princeton university press sep 2017 (11 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - We human beings had no say in existing - we just opened our eyes and found ourselves here. We have a fundamental need to understand who we are and the world we live in. Reason takes us a long way, but mystery remains. In Ultimate Questions, acclaimed philosopher Bryan Magee provocatively argues that we have no way of fathoming our own natures or finding definitive answers to the big questions we all face. Magee urges us to be the mapmakers of what is intelligible, and to identify the boundaries of meaningfulness. He traces this tradition of thought to his chief philosophical mentors - Locke, Hume, Kant, and Schopenhauer - and shows why this approach to the enigma of existence can enrich our lives and transform our understanding of the human predicament. As Magee puts it, 'There is a world of difference between being lost in the daylight and being lost in the dark.'.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - How important is luck in economic success No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. In Success and Luck, bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success - and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - 'Myronn Hardy is a citizen of worlds, including the North Africa where he lives and the America where he was born. Recalling Damascus, he sees Dylann Roof emerging with 'the gracelessness of the unburied, ' and on Ibn Rochd Avenue in Rabat, an image of a father tying his son's shoes evokes Trayvon Martin's untied laces. Filled with ecstatic moments, the poems in Radioactive Starlings are supreme examples of lyric restraint as well as lush, colorful precision. This compelling collection makes a powerful case for claiming Hardy as one of our finest lyric poets.'--Khaled Mattawa, author of Tocqueville: Poems.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Physics can explain many of the things that we commonly encounter. It can tell us why the night is dark, what causes the tides, and even how best to catch a baseball. With In Praise of Simple Physics, popular math and science writer Paul Nahin presents a plethora of situations that explore the science and math behind the wonders of everyday life. Roaming through a diverse range of puzzles, he illustrates how physics shows us ways to wring more energy from renewable sources, to measure the gravity in our car garages, to figure out which of three light switches in the basement controls the light bulb in the attic, and much, much more. In Praise of Simple Physics proves that if we look carefully at the world around us, physics has answers for the most astonishing day-to-day occurrences.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This eagerly anticipated third and final volume of Reiner Stach's definitive biography of the writer answers that question with more facts and insight than ever before, describing the complex personal, political, and cultural circumstances that shaped the young Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924). It tells the story of the years from his birth in Prague to the beginning of his professional and literary career in 1910, taking the reader up to just before the breakthrough that resulted in his first masterpieces, including 'The Metamorphosis.' Brimming with vivid and often startling details, Stach's narrative invites readers deep inside this neglected period of Kafka's life. The book's richly atmospheric portrait of his German Jewish merchant family and his education, psychological development, and sexual maturation draws on numerous sources, some still unpublished, including family letters, schoolmates' memoirs, and early diaries of his close friend Max Brod.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Curves are seductive. These smooth, organic lines and surfaces - like those of the human body - appeal to us in an instinctive, visceral way that straight lines or the perfect shapes of classical geometry never could. In this large-format book, lavishly illustrated in color throughout, Allan McRobie takes the reader on an alluring exploration of the beautiful curves that shape our world - from our bodies to Salvador Dalí's paintings and the space-time fabric of the universe itself. The book focuses on seven curves - the fold, cusp, swallowtail, and butterfly, plus the hyperbolic, elliptical, and parabolic 'umbilics' - and describes the surprising origins of their taxonomy in the catastrophe theory of mathematician René Thom. In an accessible discussion illustrated with many photographs of the human nude, McRobie introduces these curves and then describes their role in nature, science, engineering, architecture, art, and other areas. The reader learns how these curves play out in everything from the stability of oil rigs and the study of distant galaxies to rainbows, the patterns of light on pool floors, and even the shape of human genitals. The book also discusses the role of these curves in the work of such artists as David Hockney, Henry Moore, and Anish Kapoor, with particular attention given to the delicate sculptures of Naum Gabo and the final paintings of Dalí, who said that Thom's theory 'bewitched all of my atoms.'.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Here is the essential companion to Welcome to the Universe, a New York Times bestseller that was inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course for non-science majors that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton. This problem book features more than one hundred problems and exercises used in the original course - ideal for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the original material and to learn to think like an astrophysicist.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Important and useful to every student of relativity, this book is a unique collection of some 475 problems--with solutions--in the fields of special and general relativity, gravitation, relativistic astrophysics, and cosmology. The problems are expressed in broad physical terms to enhance their pertinence to readers with diverse backgrounds. In their solutions, the authors have attempted to convey a mode of approach to these kinds of problems, revealing procedures that can reduce the labor of calculations while avoiding the pitfall of too much or too powerful formalism. Although well suited for individual use, the volume may also be used with one of the modem textbooks in general relativity.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - American photographer Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) is best known for his portraits of his wife, Edith, and their family, as well as for his images documenting the impact of human activity upon landscapes around the world. For the past fifteen years, he has been engaged in an equally profound project on a different scale, capturing the exquisite beauty of more than one thousand species of nocturnal moths in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, and Panama. These stunning color portraits present the insects - many of which may never have been photographed as living specimens before, and some of which may not be seen again - arrayed in typologies of twenty-five per sheet. The moths are photographed alive, in natural positions and postures, and set against a variety of backgrounds taken from the natural world and images from art history. Throughout Gowin's distinguished career, his work has addressed urgent concerns. The arresting images of Mariposas Nocturnas extend this reach, as Gowin fosters awareness for a part of nature that is generally left unobserved and calls for a greater awareness of the biodiversity and value of the tropics as a universally shared natural treasure.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - 'Asteroseismology is a new, essential part of the stellar astronomy toolkit. Areas such as exoplanetary systems and galactic archaeology often employ asteroseismic analysis alongside traditional methods. This book is a comprehensive 'how-to' for working with asteroseismic data--appropriate for all those who want to try asteroseismology for themselves.'--Steve Kawaler, Iowa State University.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - 'This book is a classic and easily the best way for students learning general relativity to get experience doing problems. A wide variety of topics are covered and extensive solutions are given to the insightfully formulated exercises. This is a wonderful tool for becoming an expert in a beautiful subject.'--Sean Carroll, author of Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity.