Great Physicists: The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to HawkingHere is a lively history of modern physics, as seen through the lives of thirty men and women from the pantheon of physics. William H. Cropper vividly portrays the life and accomplishments of such giants as Galileo and Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, right up to contemporary figures such as Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, and Stephen Hawking. We meet scientists--all geniuses--who could be gregarious, aloof, unpretentious, friendly, dogged, imperious, generous to colleagues or contentious rivals. As Cropper captures their personalities, he also offers vivid portraits of their great moments of discovery, their bitter feuds, their relations with family and friends, their religious beliefs and education. In addition, Cropper has grouped these biographies by discipline--mechanics, thermodynamics, particle physics, and others--each section beginning with a historical overview. Thus in the section on quantum mechanics, readers can see how the work of Max Planck influenced Niels Bohr, and how Bohr in turn influenced Werner Heisenberg. Our understanding of the physical world has increased dramatically in the last four centuries. With Great Physicists, readers can retrace the footsteps of the men and women who led the way. |
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Page ix
... chemistry for the uninformed reader. Conventional wisdom holds that general readers are frightened of mathematical equations. I have not taken that advice, and have included equations in some of the chapters. Mathematical equations ...
... chemistry for the uninformed reader. Conventional wisdom holds that general readers are frightened of mathematical equations. I have not taken that advice, and have included equations in some of the chapters. Mathematical equations ...
Page xii
... Chemical Education 64, 1987, pp. 3–8, copyright 1987 by the Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society. Used by permission of the Journal of Chemical Education; ''Carnot's Function, Origins of the Thermodynamic Concept of ...
... Chemical Education 64, 1987, pp. 3–8, copyright 1987 by the Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society. Used by permission of the Journal of Chemical Education; ''Carnot's Function, Origins of the Thermodynamic Concept of ...
Page 19
... chemistry, and beyond that to alchemy. With the completion of the ordinary grammar school course of studies, Newton reached a crossroads. Hannah felt that he should follow in his father's footsteps and manage the Woolsthorpe estate. For ...
... chemistry, and beyond that to alchemy. With the completion of the ordinary grammar school course of studies, Newton reached a crossroads. Hannah felt that he should follow in his father's footsteps and manage the Woolsthorpe estate. For ...
Page 27
... chemistry was just beginning to open, and in the previous century alchemy was chemistry. Alchemists, like today's chemists, studied conversions of substances into other substances, and prescribed the rules and recipes that governed the ...
... chemistry was just beginning to open, and in the previous century alchemy was chemistry. Alchemists, like today's chemists, studied conversions of substances into other substances, and prescribed the rules and recipes that governed the ...
Page 36
... chemistry, evidence for attraction and repulsion forces among particles of all kinds of chemical substances, metals, salts, acids, solvents, oils, and vapors. He argues that the particles are kinetic and indestructible: “All these ...
... chemistry, evidence for attraction and repulsion forces among particles of all kinds of chemical substances, metals, salts, acids, solvents, oils, and vapors. He argues that the particles are kinetic and indestructible: “All these ...
Contents
xi | |
3 | |
41 | |
Historical Synopsis | 135 |
Historical Synopsis | 177 |
Historical Synopsis | 201 |
Historical Synopsis | 229 |
Historical Synopsis | 293 |
Historical Synopsis | 363 |
Historical Synopsis | 421 |
Chronology of the Main Events | 464 |
Glossary | 469 |
Invitation to More Reading | 478 |
Index | 485 |
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acceleration astronomer atomic became Berlin Bohr Bohr’s Boltzmann calculation called Cambridge Carnot’s Chandra charge chemical chemistry Clausius Clausius’s colleagues concept constant Curie Dirac discovery effect Einstein electric electromagnetic electron elements energy entropy experimental experiments Faraday Faraday’s Fermi Feynman field fission force function galaxy Galileo Gell-Mann Gibbs Gibbs energy Gibbs’s Glenlair Gošttingen gravitational Hahn Hawking heat engine Heisenberg Helmholtz Hubble Hubble’s hydrogen isospin Joule Joule’s laboratory later Laura Fermi lecture light Lise Meitner magnetic Marie mass mathematical mathematician matrix mechanics Maxwell Maxwell’s Mayer measured Meitner molecular molecules motion Nernst neutron Newton nuclear nucleus observed paper particles Pauli photons physicists Planck principle problem professor published quantum mechanics quantum number quantum theory quark radiation radioactive radium rays reaction Richard Feynman Rutherford Schrošdinger scientific scientists speed statistical statistical mechanics temperature theoretical physics theorists thermodynamics Thomson tion University uranium wave writes wrote