| Edition |
1st Free Press hardcover ed. |
| Description |
xvi, 302 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Contents |
From the nucleus to deep space -- Measurements, uncertainties, and the stars -- Bodies in motion -- The magic of drinking with a straw -- Over and under - outside and inside - the rainbow -- The harmonies of strings and winds -- The wonders of electricity -- The mysteries of magnetism -- Energy conservation - plus ca change . . . -- X-rays from outer space! -- X-ray ballooning, the early days -- Cosmic catastrophes, neutron stars, and black holes -- Celestial ballet -- X-ray bursters! -- Ways of seeing. |
| Summary |
This book is a largely autobiographical account of the author's life as one who fell in love first with physics and then with teaching physics to students. "You have changed my life" is a common refrain in the emails the author receives daily from fans who have been enthralled by his video lectures about the wonders of physics. "I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics colored eyes," wrote one such fan. When the lectures were made available online, he became an instant YouTube celebrity, and The New York Times declared, "Walter Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube's greatest hits." For more than thirty years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he honed his singular craft of making physics not only accessible but truly fun, whether putting his head in the path of a wrecking ball, supercharging himself with three hundred thousand volts of electricity, or demonstrating why the sky is blue and why clouds are white. Now, as Carl Sagan did for astronomy and Brian Green did for cosmology, the author takes readers on a journey in this book, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power with which physics can reveal the hidden workings of the world all around us. "I introduce people to their own world," he writes, "the world they live in and are familiar with but don't approach like a physicist yet." Could it be true that we are shorter standing up than lying down? Why can we snorkel no deeper than about one foot below the surface? Why are the colors of a rainbow always in the same order, and would it be possible to put our hand out and touch one? Whether introducing why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm, why we briefly lose (and gain) weight when we ride in an elevator, or what the big bang would have sounded like had anyone existed to hear it, he never ceases to surprise and delight with the extraordinary ability of physics to answer even the most elusive questions. Recounting his own exciting discoveries as a pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy, arriving at MIT right at the start of an astonishing revolution in astronomy, he also brings to life the power of physics to reach into the vastness of space and unveil exotic uncharted territories, from the marvels of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud to the unseeable depths of black holes. "For me," he writes, "physics is a way of seeing the spectacular and the mundane, the immense and the minute, as a beautiful, thrillingly interwoven whole." His ways of introducing us to the revelations of physics impart to us a new appreciation of the remarkable beauty and intricate harmonies of the forces that govern our lives. |
| Subject |
Lewin, Walter H. G.
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Physicists -- Massachusetts -- Biography.
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College teachers -- Massachusetts -- Biography.
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Physics -- Study and teaching -- Netherlands.
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Physics -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts.
|
| Added Author |
Goldstein, Warren.
|
| ISBN |
9781439108277 (hardcover) |
|
1439108277 (hardcover) |
|
9781451607130 (pbk.) |
|
145160713X (pbk.) |
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