all possible points into the plane (analogous to space-time). This plane is the arena for plane geometry, and each statement that is part of plane geometry is to be cast as geometrical structure within this plane. This space-time is a once-and-for-all picture of the entire physical world. Nothing "happens" there; things just "are." A physical particle, for example, is described in the language of space-time by giving the locus of all events that occur "right at the particle." The result is a certain curve, or path, in space-time called the world-line of the particle. Don't think of the particle as "traversing" its world-line in the same sense that a train traverses its tracks. Rather, the world-line represents, once and for all, the entire life history of the particle, from its birth to its death. The collision of two particles, for example, would be represented geometrically by the intersection of their world-lines. The point of intersection—a point common to both curves; an event that is "right at" both particles—represents the event of their collision. In a similar way, more complicated physical goings-on—an experiment in particle physics, for example, or a football game—are incorporated into the fabric of space-time. One example of "physical goings-on" is the reference frame that Einstein uses in his discussion of special relativity. How is this incorporated into space-time? The individuals within a particular reference frame assign four numbers, labeled x, y, z, t, to each event in space-time. The first three give the spatial location of the event according to these observers, the last the time of the event. These numbers completely and uniquely characterize the event. In geometrical terms, a frame of reference gives rise to a coordinate system on space-time. In a similar vein, in plane geometry a coordinate system assigns two numbers, x and y, to each point of the plane. These numbers completely and uniquely characterize that point. The statement "the plane is two-dimensional" means nothing more and nothing less than that precisely two numbers are required to locate each point in the plane. Similarly, "space-time is four-dimensional" means nothing more and nothing less than that precisely four numbers are required to locate each event in space-time. That is all there is to it! You now understand "four-dimensional space-time" as well as any physicist. Note that the introduction of four-dimensional space-time does not say that space and time are "equivalent" or "indistinguishable." Clearly, space and time are subjectively different entities. But a rather subtle mixing of them occurs in special relativity, making it convenient to introduce this single entity, space-time. In plane geometry, we may change coordinates, i.e., relabel the points. It is the same plane described in a different way (in that a given point is now represented by different numbers), just as the land represented by a map stays the same whether you use latitude/longitude or GPS coordinates. We can now determine formulae expressing the new coordinate-values for each point of the plane in terms of the old coordinate-values. Similarly, we may change coordinates in space-time, i.e., change the reference frame therein. And, again, we can determine formulae relating the new coordinate-values for each space-time event to the old coordinate-values for that event. This, from Minkowski's geometrical viewpoint, is the substance of the Lorentz-transformation formulae in Section 11. A significant advantage of Minkowski's viewpoint is that it is particularly well-adapted also to the general theory of relativity. We shall return to this geometrical viewpoint in our discussion of Section 27.
Download Description
"""It is remarkable that Einstein should have produced such an account for the lay public so soon after his general theory was completed. This view has now superbly survived the tests of time.... In this new edition we are fortunate in having the advantage of an excellent exposition of Einstein's foundational ideas on relativity from a more modern perspective in Robert Geroch's commentary.""
¿From the Introduction by Roger Penrose, author of The Emperor's New Mind and The Road To Reality.
""One good way to get a feeling for what relativity theory is all about is to read, in these pages, what the originator of the subject had to say. I have provided comments, attached to various sections of Einstein's book. The key to understanding relativity is to think about it for yourself.""
¿From the Commentary by Robert Geroch, Professor of Physics, University of Chicago.
""Relativity was a highly technical new theory that gave new meanings to familiar concepts and even to the nature of theory itself. The general public looked upon relativity as indicative of the seemingly incomprehensible modern era, educated non-scientists despaired of ever understanding what Einstein had done, and political ideologues used the new theory to exploit public fears and anxieties¿all of which opened a rift between science and the broader culture that continues to expand today.""
¿From the Historical Essay by David C. Cassidy, author of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century, and Einstein and Our World.
""All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual toward freedom.""
¿Albert Einstein
"
Customer Reviews:
Quite elevated language.......2006-03-09
It very difficult to critisize the man himself, but after all he was not a writer per se and was used to discussing relativity with other physicists. I can follow him. But thats only because I have read other books which make the subject much easier. Acually this was my first book on relativity which I bought years ago and threw it down in frustration. Then, recently I tried again with "Relativity Visualized" by L C Epstein. Now, finnaly I get it. It took a lot of intense concentration and re-reading, but I got it. And when it hit me my jaw dropped and all I could say was "WOW!" Of course, I lost it the next day and had to go thru it again. That's how difficult relativity is to comprehend and RETAIN. (Retaining it for more than a few minutes can seem as hard as learning it. Special Relativity is very evasive to the mind. And General Relativity is about ten times more difficult. But WHEN YOU GET IT, it's a feeling you never had before. It will change your life.)So I recommend the Epstein book. Lots of great "Thought Experiments" and a bit of neat "unique" (odd) humor, too. Einstein's book should be read, tho. After you've read other books about relativity and understand it at least "generaly" (pardon The Pun)If only to get a sense of the man. I read German quite well and still, I am sure I'd have problems reading the original, but someday I'll give it a shot.
Still not for the layman...............2005-09-15
Is is an awesome thing to be able to read in Einstein's own words his explanation of these ground breaking concepts. It is not an easy read however. His language is elaborate and eloquent, but to a person like me who is trying very hard to make mental images of the concepts, distracting. I read other sources to attempt to clarify my understanding and found sources on the internet to support the book. The expanations in the appendices did not help either; they were not quite at layman's level as well.
Still, it was exciting to read and have a view into the thoughts of the great man.
Book Description
This engaging text takes the reader along the trail of light from Newton's particles to Einstein's relativity. Like the best detective stories, it presents clues and encourages the reader to draw conclusions before the answers are revealed. The first seven chapters cover the behavior of light, Newton's particle theory, waves and an electromagnetic wave theory of light, the photon, and wave-particle duality. Baierlein goes on to develop the special theory of relativity, showing how time dilation and length contraction are consequences of the two simple principles underlying the theory. An extensive chapter derives the equation E = mc2 clearly from first principles and then explores its consequences.
Customer Reviews:
Good book on modern physics for the layman.......2000-04-02
This book is clear and very interesting. It teaches the general idea of light and modern physics. It can be too simplistic at times for technically minded people.
Book Description
The book is an introductory text to the physics of Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted by Einstein in 1925, has been realized experimentally in 1995 in a remarkable series of experiments whose importance has been recognized by the award of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. The condensate is actually a new state of matter, where quantum-mechanical wave functions of atoms behave as coherent matter waves in the same way as coherent light waves in the case of a laser. The authors provide a theoretical presentation of the main concepts underlying the physics of dilute atomic gases in conditions of extremely low temperatures where quantum effects play a crucial role. The main effort is devoted to discussion of the relevant theoretical aspects exhibited by these systems, such as the concept of order parameter, long range order, superfluidity and coherence. The mathematical formalism is presented in a form convenient for practical use. The book develops the theory of Bose gases starting from the pioneering Bogoliubov approach and gives special emphasis to the new physical features exhibited by non-uniform gases which are produced in the recent experiments with magnetic and optical traps. These features include the determination of the equilibrium profiles, the collective oscillations, the mechanism of the expansion of the gas after releasing the trap, the interference patterns obtained by overlapping two condensates, the rotational properties revealing the effects of superfluidity (quantized vortices, behaviour of the moment of inertia), the Josephson-like phenomena associated with the coherence of the phase, the beyond mean field phenomena exhibited by quantum gases in conditions of reduced dimensionality (1D and 2D) etc. The book also discusses the analogies and differences with the physics of "classical" superfluids like liquid helium and introduces some of the major features of trapped Fermi gases at low temperature, pointing out the consequences of superfluidity.
Customer Reviews:
Concise slick book. Good but not great. .......2005-03-07
This is not an easy book to read. It starts off with field theory and assumes a lot of knowledge, especially from Landau's books on fluid mechanics and statitstical physics. The format of the writing is concise, almost journal publication style. Chapter 14 on angular momentum and vortices is very slick and hard to follow. Chapter's 7 and 8 on response theory and 4He introduce a lot of notation and constructs without definition or motivation. Their discussion of mean field theory in BEC, derivation of the Gross-Pitaevskii from the operator formalism, and discussion of Fermi gases is clearer than in the BEC book by Pethick and Smith. There is also a discussion of optical lattices and low dimensions that is not discussed in Pethick and Smith. The other standard topics such as dynamics of a BEC in a harmonic trap are covered better in Pethick and Smith. Cooling is not discussed in this book.
Book Description
Ronald W. Clark's acclaimed biography of Einstein, the Promethean figure of our age, goes behind the phenomenal intellect to reveal the human side of the legendary absent-minded professor who confidently claimed that space and time were not what they seemed.
Here is the classic portrait of the scientist and the man: the boy growing up in the Swiss Alps, the young man caught in an unhappy first marriage, the passionate pacifist who agonized over making the Bomb, the indifferent Zionist asked to head the Israeli state, and the physicist who believed in God.
Customer Reviews:
One of the great biographies of all time.......2005-09-24
Whenever they compile the list of the best biographies of the 20th Century, this book will definitely be on the short list. It's a masterpiece. Clark presents a thorough, erudite, and accessible account of Einstein's life and work. He begins by relating Einstein's early struggles and his years at the Swiss Patent Office, where he read and analyzed technical reports. Then came the great relativity theory and the subsequent success and reknown. The flight from Nazi Germany to Princeton, the building of the atomic bomb during WW II (he regretted this association the most in his life), and the myths that developed around his life with the public (he hated the public adulation; when he died he didn't want his house on Mercer Street in Princeton to become a shrine) also get their fair and judicious treatment. Einstein was a great scientist who had developed some of the most complicated theories in physics, and Clark is excellent in trying to explain them for the general reader. But he is best when capturing Einstein the man. Clark writes with the confidence of a master, even majestically. It's a long book and not a fast read, but the time spent with Clark and his magnificent subject is time very well spent. One even wishes for more at the end. A brilliant work.
The very symbol of human genius .......2005-06-26
This is a well- written account of the life of Einstein. It also provides explanations for the general reader of Einstein's great and revolutionary contributions to mankind's understanding of the physical world.
It gives the picture of how one person from relatively humble origins rose to become the very symbol of human genius, and a cultural hero of mankind.
It presents a picture of a more complicated human being by far than is contained by the popular image. It is the picture of a person of enormous dedication, of a startling power to devise in his own mind ' thought- experiments' that would lead to changing completely mankind's conceptions not only of the world but of its own powers.
It is the the story of Einstein's reluctant political involvements, his devotion to peace, his great humanism, his Zionism and contribution to the building of Hebrew University, his opposition to Fascism, his famous letter to President Roosevelt that pushed the Chicago project for building the Atom bomb, his torments of conscience over his discoveries having been used in war.
Most importantly it traces the scientific career of Einstein including the legendary moment of great triumph in 1919 when his general theory of Relativity was experimentally confirmed, and Einstein transformed overnight into a world- famous figure.
It also tells the story of Einstein's struggle for over thirty- five years throughout the whole latter part of his life to devise a unified field theory . This is the story of a great man's frustration, and too his isolation from the great majority of his colleagues in regard to his position on quantum theory, (The famous," God does not play dice with the world")
Clark describes Einstein's fundamental attitude toward Nature and God, his closeness to Spinoza in seeing in an impersonal eternal order of nature the source of Beauty and objective scientific truth.
This is a wonderful book about one of mankind's greatest creative giants.
A Great Man Deserves A Great Book........2005-04-01
Albert Einstein found his place among philosophies and equations in mathematical and scientific areas he had grown up around. He hated his strict school at the gymnasium when he was young and the army when he was older. These two deep dislikes caused him to be freer in his work and mind set, and to never be brought down by structure or criticism. His imagination and pure genius made him one of the world's most impressive thinkers, ever. Einstein was the fore-runner of his new, "illogical" physics and took much of the heat, as did Galileo when he first discovered his laws. He traveled all over the world and experienced much of the times. He finally settled in America and helped the government create a bomb to stop the fighting of World War II, the atomic bomb. As a friend, Phillip Frank knew the man personally and wrote his story because of his mysterious genius and major accomplishments. Einstein's as important as Galileo, Newton, or Kepler, and his story might even be more interesting. This book was a good read and definitely a good reference for anything to do with the genius and his discoveries.
Where is Mileva?.......2004-01-01
This is a good biography of Einstein as far as it goes, but it is a bit dated and incomplete as far as his first wife Mileva Maric and their three children are concerned. Clark refers to her only a few times, and he introduces her as the daughter of a Serbian peasant. She was brilliant in her own right, and there is strong evidence that she was instrumental in developing his theories of relativity. Anybody who doubts this should consult the love letters Einstein wrote to her between about 1900-1905. He refers to "our work on relativity," and some of the letters actually contain formulas and equations!
I have never understood why Einstein has the reputation as the greatest genius etc. He had a lot of help with the theory of relativity (e.g., Poincare and many others), and to the end of his life he refused to believe in the reality of quantum theory, what is thought to be the most precise theory in the history of science. Wouldn't a genius see the truth of this theory?
a great analysis.......2002-04-02
This is an exceptionally well written biography of perhaps the greatest scientific genius in human history.Clark superbly conveys the story of Einstein`s journey through physics,the world wars & Zionism.Be warned,though:the book`s encyclopedic nature & voluminous content ensures that reading it till the end is pie in the sky for people who are not used to heavy reading & deep contemplation on the topics discussed.
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Very good for many different readers.......2007-09-18
As the authors state, ".. thought and ideas, not formulas, are the beginning of every physical theory". True to this statement, this book focuses on thoughts and ideas and does not use any formulas at all. This makes it good as an adjunct for standard texts, which contain the formulas, but not as a substitute for such books. This book is divided into four sections: the rise of the mechanical view, the decline of the mechanical view, field and relativity, and quanta. It is thus about how the mechanical view of Newton evolved into the modern view of physics (relativity theory and quantum mechanics).
I would like to focus on how this book might be perceived for three different classes of readers.
(1) For those who have never taken a physics course (of did and tried to forget the experience as soon as possible) -- The lack of any mathematics may be comforting to this class of reader, but it will nonetheless not be an easy read for them. The basic concepts, such as inertia, may be difficult to grasp for those with no previous physics background, but the author's do a good job of describing things. (A task made more difficult without recourse to the shorthand of mathematics.) I would, however, recommend this book only to those who are motivated to go well beyond their comfort zone. However, if they focus on the concepts that are being described and are patient in following the lines of reasoning, they should be richly rewarded.
(2) For those who have taken physics courses, but do not have advanced degrees in physics -- I put myself in this group and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked this book because it focuses on the why (the basic underlying theories of physics), rather than on the how (problem solving). In doing so, it provided a much better understanding of what is behind the equations than I found in physics texts. I got a very clear picture of the deficiencies of Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell's equations, and how this led to relativity theory. I found this very illuminating as it more clearly showed me Einstein's thought process. If found this even clearer than that presented in Einstein's book on relativity (prepared for a general readership). Of all the groups of readers, I think that people in this group will get the most from this book.
(3) For those with advanced degrees in physics - People in this group may have already been exposed to the concepts described here, but this book will still be very helpful in that it shows clearly Einstein's logic in developing relativity theory and the quantum theory of light. Much of this may be old hat to this group, but the book will still be of interest from a historical perspective.
I think that this book does an admirable job of appealing to and satisfying the needs of readers who approach the subject with diverse backgrounds.
An excelent book on physics.......2007-04-09
An excellent book about physics, its history and its philosophy. The concepts are well explained, discussed, compared in a conversational and rigorous style. And done with the contribution of Einstein.
With this book you will understand what physics really is; what is behind the science undertaking; what is science after all. A must book to serious interested readers
Excellent book.......2006-04-24
Outstanding book to understand the way of thinking which resulted in introducing the various concepts associated with Physics. Though written for general audience, this book needs to be read with care, and constant attention to see the remarkable connection between seemingly unrelated concepts like light, heat, electricity. Read this along with the book "Einstein's Heros by Arianrhod" to enjoy a different aspect of Physics.
Science as Human Creation.......2001-10-16
This book provides a still useful account, from 'the horses' mouths', of what Alfred Korzybski called the Newtonian and non-Newtonian views in physics. As Korzybski noted, all human beings form a view of so-called 'reality'. Understanding how scientists do this can have value for the rest of us. In this excellent book, the authors emphasize general formulations and a non-mathematical approach: "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone" (29). The book includes chapters on "The Rise of the Mechanical View," "The Decline of the Mechanical View," "Field, Relativity," and "Quanta." Readers will be rewarded with clear explanations of some potentially forbidding notions. These are interspersed with useful comments on physico-mathematical method, theory and the goals of science. Einstein's and Infeld's discussion demonstrates their view that "Science is not just a collection of laws, a catalogue of unrelated facts. It is a creation of the human mind, with its freely invented ideas and concepts. Physical theories try to form a picture of reality and to establish its connection with the wide world of sense impressions. Thus the only justification for our mental structures is whether and in what way our theories form such a link" (310).
Science, history, and a bit of philosophy.......2001-08-08
Physics can be difficult to learn when theories and formulae are thrown at you with no historical context. You begin learning about motion, and then electricity and magnetism, and it's almost impossible to see a coherent connection between the ideas. Many people have heard of relativity and quantum theory, but do not have even a general notion of what they aim to explain.
Like mathematics, you can learn physics without knowing about the people behind its development (though you will encounter many of their names in important expressions), but it never hurts to study how such ideas began, and how they came to be what they are today. Einstein and Infeld's book is aptly titled. They show how and why certain concepts came into being and what significance they hold. Beginning with "The Rise of the Mechanical View," they describe vectors, motion, forces, and energy. With "The Decline of the Mechanical View," they show how the behavior of electricity, magnetism, and light waves poses problems for the mechanical view.
The next two (and most interesting) sections explore field, relativity, and quanta, and how they have proved more accurate in describing physical phenomena than what was previously known. Einstein and Infeld describe everything with a minimum of mathematics so that anyone with an interest in the development of physics can understand the contents. Although such math is necessary for a precise understanding of physics, the aim of the authors, which they frequently repeat throughout, is to give the reader a broad understanding of the general underlying principles. They have succeeded in giving an account of where the human construction of physics started, what has been covered since then, and where it is heading. It is a simply written book, suitable for readers who don't know physics and want to learn, but also helpful for students of physics who want to see a broader picture of its evolution.
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- what did he think?
- Eintein and Religion: Physics and Theology
- Criticisms
- A fascinating book (with some criticisms of my own)
- Excellent discussion of an impersonal God
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Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology
Max Jammer
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ASIN: 069110297X |
Book Description
The philosophy of religion and the quest for spiritual truth preoccupied Albert Einstein--so much that it has been said "one might suspect he was a disguised theologian." Nevertheless, the literature on the life and work of Einstein, extensive as it is, does not provide an adequate account of his religious conception and sentiments. Only fragmentarily known, Einstein's ideas about religion have been often distorted both by atheists and by religious groups eager to claim him as one of their own. But what exactly was Einstein's religious credo? In this fascinating book, the distinguished physicist and philosopher Max Jammer offers an unbiased and well-documented answer to this question.
The book begins with a discussion of Einstein's childhood religious education and the religious atmosphere--or its absence--among his family and friends. It then reconstructs, step by step, the intellectual development that led Einstein to the conceptions of a cosmic religion and an impersonal God, akin to "the God of Spinoza." Jammer explores Einstein's writings and lectures on religion and its role in society, and how far they have been accepted by the general public and by professional theologians like Paul Tillich or Frederick Ferré. He also analyzes the precise meaning of Einstein's famous dictum "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," and why this statement can serve as an epitome of Einstein's philosophy of religion.
The last chapter deals with the controversial question of whether Einstein's scientific work, and in particular his theory of relativity, has theologically significant implications, a problem important for those who are interested in the relation between science and religion. Both thought-provoking and engaging, this book aims to introduce readers, without proselytizing, to Einstein's religion.
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what did he think?.......2007-01-18
By some accounts Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was the greatest theoretical physicist of the twentieth century, if not of all time. Max Jammer, Professor of Physics Emeritus and former Rector at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has written an eminently readable account of Einstein's thoughts on religion, a subject that he insists has been ignored by the over 400 books on Einstein published in the last several decades. Einstein renounced accusations that he was an atheist, and railed against the intolerance of those whom he called "the fanatical atheists." In his three long chapters Jammer portrays Einstein as "undogmatic and yet profoundly religious."
In his first chapter Jammer treats the role of religion in Einstein's private life. Born to what he described as "entirely irreligious Jewish parents," Einstein attended a Catholic primary school where like all students he received religious instruction. From the influences of nature and music he developed pronounced religious feelings quite early, although by age twelve he became estranged from institutional religion (although not from religion as he would define it) through reading some popular scientific books. His first wife, Mileva Maric, was Greek Orthodox, and his last wishes were to be cremated rather than to be buried in any religious tradition. Einstein was decidedly irreligious in the sense that he rejected any and all institutional affiliations, never attended worship services or prayed, rejected all dogmatic theology (eg, miracles, the afterlife or prayer), did not believe that God was in any sense personal, and was a strict determinist. But he found it impossible not to think of himself as religious in the sense of humility and awe at the mystery, rationality and complexity of nature: "the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." Behind the mystery of nature there seemed to be some superior intelligence: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
Chapter two explores what Einstein wrote about religion (he studiously avoided using the word "theology"). As a convinced determinist Einstein did not believe in human free will. He viewed science and religion as complementary rather than as antagonistic, seen in his famous aphorism that "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Science cannot determine ethics or inform us of ultimate purpose or meaning, thought Einstein, for "knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be." Science could never, then, displace or supercede religion. In his final and longest chapter, Jammer examines the possible ramifications of Einstein's theory of relativity and rejection of quantum mechanics ("God," wrote Einstein in 1926, "does not play dice.") for theological ideas like time, eternity, creation ex nihilo, and the Big Bang. Einstein himself rather disingenuously denied that there was any relationship between his physics and theology.
Well-known for his aversion to social convention and defiance of authority, Einstein used a paradox to summarize his personal beliefs and professional thoughts about religion. About a year before he died Einstein wrote in a letter that he understood himself to be a "deeply religious unbeliever." He rejected any and all notions of traditional, institutional religion, but he just as vociferously repudiated atheists who tried to claim him for their cause. Rather, he embraced something like grateful and humble Cosmic Awe at the beauty and complexity of the world he strove so mightily to understand.
Eintein and Religion: Physics and Theology.......2005-08-28
Do not be deceived by the welcoming jacket on this book. This is primarily an academic text.
The subtitle is "physics and theology" and not the other way around. This may be deliberate, because although the book actually starts with an emphasis on theology it evolves (or devolves, depending on your perspective) into a treatise on advanced physics.
Despite Jammer's sometimes ackward English and despite the fact that portions read like a master's thesis in philosophy - the book is most accessible on the theological side. The reader gets insight into the spiritual side of Einstein. Jammer shows conclusively that Einstein did believe in God and does a reasonably good job presenting the philisophical underpinnings of Einstein's beliefs.
Unless you have studied advanced quantum physics the second part of this book is very tough going.
Criticisms.......2005-04-21
I think Jammer has not done a thorough enough job on Einstein's denial of free will. I have many books on and about Einstein and I know of many instances in which he made his strict determinism clear. Here is room for improvement.
Jammer is wrong to imply that Einstein's initial belief in a static universe was the result of reading Spinoza. The fact is, many scientists at the time believed in a static universe, and probably most of them had never read Spinoza. Indeed, when Hubble showed that our universe was (and still is) expanding, the scientifc community was taken by surprise. I don't think Spinoza had anything to do with this.
Jammer has said little about the importance of Hume and Schopenhauer to Einstein's philosophical and scientific views. This is a mistake. Hume and Schopenhauer were at least as important to Einstein as Spinoza. The neglect of Schopenhauer may have something to do with the philosopher's antisemitism. But Schopenhauer remained Einstein's favorite philosopher. In his study Einstein had pictures of Newton, Maxwell, Faraday, and Schopenhauer - the sole philosopher of the lot. Einstein quoted from him often on a wide range of subjects. If Schopenhauer was an antisemite, that's because he was such a misanthrope. In fact, he disliked Germans even more (and he was one of them).
I agree that locality and determinism were two of Einstein's fundamental beliefs. Jammer reports with glee that locality has been proven wrong. So therefore determinism may also be wrong, he seems to imply. But according to John Bell, nonlocality may actually prove strict determinism to be right! (I don't believe Einstein was wrong about determinism as an objective fact, even though his interpretation of quantum mechanics may be wrong. The fact is, Heisenberg uncertainty shows up only during measurements; isolated systems are strictly deterministic. Of course, no one knows where this uncertainty comes from - hence the mystery.)
I think that on the whole this book is good. But Jammer places far too much emphasis on Einstein's "Religion without science is blind; science without religion is lame" as though this remark, probably made tongue in cheek, summarized Einstein's religious views. I doubt it. Even if it does, this by no means imply this is an unassailable truth. Steven Weinberg believes that science and religion are antagonistic, one representing knowledge, the other representing ignorance. I agree with Weinberg.
A fascinating book (with some criticisms of my own).......2005-03-24
I think Jammer does us a fine service by writing a book about a subject that is too often neglected. Not that Einstein's religious views were ever unknown, but it is surprising that this seems to be the first book devoted to this subject.
The exchanges between Einstein and Rabbi Geller are for me an important new piece of information (see pp. 85-86), as is Einstein's denial of free will in his letter to Besso (p. 87). But interestingly, Jammer neglects to mention Einstein's letter to Otto Juliusburger, who in 1946 tried to assess Hitler's responsibility for the Holocaust. Einstein's reply would not now be considered politically correct (at least in Jammer's Israel): "You take a definite stance on Hitler's responsibility... Objectively, there is after all no free will. What need is there for a criterion for responsibility?" Einstein was of course a sworn enemy of Hitler (and so should he be). But this statement is so amazing that I think Jammer was wrong to omit it. He should have quoted this statement, while emphasizing that Einstein blamed Hitler and the Germans for their evil deeds and he never forgave them. (Most of these quotes, especially if from private letters, are kept in the multi-volume "Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" published by Princeton UP and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.)
In one of the more interesting quotes in this book, Einstein believed quantum mechanics has no practically relevant impact on his deterministic view of life-events. But in this connection Jammer fails to mention how Bohr's complementarity could be applied to Einstein's determinism with satisfactory results - even though Jammer has a third of the book devoted to speculation about how science now affects philosophical and religious matters. (Despite this, there are some important Einstein quotes in this chapter as well.)
It is obvious that Einstein rejected the notion that quantum uncertainty undermines his denial of free will because he rejected quantum mechanics itself. Jammer points out that Einstein was wrong about locality, which was one of his main objections to quantum mechanics. Jammer cites Bell's theorem (p. 226) and the Aspect experiments as proving nonlocality, and claims that Einstein's belief in locality and his determinism are two basic tenets of his philosophy, as they indeed appear to be. But Jammer's implication seems to be that if Einstein got locality wrong, perhaps he was completely wrong about quantum mechanics, hence about quantum uncertainty, thus about determinism, thus about...his denial of free will? In other words, if Einstein was wrong about locality, he might have been wrong about determinism too. If Einstein was mistaken about one basic tenet of his philosophy, what makes us think he was right about the other? What Jammer fails to realize is that it was John Bell himself who said that strict determinism could well be the only way to make nonlocality compatible with all those horrible paradoxes like faster-than-light signals which contradict Special Relativity. In Bell's opinion, Einstein might have been wrong about nature being local, but strict determinism of which Einstein was always convinced might not be wrong after all. This is such an important point that I think Jammer should have discussed it, especially in Chapter 3, where he discusses his (Jammer's) own views on Einstein's philosophy.
On a more trivial note, Jammer is wrong that Einstein picked up his denial of the freedom of the will from Spinoza. The fact is, Einstein got this idea first from Schopenhauer, then from Hume, and only later from Spinoza. I was disappointed how Jammer has throughout this book neglected the importance of Schopenhauer and Hume in Einstein's philosophical and religious development. I would agree though that Einstein's "cosmic religion" came from Spinoza.
Jammer is at pains to emphasize that he doesn't proselytize or paddle any religious or sectarian viewpoints. He succeeds in this regard, in my opinion. What he does clearly try to convey, though, is the impression that religion in general and science are not in conflict, and he quotes Einstein's facetiously ambiguous statement "Science without religion is blind; religion with science is lame" (or something to this effect) to prove this point, almost ad nauseum. I'm not sure Jammer has convinced me. But Einstein's statements about religion are often ambiguous and confusing enough to provide plenty of material for someone with a secret ax to grind to quote from. On the other hand, Einstein was quite adamant and clear in (1) his determinism, (2) his denial of the immortality of the soul (which Einstein did not believe exist apart from the brain), and (3) his denial of a personal God. Jammer does a good job of faithfully reporting these views. This is not as easy a task as it seems, because (1) clearly conflicts with the deeply held beliefs of most people and the basic dogmas of Christian, Catholic, and Jewish religions; because (3) conflicts with all major religions excepting Buddhism; and because (2) conflicts with ALL religions, past and present. So I think Jammer has shown his competence here.
A "B-" effort. I hope someday someone will come up with an even better one. Right now this is the best we have.
Excellent discussion of an impersonal God.......2003-02-10
Three chapters: two for the everyman and one for the brave physicist/mathematician. The first two chapters are an excellent discourse on a Universal and Logical but impersonal God, the creator of the Universe. Well worth reading for those confused by the inconsistencies in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Places forgiveness, ethics and morality squarely on the shoulders of the individual. And chapter three really nails it down even though it required six reads for this mathematician.
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Einstein's Annalen Papers: The Complete Collection 1901 - 1922
Manufacturer: Wiley-VCH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 352740564X |
Book Description
In 1905, Einstein's Annus Mirabilis, Albert Einstein made three discoveries concerning the foundations of nature which form the basis of his fame as a physicist. These revolutionary papers on the light-quantum hypothesis, Brownian motion, and special relativity, were published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". All three are now established as pillars of modern science and its applications in technology and are an indispensable part of the modern world.
This volume presents some of the most significant original papers which Albert Einstein ever wrote. It includes the facsimiles of the three revolutionary papers of 1905. In addition it contains papers which show the consequences of the ground-breaking ideas of these seminal papers from E=mc² to the quantum theory of specific heats. It also features Einstein's first exposition of his new general theory of relativity.
Introducing the original German papers the science historians Jürgen Renn (MPI for the History of Science, Berlin), David C. Cassidy (Hofstra University, Hempstead), Michel Janssen (University of Minnesota), and Robert Rynasiewicz (John Hopkins University) complement and comment the collection with topical articles.
Books:
- Elementary Solid State Physics: Principles and Applications
- Extended , Fundamentals of Physics, 6th Edition
- Fibre Optics: Principles and Practices (Optical Science and Engineering Series)
- Field and Wave Electromagnetics (2nd Edition)
- First Course in Continuum Mechanics (3rd Edition)
- Fluid Mechanics, Third Edition
- Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics
- Fundamentals of Medical Imaging
- Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics (Fundamentals of Physics)
- Galaxies and How to Observe Them (Astronomers' Observing Guides)
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