Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them (Hardcover)

by Clifford Pickover (Author)
Key Phrases: André-Marie Ampère, remarkable physicists, more worlds than one, New York, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Charles Gillispie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Listed in Mathematical Reviews
"Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." -- Christian Science Monitor
"The ploymathic Clifford Pickover discusses 'landmark laws of nature that were discovered over several centuries and whose ramifications have profoundly altered our everyday lives and understanding.'" -- Kendrick Frazier, Skeptical Inquirer
"A perpetual idea machine, Clifford Pickover is one of the most creative, original thinkers in the world today." -- Journal of Recreational Mathematics
"The incomparable Clifford Pickover has written another rich science narrative that t once informs and entertains. There is no one writing today with such an encyclopedic knowledge of all things scientific, and Archimedes to Hawking covers the gamut of what is arguably the most important topic in all of science - the laws of nature. Are they discovered or invented? Do they correspond to things out in the world or only to thoughts inside our heads? These and numerous other tantalizing questions are answered as Pickover takes us through a brief history of nearly everything in the universe (and the universe itself)." -- Michael Shermer, Skeptic
"A ride through the history of world-changing scientific ideas. Pickover pays homage to the great minds who have laid bare the mathematical machinery whirring just beneath the skin of reality. An impressively researched tour de force." --Marcus Chown, author of The Quantum Zoo
"Clifford Pickover has brilliantly succeeded in a monumental task. He has explained, in his usual lucid style, some forty of the greatest laws of physics, and sketched the lives and often eccentric personalities of the geniuses who discovered them. Pickover's pages reflect his vast knowledge of physics and his firm conviction that mathematics has an awesome external reality." --Martin Gardner, author of The Colossal Book of Mathematics


Product Description
Archimedes to Hawking takes the reader on a journey across the centuries as it explores the eponymous physical laws--from Archimedes' Law of Buoyancy and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion--whose ramifications have profoundly altered our everyday lives and our understanding of the universe.
Throughout this fascinating book, Clifford Pickover invites us to share in the amazing adventures of brilliant, quirky, and passionate people after whom these laws are named. These lawgivers turn out to be a fascinating, diverse, and sometimes eccentric group of people. Many were extremely versatile polymaths--human dynamos with a seemingly infinite supply of curiosity and energy and who worked in many different areas in science. Others had non-conventional educations and displayed their unusual talents from an early age. Some experienced resistance to their ideas, causing significant personal anguish. Pickover examines more than 40 great laws, providing brief and cogent introductions to the science behind the laws as well as engaging biographies of such scientists as Newton, Faraday, Ohm, Curie, and Planck. Throughout, he includes fascinating, little-known tidbits relating to the law or lawgiver, and he provides cross-references to other laws or equations mentioned in the book. For several entries, he includes simple numerical examples and solved problems so that readers can have a hands-on understanding of the application of the law.
A sweeping survey of scientific discovery as well as an intriguing portrait gallery of some of the greatest minds in history, this superb volume will engage everyone interested in science and the physical world or in the dazzling creativity of these brilliant thinkers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195336119
• ISBN-13: 978-0195336115
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #114,639 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Archimedes to Hawking and Everyone Between, April 1, 2008

By	Paul Moskowitz (Yorktown, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is Dr. Pickover's first scientific book since his A Beginner's Guide to Immortality and The Mobius Strip writings of 2006. After over a year of pursuing science fiction, the author has provided us with a work that was worth waiting for. This is his best yet.

Archimedes to Hawking is no dry listing of scientific laws. Yes, it does have the important laws of science and the runners-up which Pickover generously calls the "Great Contenders." The reason that the book runs to five hundred pages is that Pickover describes the lives and works of the lawgivers. These are not just people who showed up. Their biographies show that they worked at it. "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Although the illustrations appear to be more for decoration than explanation, some are quite stunning. I particularly liked Bode's Virgo and Hooke's Flea, even if they have nothing to do with the laws named for those two. More illustrations like those would have been nice.

The author's approach is interesting. The laws are arranged chronologically. Archimedes is the first, but we have to skip almost two millennia to the Renaissance to find the next. The Industrial Revolution then brings the bulk of the science. There is very little past the turn of the twentieth century. Only three of the scientists named in this collection are still alive. Perhaps we have stopped naming scientific laws after people because we regard the laws of nature more as discovery than personal invention, or maybe it is that we are so expectant of future refinements that we now distrust the concept of the immutable law.

The geography of the lawgivers is mostly European. The bulk of the laws are attributed to French, English, and German physicists and chemists. Americans are fourth in number, but only if you include the runner-up category.

Although Pickover is not a physicist by training, he shows that he understands the thought process of the physicist. He shows their quest for understanding of the principles of the universe, the search for the beauty and symmetry of nature.

Even more, Pickover has learned to think like a physicist. Pickover gives a rational explanation for his inclusion of works in the great laws and the runner-up categories. Many people may be surprised to find that Maxwell's Equations do not have a chapter of their own but share the Faraday chapter, while relatively obscure works are included, even one of the runners-up that includes my name. Pickover explains that the individual laws that make up Maxwell's Equations were developed by other people: Ampere, Faraday, Gauss. For a book like this it is necessary to make choices. The author explains his reasoning in a convincing manner. You may argue with his choices, but I think that if he errs, it is mostly on the side of inclusion, not exclusion.

I do not think that you have to be a physicist or chemist to appreciate this book, but some formal science training may help you to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the equations. I see this book becoming a standard reference work for those who study the physical sciences or the history of science. Or you may just like it for the joy of the science and the history.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great work from Pickover, April 1, 2008

By	M. Nandor (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cliff Pickover's newest book is both significant and unique. The blend of factual data and biographically interesting stories of the scientists lends itself to being appealing to a wide variety of readers. No other book that I'm aware of covers both a wide range of scientific laws in addition to covering the back story behind how those laws were developed. Michael Guillen's Five Equations That Changed the World is similar in both interest and in target audience, but the Pickover book is covers many more laws and people. Jennifer Bothamley's Dictionary of Theories, in contrast, has a much wider scope (and including non-scientific theories), but the special interest of the back story is absent, again distinguishing the Pickover book as distinctly different.

Archimedes to Hawking can be enjoyed by everyone with a curious mind: why DO we name some physical laws after people and some not? how did these geniuses live, and what prompted them to do the work in their fields? how did they stumble upon a brilliant concept, and what struggles did they go through to prove it? All written with Cliff's unique and entertaining style.

In all, it's a brilliant book that I would recommend to anyone. I plan on recommending that my science teachers have their students buy the book for summer reading for our high school science courses.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The human side of science, April 4, 2008

By	Dennis Gordon "Dennis Gordon" (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Science is often erroneously, I think, seen as "cold and austere like sculpture" as Bertrand Russell once described the field of mathematics. But, the story told by Pickover of some of the great laws of science and the lawgivers who gave us these laws is much different from that. It is a story of incredible human passion, of people like Michael Faraday who described electricity as "the soul of the universe", the modestly educated Pierre Curie who won a Nobel Prize in physics, and Robert Hooke who invented the hygrometer to measure humidity after observing that the hairs of the beard of a goat would bend when wet and straighten out when dry. Other figures endured bizarre afflictions, strange religious beliefs, harsh criticism from rivals, and even simultaneous discoveries of their own work by others. Yet, they triumphed and continued in what Murray Gell-Mann described as "the most persistent and greatest adventure in human history, this search to understand the universe."

Pickover describes the laws, the lawgivers, and the nature of scientific laws in a brisk and lively pace, and peppers the book with loads of color and black and white illustrations. And, since you will doubtlessly want to learn more, there is a generous supply of references, both in print and on the internet. Science is dull and dry - nah, don't believe it. It's full of life and human drama when Pickover tells the story!

Dennis W. Gordon
Madison, Wisconsin