Average customer rating:
- The Theory of The Heavens
|
A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences) 3 volume set
O. Neugebauer
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Astronomy
| Astronomy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Astronomy
| Astronomy
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Science Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 354006995X |
Book Description
From the reviews: "This monumental work will henceforth be the standard interpretation of ancient mathematical astronomy. It is easy to point out its many virtues: comprehensiveness and common sense are two of the most important. Neugebauer has studied profoundly every relevant text in Akkadian, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin, no matter how fragmentary; [...] With the combination of mathematical rigor and a sober sense of the true nature of the evidence, he has penetrated the astronomical and the historical significance of his material. [...] His work has been and will remain the most admired model for those working with mathematical and astronomical texts. D. Pingree in Bibliotheca Orientalis, 1977 "... a work that is a landmark, not only for the history of science, but for the history of scholarship. HAMA [History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy] places the history of ancient Astronomy on a entirely new foundation. We shall not soon see its equal. N.M. Swerdlow in Historia Mathematica, 1979
Customer Reviews:
The Theory of The Heavens.......2005-10-23
This three volume set is precious to me. Each time I dip into these books, I find new treasures. Since Galileo, astronomy has become an observational science, but, as Neugebauer observes: "Ancient Astronomy was overwhelmingly mathematical astronomy." He shows us how the ancients took the few and uncertain observations they had and worked out such things as the relative longitudes of Carthage and Arbela, the secne of Alexander's great victory over Darius III in 331 BC, (Ptolemy's work), the distance to the Moon (Hipparchus' work), and the length of the year.
If you want to know what the ancients knew, and how they knew it, this is the place to look. Specialists will plow through these books. Those of us with an interest in ancient science will find browsing these volumes rewarding. And, if you get hooked, there are copies on Amazon.
Book Description
This book is a rigorous, unified account of the fundamental principles of the density-functional theory of the electronic structure of matter and its applications to atoms and molecules. Containing a detailed discussion of the chemical potential and its derivatives, it provides an understanding of the concepts of electronegativity, hardness and softness, and chemical reactivity. Both the Hohenberg-Kohn-Sham and the Levy-Lieb derivations of the basic theorems are presented, and extensive references to the literature are included. Two introductory chapters and several appendices provide all the background material necessary beyond a knowledge of elementary quantum theory. The book is intended for physicists, chemists, and advanced students in chemistry.
Customer Reviews:
The most over-rated classic.......2005-07-02
I've never met anyone who was "into" DFT and did not like this book... except me. I think it is the most over-rated book on ab initio theory out there. I liked Szabo and Ostlund and Helgaker et al's books because they were detailed enough that you could not know Hartree-Fock or MP2, but after reading them, you could write a HF or MP2 program. I didn't know DFT before I read this book and I still couldn't write a DFT program after reading it. To me, the text seemed more philisophical than applicable, but considering the limited scope of this book, you would expect it to be more detailed than what it really is.
A classic in the field.......1998-10-13
Density functional theory has been used in solid state physics for many decades. It has recently become popular in quantum chemistry. The authors have made seminal contributions to the field and their insight is distilled into this book. The focus of this book is on understanding the physics and chemistry underlying density functional theory - it does not concern itself with computatioonal details of the methodology or specific applications to different systems. Parr and Yang's book has now become a classic in the field, a must-buy for any student or researcher of density functional theory in chemistry.
Book Description
The history of physics since the discovery of X-rays would be too simplistic a description of this book. Certainly it covers the historical period from the late nineteenth century to the present day, but the book attempts to relate not only what has happened over the last hundred years or so, but why it happened the way it did, what it was like for those scientists involved, and how what, at the time, seemed a series of bizarre or unrelated events, now with hindsight presents a logical narrative. The author, himself a notable physicist and author of the highly successful Subtle is the Lord (Clarendon Press 1982), was personally involved in many of the developments described in the book. As with his previous book, unique insights into the world of big and small physics are to be gained from this major work.
Book Description
We ask question after question of an indifferent universe that would just as soon remain mute; and slowly, patiently, one sentence at a time, we write our own version of the book of nature. It is called science, from the Latin word for knowledge, and it is a book everybody should read. With simplicity and elegance, Knowing interprets the book of nature for curious readers of all sorts--but especially for those hoping to appreciate the beauty of physics without getting lost in the mathematics. Indeed, there is a world of scientific understanding in the pages of this gracefully written and inviting book, where hundreds of little diagrams substitute for the equations that physicists otherwise need to tell their tale. Readers will discover the way things work: how big things (like Earth or Moon) come from small things (like quarks and electrons), how tiny particles push and pull, and how the world hangs in the balance. We learn how an "unbiased" observer and a fixed speed of light, nothing else, conjure up E=mc2 and four-dimensional space-time. We see how Newton's clockwork universe of unwavering determination differs (but not in every respect) from Heisenberg's quantum universe of hazy uncertainty. And we see how a world of chaos throws a wrench into everybody's mechanical ideal. From tiny atoms to vast galaxies, the universe is ours to explore and to know: its particles, its interactions, its laws, its unending surprises. Heavily illustrated with explanatory drawings and diagrams--perhaps no other science book for general readers uses diagrams so extensively--Knowing takes us to the edge of modern science, allowing us to peer in further than we would have dreamed possible.
Customer Reviews:
Sleep Aid.......2006-07-31
Better set an alarm clock if you're going read this book. Chapter 1 is like dropping Valium, Chapter 2 is like dropping Valium with a shot of whiskey, by Chapter 5 you'll probably slip into a coma. The author tries to wax and wane poetic, but comes off redundant. In one paragraph he actually uses the same sentence 4 times. In place of mathematical formula, he uses pictures. It just doesn't work.
Definitely worth a read.......2006-06-24
This is an excellent book whether you have some basic science or whether (like me) you studied science some years back without fully understanding some of it (i.e. knowing the how, not the why; the effect, not the cause).
It is written in a very unusual, but very useful style for a science book, but some of the analogies are great in helping you connect the various dots in everything from classical to quantum physics and current developments.
As always you come away with more quesions that answered, but at least now you can understand why those questions exist.
Book Description
"I want to get at the blown glass of the early cloud chambers and the oozing noodles of wet nuclear emulsion; to the resounding crack of a high-voltage spark arcing across a high-tension chamber and leaving the lab stinking of ozone; to the silent, darkened room, with row after row of scanners sliding trackballs across projected bubble-chamber images. Pictures and pulses—I want to know where they came from, how pictures and counts got to be the bottom-line data of physics." (from the preface)
Image and Logic is the most detailed engagement to date with the impact of modern technology on what it means to "do" physics and to be a physicist. At the beginning of this century, physics was usually done by a lone researcher who put together experimental apparatus on a benchtop. Now experiments frequently are larger than a city block, and experimental physicists live very different lives: programming computers, working with industry, coordinating vast teams of scientists and engineers, and playing politics.
Peter L. Galison probes the material culture of experimental microphysics to reveal how the ever-increasing scale and complexity of apparatus have distanced physicists from the very science that drew them into experimenting, and have fragmented microphysics into different technical traditions much as apparatus have fragmented atoms to get at the fundamental building blocks of matter. At the same time, the necessity for teamwork in operating multimillion-dollar machines has created dynamic "trading zones," where instrument makers, theorists, and experimentalists meet, share knowledge, and coordinate the extraordinarily diverse pieces of the culture of modern microphysics: work, machines, evidence, and argument.
Customer Reviews:
The Soul Of A New Machine Part II: Ascension Into The Clouds.......2006-06-16
It's 2006, have you even picked up a science book lately? Why not? Nova and Discover enough? Well maybe Peter Galison can change all that. Think of him as the ultimate insider in a world that moves too fast for journalism to keep up with its leaks, spills and brilliant mistakes. Galison doesn't condescend to readers nor does he ream them with macho scibits; he's an academic who has a knack for talking out loud in front of any size audience, consisting of anybody willing to follow his investigations into the subcultures of science, with theorists on one phenomenological side and engineers on the other. Image & Logic is already considered a masterpiece by Galison's peers but he's yet to get the popular push that Carl Sagen and Stephen J. Gould got, and that's...ok. Just as Tracy Kidder managed to wrest computer technology from the clutches of lab-elitists and their cocktail napkin philistine pimps (CNPP) with his Soul of A New Machine, Galison will eventually vaporize the CNPP and the rest of us can breath easier. So go on, wean yourself off of the philistine's big hairy factoids and get some real, science under your belt.
Informative and Illuminating.......2002-01-03
Peter Galison presents an in-depth look at Experimental Physics in the 20th century, both to reveal its history and present an alternative view of scientific change in recent history. Starting with Wilson's first cloud chamber and progressing through WWII R&D up to and including the Superconducting SuperCollider Galison reveals major changes and redefinitions of what it means to be a practitioner of Experimental Physics. His approach applies a sociological perspective where theorists, experimentalists and instrumentalists share a dialog referred to by Galison as a "trading zone" where the previously assumed communication structures within and between Scientific disciplines are viewed as non-rigid, flexible and mutable. Along the way Galison provides fascinating examples of events and discoveries that illuminate the little known world of research and experiment in recent history. Among these examples are the fire at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator which brought about much greater regulatory involvement of the AEC. Also, the necessary use of MonteCarlo methods in the development of the H-Bomb where as Galison states "A hundred million degrees kelvin put the laboratory out of the picture..." ultimately leading to present day computer technology. For anyone within or outside of physics proper this book is truly an eye-opener to that almost invisible world of 20th century Experimental Physics.
Book Description
In this absorbing account of life with the great atomic scientist Enrico Fermi, Laura Fermi tells the story of their emigration to the United States in the 1930s—part of the widespread movement of scientists from Europe to the New World that was so important to the development of the first atomic bomb. Combining intellectual biography and social history, Laura Fermi traces her husband's career from his childhood, when he taught himself physics, through his rise in the Italian university system concurrent with the rise of fascism, to his receipt of the Nobel Prize, which offered a perfect opportunity to flee the country without arousing official suspicion, and his odyssey to the United States.
Customer Reviews:
Living with Enrico!.......2007-06-04
On first glance the title of this book appears to be a play on the ADDAMS FAMILY TV series. However, this book was originally published in 1952 and the TV series didn't come out until a decade later. However, there was apparently a newspaper cartoon that the TV series was based on, and that dates back to the 1930s. Whether Mrs. Fermi made a conscious pun or not I don't know. Would be a bizarre nexus between the Addams family & the great Enrico Fermi, but.....
In any case, this book is a biography of Enrico Fermi, who was the greatest Italian physicist of the 20th century. He was probably the greatest Italian scientist since Galileo Galilei. Fermi was in charge of the first team to successfully unleash a controlled nuclear reaction. Also, one major type of photon (the "Fermion") is named after him [the other major type of photon is the "Boson"].
One of the nice things about having a non-scientist (in this case, his wife) write the biography is that we get to see the man "behind the equations." Laura Fermi describes his quirks and we also find out that he had a sense-of-humor almost comparable to Richard Feynman.
Another intriguing aspect of the book is that we get a view of the Manhattan Project from a non-scientist's point of view. Mrs. Fermi gives us an inside look at the living conditions and everyday duties / chores of someone who was not actually working on the bomb. This is an interesting viewpoint as I've read several other accounts of Los Alamos as told thru the eyes of the scientists who worked on the bomb.
This is an important book that gives insight into one of the biggest names in modern physics. That he ended up settling in the United States is of great fortitude to we Americans. His discoveries have been a monumental boon to science, and in this book is his life story.
A Review on Enrico Fermi's biography by Sahar S........2006-04-06
The novel Atoms in the Family; My Life With Enrico Fermi by Laura Fermi is a superbly well written biography. Laura Fermi recounts her husband's life starting from his childhood when he taught himself physics, to his life in the Universities and winning his Nobel prize, to immigrating to the United States because of the Fascist leaders taking over their home town in Italy. Enrico Fermi was a brilliant man who discovered his passion and talent for physics and mathematics at a very young age. He first attended and then taught at some of the most prestigious schools around the world. His devotion to physics and his consistency in his research got him the respect of many people all around the world.
The author, I believe, was compelled to write this story as a tribute to the many accomplishments of her husband. Also, she wanted to give the world the story of Enrico Fermi's life from her perspective.
Though I disagree with the production and utilization of any kind of bomb, let alone atomic bombs, I enjoyed reading this novel because it recounted a bit of human history. Laura Fermi has not made this novel more than a mere biography. It is an exciting story of a man's life, his many accomplishments along with his fears and doubts.
Life with a genius, in the strange world of Los Alamos.......1999-09-25
I rated this so high, partly because it is one of the few books I remember reading, 35+ years ago. Around the same time I had read another book about the Manhattan Project, "The Traitors," by Alan Moorehead (apparently out of print.) Between the two I found out that most of the scientists' wives were not told why their husbands were so excited on the night of July 16, 1945 until after the war was over; meanwhile Stalin was notified through his spy network within 48 hours, during the Potsdam Conference.
I also thought she told a great story about the difficulties for a family to not only move into a strange country with strange languages and customs, only to find themselves rushed into an isolated paramilitary environment.
No great lessons in nuclear fission, lots for nuclear families.
BTW, I was surprised that Amazon does not cross-list this among the other Manhattan Project books.
25 % biography of Enrico Fermi........1998-11-10
Laura Fermi explains her husband life: the family, the adventures of the italian physicists, the Nobel prize, the American life, the Manhattan project. But Fermi life is full of physics, and in the book you don't find any explanation of the discoveries which took most of his time. It is a pity that Laura didn't get more information from her husband work to realize how great it was and how it influenced the future of quantum mechanic. Fermi was one of the top ones. I recommend this book as a preliminar biography but not as a deep one.
A charming account of Fermi's life by his wife.......1998-08-10
I first read this book more than 40 years ago. I still reread it, now and then. It is the source of most of the anecdotes that helped to explain, and disseminate, the Fermi style of doing physics. I am particularly fond of the memories of the youth of Laura Fermi, when Enrico was a young "dottore", and, together with a group of friends, used to hike the Italian Alps at holidays. Everything was used to teach science, or the way of thinking needed in science (for instance, the thermodynamics of the frying pan!). Later you'll find this "physics at the finger tips" approach used to estimate the power emitted at the first nuclear explosion. A great book.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Summary of QM
- A wonderful exploration of modern Quantum Theory.
|
The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds
Jeffrey A. Barrett
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Surveys
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Quantum Theory
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Quantum Theory
| Physics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Quantum Mechanics and Experience
-
Understanding Quantum Mechanics
ASIN: 0199247439 |
Book Description
Jeffrey Barrett presents the most comprehensive study yet of a problem that has puzzled physicists and philosophers since the 1930s. The standard theory of quantum mechanics is in one sense the most successful physical theory ever, predicting the behaviour of the basic constituents of all physical things; no other theory has ever made such accurate empirical predictions. However, if one tries to understand the theory as providing a complete and accurate framework for the description of the behaviour of all physical interactions, it becomes evident that the theory is ambiguous, or even logically inconsistent. The most notable attempt to formulate the theory so as to deal with this problem, the quantum measurement problem, was initiated by Hugh Everett III in the 1950s. Barrett gives a careful and challenging examination and evaluation of the work of Everett and those who have followed him. His informal approach, minimizing technicality, will make the book accessible and illuminating for philosophers and physicists alike. Anyone interested in the interpretation of quantum mechanics should read it.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Summary of QM.......2002-04-20
For someone interested in understanding quantum mechanics on a historical and conceptual level, this book does an excellent job. There is limited reliance on math, and the text is clear enough that one can even gloss over much of the math that is there.
Importantly (I think), is the even-handed portrayal of the standard interpretation of QM and how it's apparent acceptance in the mainstream is neither historically nor logically fully supported. The assumption that because reality appears to follow the mathematical formula does not necessarily imply that the interpretation of the formula 'explains' the basis of reality or even that QM constitutes the most basic level of reality.
The author uses many quotes, but always in a way that fits in nicely with the storyline.
Although, ostensibly written around a critique of Everett's contributions to QM, the author seems more to use that more as a reference or counterpoint for his own exposition of the problems and issues regarding QM.
A wonderful exploration of modern Quantum Theory........2000-06-03
This book was a wonderful delving into the problems of Modern Quantum Theory as it stands. The book explains such a developed and difficult to (conceptually) understand topic in very simple terms from start to finish.
It begins by exploring simple examples such as the 2 slit experiment and the spin of electrons. It then moves onto explaining the standard formulation of quantum mechanics, bare theory, and then continuing with the problem of determinism.
Personally, I found many of the ideas presented in this book difficult to understand at first, and on multiple occasions had to read over sections 2 or 3 times. Although, this is no fault of the author, he explains everything very well.
I think this book is suited to anyone who is already familar with the basic foundations of quantum mechanics (like a first year undergraduate physics course) and wants to learn about the underlying fundamental ideas, formalisms and flaws of modern quantum theory.
Average customer rating:
|
The growth of physical science
Sir James Hopwood Jeans
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B0007DPWR6 |
Average customer rating:
|
Walther Nernst and the Transition to Modern Physical Science
Diana Kormos Barkan
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Scientists
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General & Reference
| Chemistry
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physical & Theoretical
| Chemistry
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Physical Chemistry
| Physical & Theoretical
| Chemistry
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
History of Science
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General & Reference
| Technology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
History of Technology
| Technology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General & Reference
| Chemistry
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Physical & Theoretical
| Chemistry
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Physics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Physical & Theoretical
| Chemistry
| Sciences
| New & Used Textbooks
| Stores
| Books
General
| Physics
| Sciences
| New & Used Textbooks
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Look Inside Biographies
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 052144456X |
Book Description
One of Germany's most important, productive and often controversial scientists, Walther H. Nernst (1864-1941) was at once the first "modern" physical chemist, an able scientific organizer and a savvy entrepreneur. The winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Nernst was a key figure in the transition to modern physical science with his contributions to the study of solutions, of chemical equilibria, and of the behavior of matter at the extremes of the temperature range. This volume provides a scientific biography of the man who was a director of major research institutes, the rector of the Berlin University, and the inventor of a new electric lamp. It also addresses the work of many prominent scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Wilhelm Ostwald and Svante Arrhenius. A wealth of new archival material and recent scholarship reveals how Nernst's career exemplified the increasing connection between the German technical industry and academic science, between theory and experiment, between concepts and practice, providing a rich portrait of the history of science in the period preceding the Second World War. This book also details a set of specific scientific problems that evolved at the intersection of physics, chemistry and technology during one of the most revolutionary periods of modern physical science.
Book Description
This book introduces physics students and teachers to the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases, by providing a collection of the most important contributions by Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann, with introductory surveys explaining their significance. In addition, extracts from the works of Boyle, Newton, Mayer, Joule, Helmholtz, Kelvin and others show the historical context of ideas about gases, energy and irreversibility. In addition to five thematic essays connecting the classical kinetic theory with 20th century topics such as indeterminism and interatomic forces, there is an extensive international bibliography of historical commentaries on kinetic theory, thermodynamics, etc. published in the past four decades.
The book will be useful to historians of science who need primary and secondary sources to be conveniently available for their own research and interpretation, along with the bibliography which makes it easier to learn what other historians have already done on this subject.
Books:
- An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements
- An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)
- An Introduction to Recent Developments in Theory and Numerics for Conservation Laws: Proceedings of the International School on Theory and Numerics for ... in Computational Science and Engineering)
- Atom-Photon Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications (Wiley Science Paperback Series)
- Bose-Einstein Condensation (The International Series of Monographs on Physics)
- Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog
- Carbon Nanotubes: Basic Concepts and Physical Properties
- Chanel and Her World
- Classical Electrodynamics Third Edition
- Classical Electromagnetic Radiation
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Computer Confluence Complete
- Yaqui Deer Songs, Maso Bwikam: A Native American Poetry
- The Clockwork Muse: The Predictability of Artistic Change
- The Study of Human Nature: A Reader
- The Writer's Guide to Writing Your Screenplay: How to Write Great Screenplays for Movies and Televis
- What's the Matter with Kansas
- Waiting for Wings
- Dance Lessons: Six Steps to Great Partnerships in Business & Life
- The Evolution of International Business: An Introduction
- Swiss Securities Regulation:An Introduction to the Regulation of the Swiss Financial Market with a T
