Atom: 2Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos (Hardcover)

by Isaac Asimov (Author) "Suppose you had a large heap of small, smooth pebbles-thousand of them..." (more)
Key Phrases: speeding electrons, strangeness number, muon number, United States, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
It takes our best science writers, plus readers current with the whimsical new language of particle physics, to keep up with the leapfrog pace of theory and observation today. Fortunately, Asimov does his part in this report on recent theoretical physics developments that includes just enough history to add human dimension to the latest discussions of the nature of matter. Missing here are the characteristic Asimov metaphors and asides, suggesting that, while juggling so many pure concepts at once, he chooses not to distract his readers. No matter, they will welcome this straightforward guide to the Alice-like world of down-quarks, muons, leptons and other subatomic particles--most of which are believed to exist but have not yet been seen. When information does start coming in from the supercollider, this will be a worthy book to have at hand.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The legendary Isaac Asimov starts what is perhaps the finest of all his books with a simple query: How finely can a piece of matter be divided? But like many simple questions, this one leads readers on a far-flung quest for a final answer, a search that encompasses such fascinating phenomena as light and electricity and their components--strange but real bits of matter that challenge our assumptions about the very nature of time and space. 40 illustrations. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (May 31, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525249907
• ISBN-13: 978-0525249900
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #575,271 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Asimov style, December 9, 2004

By	J. head (littlteton, nh USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos (Plume) (Paperback)

This book is an excellent summation of the progress made in discovering sub-atomic particles, It may not now be up to date (it was printed in 1991), but I would not forgo the learning within, or the Asimov method of presenting it. Isaac Asimov specialty was explaining difficult subjects to his readers. He did an admiral job keeping the subject matter interesting. Each short chapter is dedicated to a particle, ex. mesons, quarks, bosons. Each chapter also gives a little historical background of the search and discovery behind each particle and how it fits within the sub-atomic world. Nuclear physicists may have progressed far beyond this by now, but this is still a good book for piecing together the subatomic puzzle of particles.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply great and easily understood, July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos (Plume) (Paperback)

i'm 15 this year and i am studying physics in school. after reading this book, i have understood more concepts much more easily. the diagrams included are great. Asimov is really a great writer ad i strongly recommend it to anyonee interested in physics.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Better than my college books concerning atoms., October 3, 1998

By	Rick L Pierson (Dothan, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos (Plume) (Paperback)

'Atom' is very easy to read. I have not had any calculus and therefore could not take physics in college. But the author presents the information without using anything more than everyday math! Also, I was taking a 101-level Physical Science class and the class's textbook gave a bit of information about an atom here, and another bit there, and it was nearly impossible to pull the facts together into a single conceptual "model". However, this book does the job quite nicely (by the way, 'Atom' also presents some other physical science material, such as properties of light and electomagnetic radiation and the four fundamental forces, in easier-to-understand language than the college book). I now have a clear understanding of the components of an atom - the oribiting electrons that form a "cloud" and the nucleus (composed of neutrons and protons - and their buliding blocks: quarks), other subatomic particles (leptons, hadrons, baryons, mesons, neutrinos, etc), the 2 fundamental forces that hold atomic nuclei together (the weak and strong nuclear force), and the concept of exchange particles that transmit the fundamental forces. I would have never obtained this kind of clarity from the college text. The author not only informs the reader of the facts, but also explains how they were discovered - this helps to increase the retention of the facts.