The Discovery of Subatomic Particles Revised Edition [Hardcover]

Steven Weinberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

This commentary on the discovery of the atom's constituents provides an historical account of key events in the physics of the twentieth century that led to the discoveries of the electron, proton and neutron. Steven Weinberg introduces the fundamentals of classical physics that played crucial roles in these discoveries. Connections are shown throughout the book between the historic discoveries of subatomic particles and contemporary research at the frontiers of physics, including the most current discoveries of new elementary particles. Steven Weinberg was Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard before moving to The University of Texas at Austin, where he founded its Theory Group. At Texas he holds the Josey Regental Chair of Science and is a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research has spanned a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology, and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics, the National Medal of Science, the Heinemann Prize in Mathematical Physics, the Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Madison Medal of Princeton University, and the Oppenheimer Prize. In addition to the well-known treatise, Gravitation and Cosmololgy, he has written several books for general readers, including the prize-winning The First Three Minutes (now translated into 22 foreign languages), and most recently Dreams of a Final Theory (Pantheon Books, 1993). He has also written a textbook The Quantum Theory of Fields, Vol.I, Vol. II, and Vol. III (Cambridge).

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A beautiful example of a new approach with which the nonscientist can attain literacy in physics." Physics Today

"It is a happy fact that some of the greatest scientists have been skilled expositors of their subject for nonscientific audiences. Einstein, Eddington, and Feynman come to mind. Steven Weinberg, a Nobel Laureate and brilliantly contemporary theorist, belongs in this company...It is ideally suited to inspire a next generation of physicists." American Journal of Physics

"Weinberg takes the reader through a brief history of electric forces from Coulomb to Faraday, enabling him to calculate the deflection from first principles. This is a remarkably painless and successful way to teach the basic ideas of physics...The book, with its splendid photographs...is authentically Weinberg--very much reminiscent of his earlier brilliant exposition The First Three Minutes." The Times (UK)

"Weinberg is a Nobel Prize-winning theoretician, and this book can be recommended without reservation. Highly recommended." Choice

Book Description

An absorbing commentary on the discovery of the atom's constituents, this book provides a fascinating account of a sequence of key events in the physics of the twentieth century, leading to the discoveries of the electron, proton and neutron. It also provides an introduction to those fundamentals of classical physics that played crucial roles in these discoveries. Throughout the book, connections are shown between the historic discoveries of subatomic particles and work today at the frontiers of physics, describing the discoveries of new elementary particles up to the present day.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052182351X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521823517
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #837,261 in Books (See Top 100 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 Good but short history, December 22, 2003

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Discovery of Subatomic Particles Revised Edition (Hardcover)

I wavered between four or five stars and finally gave the authors, a brilliant scientist, the benefit of the doubt. The book is actually a chronological review of the exploration of the atom. Starting with electricity and the discovery of the electron, we then go on to weighing the atoms to the discovery of the nucleus. A truly fascinating observation of Einstein's work notes that the "energy released by a moving body is larger than when at rest by an amount proportional to the square of its velocity"..e=mc2 was originally expresses as m=e/c2.

After the nucleus we descend further into all the subatomic particles. One must remember that although this book is a revised edition, the 1983 original version seems almost innocent in many of its assumptions. A LONG appendix is provided as much for explanation as for reference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing, April 6, 2006

By 

Michael LaDeau "ladeau" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Discovery Of Subatomic Particles (Scientific American Library Series) (Hardcover)

This book is a deviation from the author's usual books about complex cosmological issues. The Discovery of Subatomic Particles is accessible to anyone, an easy read revealing much about scientific method. It's more a history of how scientists and physicists with rather rudimentary tools devised innovative ways to probe and measure atomic particles with surprisingly accurate results. This book will be appreciated by the mechanically inclined. For the mathematically inclined, you will see in the appendices calculations developed in such a way that requires only a basic background in algebra to understand.

The author guides the reader through the history of processes that refined our understanding of the subatomic world. The subject matter is covered in a logical timeline progression and consistent format. Quantum theory is outside the scope of this book, but Niels Bohr is included in the history for using some of the discoveries to formulate his view of electron dynamics. The reader will gain a higher appreciation of how much can be measured and discovered using the basic tools and instruments available at a given level of scientific development.

Extensive appendices amount to a concise development of fundamental physics, itself creating much value owning this book. My favorite appendix has the author describing how much of Rutherford's formula for the scattering of alpha particles can be derived through simple dimensional analysis, continuing the historic application of basic tools to analyze, measure, and discover subatomic particles. The appendices give the technical details supporting much of the scientific development described so well in the main text. Steven Weinberg's book, The Discovery of Subatomic Particles, is an easy read that can be appreciated by anyone.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More what one would expect from a great man than a final theory, January 5, 2007

By 

R. Bagula "Roger L. Bagula" (Lakeside, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Discovery of Subatomic Particles (Paperback)

In this book we see the older Weinberg who still
thought in terms of mathematics and experiment
and not in terms of defending his theories
against an uncertain future.
This book I can give to the younger generation in conscience
and say : be wise and read this and learn.