When Physics and Space Collide with Math – It’s About Time, for a Book Review
Physics is one of the most fascinating subjects and yet so few people have really ever considered it all. That’s too bad, because if we are beings who value knowledge, then we are mostly missing out. But it does not have to be that way, as there are all sorts of wonderful books, and documentaries available.
For instance, there is one book which is really worth reading if you can spare a month to absorb it all. It is a book I own, and one which I have read many chapters in. It’s a great reference book on the topic too. The name of the book is;
“The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics” edited by Timothy Harris, published by Little, Brown and Company, New York, NY, (1989), 859 pages, ISBN: 0-318-07136-6.
In this comprehensive work you will learn all about time and space. Information on thermodynamics, mass, gravity, relativity, black holes, and our basic understanding of it all, but remember this book was published in 1989, so quite a bit has happened since then. The first chapter is one of the best, and it discusses atoms and quarks, electron position prediction, and basic quantum theory, which we seem to know a lot more about today. There are essays on unified theories, uncertainty principles, and Albert Einstein’s most famous equation; E=MC squared.
Well, that’s the first section, and in the second section are chapters on our Sun, the structure of our universe, and how it all began, and how we expect it to one day end, well after we’re gone. There are chapters by Stephen Hawking, Richard Muller, Carl Sagan, and so many other notables. All about comets, supernovas, and our galaxy, and for all of you religious types out there, they didn’t forget you and in the spirit of inclusion, there is a sub-chapter on “biblical creationism” too.
The third and forth sections have chapters on the Mathematics of the Cosmos, and dealing with extremely large numbers, artificial intelligence, and the math of the unknown, and the limitations of known math in this realm, at least now. The forth section is about the men, and scientists behind the theories we are using now, and how they came to be, along with a chapter titled; “The Women in Science” – again in the spirit of inclusion and kudos for their achievements.
The book is really great in that there are many poems of science listed along with the “Philosophy of Science” as well. This book will open your mind to a whole new dimension of learning and intrigue of our universe. Perhaps, that’s its main focus, to get the reader interested in the sciences and physics of all that is, all that is known, and all that has yet to be discovered. Indeed, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves physics and science.
