Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws [Paperback]

John C. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521659388 | ISBN-13: 978-0521659383 | Publication Date: April 9, 2001 | Edition: First Trade Paperback

One of the paradoxes of the physical sciences is that as our knowledge has progressed, more and more diverse physical phenomena can be explained in terms of fewer underlying laws, or principles. In Hidden Unity, eminent physicist John Taylor puts many of these findings into historical perspective and documents how progress is made when unexpected, hidden unities are uncovered between apparently unrelated physical phenomena. Taylor cites examples from the ancient Greeks to the present day, such as the unity of celestial and terrestrial dynamics (17th century), the unity of heat within the rest of dynamics (18th century), the unity of electricity, magnetism, and light (19th century), the unity of space and time and the unification of nuclear forces with electromagnetism (20th century). Without relying on mathematical detail, Taylor's emphasis is on fundamental physics, like particle physics and cosmology. Balancing what is understood with the unestablished theories and still unanswered questions, Taylor takes readers on a fascinating ongoing journey. John C. Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge. A student of Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, Taylor's research career has spanned the era of developments in elementary particle physics since the 1950s. He taught theoretical physics at Imperial College, London, and at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and he has lectured worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is an undoubted success. John Taylor does not try to exaggerate results or make unsupported claims, and he attempts at all times to elucidate complicated matters in simple language....many worthwhile ideas are expounded here which even a newcomer to physics could understand. I strongly recommend this book." --Nature

"The book is elegantly clear and beautifully written...The author seems to have an immense intuitive skill for picking those topics that will evoke the reader's interest...This is far and away the best account of physics for the general reader I have ever seen. It is not a physics text. It contains no calculus, and thus will not tutor the reader in the art of solving specific problems in physics. But it fully conveys the mystery and fascination physics has exerted on humankind since the age of the Greeks. It should occupy a privileged position on the bookshelf of anyone curious about the world around us." Mathematical Association of America

"Successful books about science for nonscientists tread a fine line. Information must not be lost in discussions that are too technical, but scientific rigor must not be sacrificed for story line. Taylor takes a hstorical approach to physics, beginning with the Greeks and finishing with cosmology and elementary article physics at the end of the 20th century.... Explaining the topics and their implications to nonscientists is difficult, but Taylor ... succeeds...." Choice

Book Description

One of the paradoxes of the physical sciences is that as our knowledge has progressed, more and more diverse physical phenomena can be explained in terms of fewer underlying principles. In Hidden Unity, John Taylor cites examples from the ancient Greeks to the present day, focusing on particle physics and cosmology. With a minimum of mathematics, he describes examples such as the unity of celestial and terrestrial dynamics (17th century), the unity of heat within the rest of dynamics (18th century), the unity of electricity, magnetism, and light (19th century), the unity of space and time and the unification of nuclear forces with electromagnetism (20th century).

Product Details

• Paperback: 508 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; First Trade Paperback edition (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521659388
• ISBN-13: 978-0521659383
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,550,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws, November 4, 2002

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws (Hardcover)

Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws written by John C. Taylor is a book about how physics and nature come together and how physics explains nature. Now, before you get all huffy and discount reading this book, let me say this, the author has taken great pains in explaining the mathematics in this book, making a very understandable and highly readable book.

This book has two major themes associated with its writing. First, there is a pattern of unification, the major example explained by the author is between magnetism and electricity, Research has showed that electricity and magnetism are interconnected... not that they are the same thing, but they are two aspects of a unified whole.

The other major theme the author brings out in the book is that quite often, different branches of physics have seemed to contradict each other when taken together. As the contradiction is resolved in a new, consistent, wider theory which include the two branches. This is called the resolution of contradictions.

What is so nice about this book is this, you'll need some knowledge of mathematics and physics, but the explaination is very understandable. There is a fascinating insight into the development of our fundamental understanding of the world, and the apparent simplicity underlying it.

The author takes us on an interesting path that leads right to the heart of physics, but never forgettting that his readers are not as skilled at physics as he is. Therefore, he uses pictures in explaining the mathematical priciples associated with explaining the problem, translating the equations into words or pictures.

I found this book to be highly readable and very understandable, explaining physics in terms that a layperson can gain the concepts and have a workable knowledge of what physics is all about. This book will get you on the ground floor.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Breadth and Depth of Knowledge of Physics, December 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws (Paperback)

The author obviously has an amazing command of the complete range of his subject, physics. This book is both a an excellent history and an excellent narrative of the unfolding of man's search for the fundamental nature of the micro and macro nature of matter and the universe.
My only fault with this book is a paradox: the author assumes that the readers "don't know much about math" so for most of the book he painfully avoids writing equations, and substitutes wordy explanations. In doing so some of the beauty of his narrative is lost. The paradox is that anyone whe is going to plow into this book and get anything out of it, had better have a good handle on math at least algebra.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worst Kind of Scientific Writing, September 7, 2005

By 

D. S. Heersink "D. Stephen Heersink" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws (Paperback)

I don't know whether it's because the author is British or else my expectations were too low, but this text presents several communication problems. The syntax is frequently poor. E.g., "It was Clairaut who also correctly predicted the return of Haley's comet in 1759." What happened in 1759? Clairaut's prediction or the return of Haley's comet? Words are frequently introduced early and explained later. Maybe most people in Great Britain know what a "parallax" is, but it is used five times before it's defined. Fortunately, an adequate, but by no means expansive, glossary is available. Many sentential structures are opaque, like "if the situation could exist, the work done on a particle in a closed curve would not be zero." Antecedently, curves aren't even mentioned, nor are particles. Whence this expression about conservation of energy? This text causes a lot of similar kinds of confusion; many passages had to be reread several times to get its sense. (It can be done, but it's extremely time-consuming and highly annoying.) Mathematical formulas are introduced pages before their explanations (if one is even given). Reading science can be fun, but this book was absolutely no fun at all. I've read scores of science books, but none was as convoluted and contorted as this one. Even when one perseveres, one is disappointed by the thesis. Pass.