Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory [Paperback]

George Gamow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 048624895X | ISBN-13: 978-0486248950 | Publication Date: July 1, 1985

Entertaining, rigorous introduction to the development of quantum theory traces the subject's history, from Max Planck's revolutionary discovery of quanta and Niels Bohr's model of the atom to anti-particles, mesons, and Enrico Fermi's nuclear research. Numerous line drawings. 1966 edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (July 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048624895X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486248950
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Quantum Theory

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book from the master!, June 1, 2003

By 

Palle E T Jorgensen "Palle Jorgensen" (Iowa City, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (Paperback)

A reprinted Dover edition of a lovely set of biographies of the physicists of the Golden Period, from the pen of George Gamow. The original 1966 edition has been out of print for a number of years. This 1985 edition is beautifully reproduced, and it includes fascinating pictures, sketches, and poems, done by Gamow himself. He was born in Odessa, in what was then Russia, --before the Soviet Union. The story of his escape to the West is straight out of a thriller. Only it is real! Later in the US, Gamow was referred to by a journalist,--- some time during the Cold War, as "the only scientist in America with a real sense of humor". With his lovely books, we have now all come to experience how Gamow can take the most technical stuff and make it simple. Fun too! The book:--Intellectual treats, whimsy, but deep. It contains penetrating and personal biographies of Niels Bohr, Paul Ehrenfest, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, and recollections from the conferences in the 1930ties in Copenhagen, Brussels, and in the Solvay Institute. Illustrated with lovely drawings by Gamow himself. A book with pictures and conversations! Much of it can be understood by a child, and other parts might require a little concentration. All of it is great fun. The author Gamow started in nuclear physics, during the Golden Age of Physics, worked with Niels Bohr, then later in the US, on the Manhattan Project during WWII, and after the war, he was professor in Boulder Colorado. He has a building on campus named after him! The books he wrote are pearls, and they have been equally popular with my parent's generation as with mine. Luckely some have been reprinted! Other Gamow titles: Biography of Physics, Atomic Energy [dedicated to the hope of lasting peace], Physics of the Strapless Evning Gown,...We are lucky that Dover has reprinted some of them. Gamow's list of scientific accomplishments includes a 1948 landmark paper on the origin of chemical elements, the Big Bang model, and later work with F. Crick on DNA and genetic coding.-- Do more Gamow editions, Dover!

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I've never bored a reader", February 21, 2001

By 

henrique fleming - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (Paperback)

Actually this is the motto of a great Italian writer, Leonardo Sciascia. But, in the domain of science, no one better than Gamow lived to it. The great Russian-born physicist, educated by Bohr, reviews the birth of quantum mechanics and its first applications as an insider, with great panache and as much accuracy as is allowed "by complementarity" (which concept, complementarity, he explains brilliantly). He did everything brilliantly. Once, studying, with the great Brazilian theorist Mario Schenberg, ways of very efficient energy dissipation needed in the stars, they proposed that the energy should flow out in the form of neutrinos. This eventually became the well-known URCA model. Gamow named it after a famous casino at Rio de Janeiro, where money dissipated very efficiently too, at the green tables.Gamow is also the originator of the Big-Bang model of the universe, which is called by many "Gamow's cosmology". A great scientist, a great writer, a great wit!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quantum Theory Plus Gamowian Humor - A Great Combination, May 18, 2002

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (Paperback)

George Gamow's "Thirty Years That Shook Physics" is an exceptional book, an entertaining look at the physicists (including himself) that participated in the unveiling of quantum theory.

His book is enlivened by unique photos of the great physicists and mathematicians, their families and friends. We see Niels Bohr and his wife on a motorcycle, Wolfgang Pauli and George Gamow (in lederhosen) on a steamer on a Swiss Lake, Werner Heisenberg in swim trunks, Enrico Fermi playing tennis without a shirt, George Gamow and Leon Rosenfeld resting on a snow covered peak (supposedly discussing nuclear physics), and Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein chatting at a technical session in Brussels.

Many contemporary books on physics for the layman, following publisher's dictates, scrupulously avoid all mathematics. Writing in the 1960's, Gamow assumed that algebraic equations, graphs, and diagrams of experimental setups would actually help clarify explanations and not send readers fleeing in panic. Algebra is necessary; more advanced math is not. Gamow is fun to read, but be prepared to think.

It is amusing how many of the Amazon reviewers mention that they first encountered Gamow in their youth. I too read Gamow, reveling in the excitment of scientific work and discovery.

Gamow adds a bit of fun and comedy to science. We all learn (but may have forgotten) about the Pauli Exclusion Principle that only two electrons with opposite spins can occupy the same quantum orbit. Gamow also introduces us to a lessor known observation, the Pauli Effect, which states that the mere presence of Wolfgang Pauli, a theoretical physicist, near a laboratory ensured that the experimental apparatus would break.

Gamow concludes his history of quantum theory with a light-hearted play created by students of Niels Bohr and presented one evening during technical meetings in 1932 in Copenhagen. "The theme of this dramatic masterpiece has Pauli (Mephistopheles) trying to sell to the unbelieving Ehrenfest (Faust) the idea of a weightless neutrino (Gretchen)."

Gamow has remained in print since the 1960's, due largely to his unique style and for his obvious enthusiasm for physics and for people that do physics. I heartily recommend this book for the layman, and for any student of science, high school or college.

Recently, his popular "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" and "Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom" have been released again, with some updates for recent discoveries. A typical review claims: "will vastly fascinate the whimsical, and is also scientific". Don't miss Gamow.