Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravitational Waves [Hardcover]

David Blair (Author), Geoff Mcnamara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0201360829 | ISBN-13: 978-0201360820

Most people live and work entirely oblivious to the fact that a myriad of ghostly ripples are passing through them all the time. Generated in the depths of space by colliding stars and black holes, exploding supernovas and quasars, these so-called gravitational waves are literally ripples in the fabric of space itself. Sweeping across the cosmos at the speed of light, they encode vital clues about the exotic systems that produced them. Predicted by Einstein over eighty years ago, but never detected in the laboratory, gravitational waves have proven elusive to scientists. In the first book for a general reader on these amazing waves, Blair and McNamara weave a thrilling tale about the race to build the first gravitational wave antenna—a challenge that has prompted physicists and astronomers to devise some of the most breathtaking technology the world has ever seen. What these scientists find will allow us to listen to the explosion of stars, the creation of black holes, even the sound of the Big Bang itself, and will undoubtedly chart a new course for astronomy in the coming millennium.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This wonderful book is the product of the collaborative efforts of Blair, a leading international authority on gravitational waves, and McNamara, a science journalist. Nearly one-third of the book provides a basic explanation of modern-relativistic physics, with some of the clearest, easy-to-understand explanations of Einstein's theory available. This is essential as gravitational waves are, at least at present, only a prediction of Einstein's theory. Several chapters discuss quasars, pulsars, black holes, and things that go bang in the night. It is these stellar phenomena and collisions that generate gravitational waves that researchers hope to detect. This book does a wonderful job of capturing the excitement that scientists experience as they work at the frontiers of science. Recommended for informed lay readers and graduate students.AJames Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

David Blair is associate professor of physics at the University of Western Australia and one of the leading international authorities on gravitational waves. Geoff McNamara is a science journalist. David Blair is associate professor of physics at the University of Western Australia and one of the leading international authorities on gravitational waves. Geoff McNamara is a science journalist.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201360829
• ISBN-13: 978-0201360820
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,856,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars glossary anyone?, December 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search For Gravitational Waves (Frontiers of Science) (Paperback)

This book would have greatly benifited from the inclusion of a glossary. Any work covering a subject this complex needs definitions set out and collected together. The publisher's given web site was unavailable.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gravity, July 20, 2001

By 

Jay M Jones (University Place, Washington United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search For Gravitational Waves (Frontiers of Science) (Paperback)

I too would have appreciated a glossary. Also illustrations would have been very helpful along with the explainations and descriptions of the various instruments used to attempt to detect gravity.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ripples on a Cosmic Sea., March 7, 2006

By 

Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search For Gravitational Waves (Frontiers of Science) (Paperback)

Overall this is an excellent treatment of a little considered but intriguing problem of physical theory, the direct observation of gravitational waves. Such waves seem to be demanded by Einstein's gravitational theory, general relativity, but, as gravity is by far the weakest of the fundamental forces, it is a phenomenon that presents great difficulty in terms of direct detection. In trying a little too hard to build interest in their thesis, the authors conjure a small blunder early on, but once they 'get down to business' the book unfolds as an exceptionally well-told story. The first chapter blunder is not particularly important to the thesis and many readers won't even notice it, so I'll return to it only as a closing thought, and only in the interest of defending science from misleading oversimplifications.

Paul Davies' foreword and the authors' prologue should not be missed, and when Blair and McNammara hit their stride, discussing the gravitational curiosities that are quite commonplace in our universe -- supernovae, black holes, white dwarfs, and neutron stars, especially pulsars which lend themselves so well to close mathematical examination -- the text is outstanding. The discussion of the processes that produce these objects is a real page-turner as is the examination of the objects themselves: A densely massive binary pulsar traveling at one-sixth the speed of light! Emitting the gravitational wave 'luminosity' of a hundred thousand galaxies! Talk about energy! If we could examine the gravitational wave spectrum, what kind of information might we glean? No one knows, but Blair and others want to. The text does become less interesting in protracted discussions of the mechanics and sensitivities of instruments employed in the search for gravitational waves and the myriad technical difficulties and challenges involved.

Okay, about that blunder: In a first chapter derision of "lies" taught "at school," the authors lament that students are taught "lies" about the correct nature of space-time, as opposed to other areas of scientific interest in which schools are said to teach "the truth." With uncharacteristic carelessness it is said that we are taught "the truth" about "the solar system," about "atoms," and about the biological "evolution of species." As a matter of sober epistemological integrity, such cavalier statements create an unwarranted mess. How can we teach "the truth" about the solar system if we are teaching "lies" about space-time?! Is "the truth" about atoms the so-called objective particles of the standard model or, are "particles" really field oscillations, the vibration patterns of string/M theory? Are "atoms" classical physical objects or pragmatic mathematical abstractions of 'something' rather 'immaterial'? Is "the truth" about biological evolution "the truth" of C. Darwin, "the truth" of L. Margulis, or "the truth" of S. Kaufmann? Is "the truth" of the evolution of species what R. Dawkins believes it to be, or is it what S.J. Gould argues, or is it what S.C. Morris thinks? Although each is held to be an 'authority', they do disagree. Strongly disagree. What a mess the authors create with just a couple of reckless sentences! If we must claim that we teach scientific "truths" we should do so cautiously, even tentatively (see R. Feynman). If we must call some things 'scientific truths' we should at the least restrict ourselves to what R. Penrose has wisely called our 'Superb' theories, as opposed to those that are merely 'Useful' or 'Tentative.' Superb theories are mathematically fertile, general relativity being an excellent example. There are only a handful of 'Superb' scientific theories and all fall strictly within the categories of mathematical physics. "The truth" of biological theories, such as the evolution of species for example, is unclear, and is at best an inductive or pragmatic version of "truth" and not a rigorous, mathematical "truth." (If biology has any theory that might advance beyond being 'Useful,' it is mathematical genetics.)

Anyway, once they've escaped the temptation toward bellicose grandiosities, the authors proceed to do a pretty good job. For those who might read and enjoy this book, I recommend a somewhat similar but even better book by cosmologist George Smoot, 'Wrinkles in Time.'