Measuring the Universe: The Cosmological Distance Ladder (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) [Paperback]

Stephen Webb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1852331062 | ISBN-13: 978-1852331061 | Edition: 1st Edition.

A unified treatment of the various techniques used for distance determination. The text begins by describing methods to measure distances on Earth, then gradually climbs the "distance ladder" to enable us to estimate the distance to the farthest objects, ending with a discussion of particle horizons within an expanding and inflationary universe. Aimed at first-year astronomy and astrophysics undergraduates, the book emphasises general physical principles rather than mathematical detail, and is enhanced and complemented by many worked examples, questions and problem-solving exercises at the end of each chapter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1st Edition. edition (May 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852331062
• ISBN-13: 978-1852331061
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,536,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful history and logical progression, August 20, 2000

By 

John R. Mashey (Portola Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Measuring the Universe: The Cosmological Distance Ladder (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) (Paperback)

Many books present a current scientific world-view, as though nearly immutable. By contrast, Webb's book covers much of the history of cosmological distance measurement, including errors and changes-of-mind.

Webb's book proceedes in a very good, logical, historical order of measurements: the Earth, the Solar System, nearby stars, more distant stars, the Galaxy, the Local Group, more distant galaxies, the universe, yielding the current standard models.

It covers well the successive improvements and changes in theoretical models, as they adapted to fit new data. It is always insightful to see what people could do with fairly minimal data, and where they seemed to go wrong, and how those errors were later corrected.

This offers an especially good reminder that much science is a series of successive approximations, although sometimes a modest improvement of data accuracy may well overturn an existing theory.

It also emphasizes the dependence of the distances to further objects on relationships with nearer objects. Figure 11.6 seems an especially nice summary of the inter-relationships among the various measurement techniques.

Readers without some college-level math and physics background may find it a bit heavy-going. However, each chapter tends to be useful, with less math up front, so that one need only go as deep as is comfortable.

Webb is also to be complimented for at least mentioning dissenting views, such as those of Fred Hoyle or Halton Arp (as in "Seeing Red - Redshifts, Cosmology, and Academic Science").

All-in-all, this is a good book that ties together many problems and measurements in a coherent way.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Measuring the Universe, by Stephen Webb, February 23, 2006

By 

Seth Zimmerman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Measuring the Universe: The Cosmological Distance Ladder (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) (Paperback)

This is an excellent account and a well-written history of how we meaure distances within the solar system, galaxy, cosmos. A reader without mathematical background could skip the equations and get much from the book. Someone more versed in technical language will get more than a simple introduction.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Content... extremely Poor Typeface, February 18, 2012

By 

Lonewolf Astronomer "a fellow reader and life... (Trevor, Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Measuring the Universe: The Cosmological Distance Ladder (Kindle Edition)

I found this book to be very interesting and a good overall vibes of the piecing together of the cosmic ladder. It is well suited for undergraduate reference. That said, this is one of the poorest Kindle formatted publications that I have ever read and given the cost even for a Kindle copy, it was a grave disappointment. The font appears to have been a poor choice and the impression shows missing parts of characters that I would not have expected at this price. Amazon needs to,step up and improve typeface quality to make things more legible.