An old man's toy: Gravity at work and play in Einstein's universe - Softcover

Rezensionen

Among the numerous authors who have written popularizations of contemporary physics, none is better than Zee at explaining things simply. Saying that "Physics began with gravity, and it may end with gravity," Zee starts by describing Newton's classical formulation. He concludes with accounts of recent efforts to unify gravity with the three other fundamental forces. The book's largest section deals with gravity's role in the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. Through use of familiar analogies and a lively writing style, Zee successfully renders complex concepts perfectly understandable, albeit at the admitted cost of some technical material. Recommended.
- Gregg Sapp, Idaho State Univ. Lib., Boise
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

On Einstein's 76th (and last) birthday, a neighbor gave him a homemade toy that exemplified a basic truth about gravity. Starting with this ball-and-cup contraption, the author of Fearful Symmetry uses gravity as a springboard to discuss phenomena ranging from the emergence of galaxies to the curvature of space-time, evidence for the existence of gravity waves and the shape of the universe in the first nanoseconds of creation and now. Zee is an extraordinary writer: playful, inspired, brilliant. Making complex ideas accessible without oversimplifying, his narrative proceeds elegantly by way of a series of enigmas that take the reader to the outermost edge of modern physics. He concludes with a look at the quest for "dark matter"mysterious, invisible stuff said to pervade the universeand the efforts of superstring theorists to unify gravity with other fundamental forces in a nine-dimensional cosmos. Illustrated.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.