The World According to Physics by Jim Al-KhaliliQuantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al-Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at what physics reveals about the world Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al-Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. Al-Khalili begins by introducing the fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, and matter, and then describes the three pillars of modern physics--quantum theory, relativity, and thermodynamics--showing how all three must come together if we are ever to have a full understanding of reality. Using wonderful examples and thought-provoking analogies, Al-Khalili illuminates the physics of the extreme cosmic and quantum scales, the speculative frontiers of the field, and the physics that underpins our everyday experiences and technologies, bringing the reader up to speed with the biggest ideas in physics in just a few sittings. Physics is revealed as an intrepid human quest for ever more foundational principles that accurately explain the natural world we see around us, an undertaking guided by core values such as honesty and doubt. The knowledge discovered by physics both empowers and humbles us, and still, physics continues to delve valiantly into the unknown. Making even the most enigmatic scientific ideas accessible and captivating, this deeply insightful book illuminates why physics matters to everyone and calls one and all to share in the profound adventure of seeking truth in the world around us.
Call Number: QC24.5 .A44 2020
ISBN: 9780691182308
Publication Date: 2020
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo RovelliThis playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world.
The Penguin Dictionary of Physics by John Cullerne (Editor)The Penguin Dictionary of Physics provides clear and concise definitions for every area of physics - from optics and acoustics to mechanics and electronics, via quantum theory and relativity.
Multiple institution/author OER textbook covers connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigor inherent in the subject
Age-Dating Stars: From the Sun to Distant Galaxies by Maurizio SalarisThe determination of stellar ages has been - and still is - crucial for the development of our understanding of the universe, and to constrain theoretical models for the formation of galaxies and the evolution of planetary systems. Stellar ages provide scientists with timescales, and these timescales allow us to identify the relevant physical processes responsible for the development of cosmic structures. This book describes in a simple, yet rigorous, manner the vast array of techniques that have been developed and are currently being used to determine the ages of stars.
Supernova by Or GraurA concise illustrated introduction to the history and physics of supernovae, the brilliant explosions of stars; with striking color illustrations.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780262543149
Publication Date: 2022
Zwicky: The Outcast Genius Who Unmasked the Universe by John Johnson; John JohnsonFritz Zwicky was one of the most inventive and iconoclastic scientists of his time. He predicted the existence of neutron stars, and his research pointed the way toward the discovery of pulsars and black holes. He was the first to conceive of the existence of dark matter, the first to make a detailed catalog of thousands of galaxies, and the first to correctly suggest that cosmic rays originate from supernovas.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780674979673
Publication Date: 2019
Exoplanets: Hidden Worlds and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life by Donald GoldsmithAstronomers have recently discovered thousands of planets that orbit stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy. With his characteristic wit and style, Donald Goldsmith presents the science of exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life in a way that Earthlings with little background in astronomy or astrophysics can understand and enjoy.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780674976900
Publication Date: 2018
The Number of the Heavens: A History of the Multiverse and the Quest to Understand the Cosmos by Tom SiegfriedThe award-winning former editor of Science News shows that one of the most fascinating and controversial ideas in contemporary cosmology--the existence of multiple parallel universes--has a long and divisive history that continues to this day. We often consider the universe to encompass everything that exists, but some scientists have come to believe that the vast, expanding universe we inhabit may be just one of many. The totality of those parallel universes, still for some the stuff of science fiction, has come to be known as the multiverse.
The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter by Govert Schilling; Avi Loeb (Foreword by)An award-winning science journalist details the quest to isolate and understand dark matter-and shows how that search has helped us to understand the universe we inhabit. When you train a telescope on outer space, you can see luminous galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. But if you add all that together, it constitutes only 15 percent of the matter in the universe. Despite decades of research, the nature of the remaining 85 percent is unknown. We call it dark matter.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780674248991
Publication Date: 2022
The Neutrino Story: One Tiny Particle's Grand Role in the Cosmos by Rabindra N. MohapatraEvery second of every day, we are exposed to billions of neutrinos emitted by the Sun, and yet they seem to pass straight through us with no apparent effect at all. Tiny and weakly interacting this subatomic particle may be, but this book will show you just how crucial a role it has played in the evolution of the elements in the universe, and eventually, ourselves.
We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe by Jorge Cham; Daniel WhitesonPrepare to learn everything we still don't know about our strange and mysterious universe. Humanity's understanding of the physical world is full of gaps. Not tiny little gaps you can safely ignore --there are huge yawning voids in our basic notions of how the world works.
Call Number: QB982 .C43 2018
ISBN: 9780735211520
Publication Date: 2018
The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio KakuThe epic story of the greatest quest in all of science--the holy grail of physics that would explain the creation of the universe--from renowned theoretical physicist and author of The Future of the Mind and The Future of Humanity When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories. But perhaps the ultimate challenge is achieving a monumental synthesis of the two remaining theories--relativity and the quantum theory.
Call Number: eeBook
ISBN: 9780385542746
Publication Date: 2021
Six Impossible Things by John GribbinIn this concise and engaging book, astrophysicist John Gribbin offers an overview of six of the leading interpretations of quantum mechanics. Gribbin calls his account "agnostic," explaining that none of these interpretations is any better--or any worse--than any of the others.
Call Number: QC174.12 .G748 2019
ISBN: 9780262043236
Publication Date: 2019
CERN: How We Found the Higgs Boson by Michael KrauseThis informative and entertaining book provides a broad look at the fascinating history of CERN, and the physicists working in different areas at CERN who were active in the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9789814623476
Publication Date: 2014
Probable Impossibilities by Alan LightmanFrom the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams, a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities--and impossibilities--of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called "the poet laureate of science writers," explores these questions and more--from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
Call Number: QB981 .L544 2021
ISBN: 9781524749019
Publication Date: 2021
Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat by Paul HalpernWhen the fuzzy indeterminacy of quantum mechanics overthrew the orderly world of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger were at the forefront of the revolution. Neither man was ever satisfied with the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, however, and both rebelled against what they considered the most preposterous aspect of quantum mechanics: its randomness.
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