Customer Reviews

The Equations: Icons of Knowledge

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book was heavily wrapped in plastic -- Harvard University Press ? What was the title? `The Equations' ? I opened it in my local bookstore. And there were all the major equations describing mechanics, fluid dynamics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, quantum chromodynamics, string theory, and more. Like the icons they were, they stood silently ... in the middle of the pages, with some brief explanations about them on the nearby page.

What a great idea for a book! A 5 star idea, surely. These equations must surely count for the highest density of information (or predictive power, perhaps) per symbol ever produced by humans, so perhaps this book, as short as it is, counts in some similar way.

Why not 5 stars for the book? For a couple of reasons:

1) The production quality seems excellent. The book was printed in Italy, but the book does not say whether it was printed on acid-free paper. I assume it was. It is very nicely bound.

2) The author uses bold face for vectors, quite common. But because of the unusual color schemes, when one sees white equations on a red background, it can take the eye a split second longer to separate scalars from vectors -- not a serious problem.

3) There seem to be typos in the book --- yes, the Gaussian on page 53 should have a minus sign in the exponent. Worse still, the explantion of what it means for a fluid to be incompressible on page 32 is wrong. An incompressible fluid most often is defined so that the density of each mass element in the fluid is constant, and this means that the `time derivative following the fluid element' of the density is zero, not that the local time rate of change of the density is zero. But mistakes happen --- the gods frown on perfection.

4) The author devotes a few pages to outlining differential calculus, but then shies away from the `integration idea' because he says that `we will never have to explicitly integrate the equations of motion'. But the integration idea is often used in DERIVING the equations of motion (for example, the integral theorems of vector calculus, etc.) so one approach might have been to develop these ideas more thoroughly.


These are small quibbles, about a book containing very big ideas. It is a wonderful idea to produce a book like this. I hope some of those who read it, especially young people, will find themselves staring mystically at these equations, wondering, `How much...how much really is in these? What are the equations of the future going to look like? What would this book look like in a hundred years? ' and that these thoughts lead them into a career in science.

If you've ever wondered what kinds of formulas physicists deal with to solve complex ideas such as String Theory, look no further than this book.

I have looked everywhere for the real equations that physicists use, but to no avail. Finally, I purchased this little gem and it fulfills all of my hopes.

Not only does this book give you the actual run-down of what the equation at hand looks like, the author, Sander Bais, breaks the formula down to describe it piece by piece. Bais breaks down what each variable represents and what your end result would be if you were to actually do the problem. Bais includes graphs to represent what the end result should look like, as well as the ranges the equation's answers should fall into when solved. Great book.

My only quarrel is that this book has a fault. One of the equations is wrong (as you've read through other reviews). And since this book is called "The Equations", I think it's a major mistake. That's why I give it a 4. Otherwise, this is a superbly insightful book. Anyone with any interest in physics of mathematics should definately take a look at this book.

This book is unique in that it exposes the reader to equations dealing with Mechanics, E&M, QM, etc. in very few pages. To my way of viewing this work, the intent of the author was never to provide a complete coverage of the equations, you'd need a personal library for that. The reader, however, should glean the ideas embodied in the mathematical notation. This popularization of science was a pleasure to read.

The existence of a mathematical equation that summarizes a large body of physical knowledge is a remarkable achievement, a pinnacle of science. The excitement of such equations is something that normally remains inaccessible to the public at large. By presenting some of the main equations of science as icons this book allows the reader to get a taste of what they are about without wading through all the details. While the discussions are brief, they have the tone of accuracy and authority that one expects from a leading scientist as opposed to a science journalist. At the same time the discussion is articulate and approachable. This book can also be regarded as a tasteful and esthetic tribute to the whole pursuit of mathematical science. It is ideal for a humanist who wants to get the gestalt of physics, at the same that every physicist will want to have one on his or her shelf.

I browsed through this book in a bookstore and at first found it quite ambitious and interesting, to the point where I thought I might buy it. But from my cursory overview I suddenly saw it: an error in one of the equations. Right in the middle of what the author calls the Boltzmann equation (more correctly, it is the Maxwell-Boltzmann equation, since Boltzmann left his name on many other equations) he had left off the minus sign in the Gaussian function part of the equation. Now, at first glance this does not appear to be a huge mistake. But it made me wonder how many other errors are in the text. Also, leaving the minus sign out of a Gaussian function changes the physical meaning of the function completely and should have been spotted by any serious editor. The other problem I have with this book is that it gets into to much depth too quickly. In a book this short, there is no way that we should go from Newton's Laws to string theory in less than 50 pages. The coverage is too superficial. Is the book intended for laymen or theoretical physicists? It is too advanced for the former and too basic for the latter. Anyway, a good idea, but not a great execution of the idea.

This book is a smash hit. You need some familiarity with basic science and mathematical concepts. The book gives one a sense of awe at man's struggle to understand the physical world and the achievement these equations represent. Such a great idea it's a wonder it hasn't been done before. I enjoyed every page. It had been a long time since I discovered and thought about these "icons" during undergraduate studies.

The book describes in a reasonable way the main ideas from the physics equations giving interesting highlighs of each. It is a lean book, pleasant and very attractive; which make it easy and quick to be read. Based on the fact that the physics history and the main equations basis are not so evident and easy to be understood the book does not cover physics in a wider manner. Certainly to have a better understanding other books are needed.

The book is very educational and includes numerous equations that represent turning points in humanity's understanding of the world. Equations are in fields such as mechanics, electrodynamics, hydrodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. The book starts with a short introduction to important mathematical concepts. The book appeals to anyone who is interested in physics and mathematics.

Book arrived promptly. It's a thin, hard-back and most of the pages were ~indented as if someone had pressed the end of a heavy cylinder down on the book cover and pressed hard. This condition was not advertised, so I subtracted a star from the rating.

The book does not go into any details about the equations. I was disappointed in it. Think of it as a "picture book" rather than providing any discussion.