The Birth of a New Physics
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Book Overview
These are notions so basic to our view of life that we take them for granted. But in the seventeenth century they were revolutionary, heretical, even dangerous to the men who formed them. Culture, religion, and science had intertwined over the centuries to create a world view based on a stationary earth. Indeed, if the earth moved, would not birds be blown off the trees and would not an object thrown straight up come down far away?
Then came the Renaissance and with it Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, and Newton: giants who courageously remade the world into an earth which actually moves 100,000 feet a second while revolving 1,000 miles an hour around an object 93,000,000 miles away. And yet birds perch unruffled and an apple will fall straight down.
All of this we think we know. But how well do we know it? In the twenty-five years since its first publication, The Birth of a New Physics has become a classic in the history of science. Here expanded by more than one-third and fully updated, it not only offers us the best account of the greatest scientific revolution but also tells us how we can know we live in a dynamic universe.
Then came the Renaissance and with it Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, and Newton: giants who courageously remade the world into an earth which actually moves 100,000 feet a second while revolving 1,000 miles an hour around an object 93,000,000 miles away. And yet birds perch unruffled and an apple will fall straight down.
All of this we think we know. But how well do we know it? In the twenty-five years since its first publication, The Birth of a New Physics has become a classic in the history of science. Here expanded by more than one-third and fully updated, it not only offers us the best account of the greatest scientific revolution but also tells us how we can know we live in a dynamic universe.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0393300455
ISBN13:9780393300451
Release Date:August 1985
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Length:272 Pages
Weight:0.60 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Excellent introduction
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
This book is a well-written introduction to the lives and discoveries of the three giants at the base of modern science. It doesn't ascribe to the nonsense that most modern philosophers of science spout as defining science as simply a mathematical description of appearances. The book avoids these philosophic aberrations and instead presents the discoveries of Newton, Kepler, and Galileo in a way that properly emphasizes the enormity of their genius, the scope of their inductions and the central importance of their contributions to the scientific method.
Enjoyable little book
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
I found this to be a very enjoyable book written in a kind of history book style. There is enough information included to explain the discoveries of Newton and others without getting too technical. I read this book for a college paper on Newton's life.
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