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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book, Good TV show., October 17, 2005
This review is from: E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation (Hardcover)
I first heard of this book from the TV show of the same name. The show, presented on PBS by Nova on October 11, 2005 was one of the highlights of the year so far. Asuming that the book would be better than the show I immediately went out and bought it. I was not disappointed. The show was great. The book is great. The show brings out the essense of the book in an extremely easy way. The book backs up the show with greater detail. The show will undoubtedly be repeated watch for it, go buy the book now.
Basically this book/show talks about each term in the famous equasion. What is energy, where/when did we start to think of it? And what's mass? And of course c, the speed limit of the universe. This book uses these terms as the starting point to explain how each of these terms were developed. And then Einstein put them together.
The way the book/show treats Lise Meitner is supurb. She was at the cutting edge of nuclear physics for 55 years. In 1992 the 109th element was named Meitnerium (Mt) in her honor (Einsteinium is number 99). One point not mentioned, at the time when she was developing the basic theory of radioactivity as depicted in the show, she was sixty years old, not the young actress playing her part. Einstein called her 'The German Madame Curie.'
In one scene in the show Einstein is talking to his first wife Mileva Maric. He is explaining the equasion. His wife asks if he would like her to check his mathematics. Mileva Maric was no dummy. Largely forgotten until the recent publication of the love letters Einstein wrote to her, she provided enough input into Einstein's theories that she probably should have been listed as a co-developer, but in those days women just couldn't do those things. Further, the show didn't quite bring out that the famous equasion had a very rigorous mathematical background based on the then newly developed tensor calculus.
Enough writing: Get the book, when it comes out buy the DVD of the show, buy the DVD of the PBS show 'Einstein's Wife.' They cannot be recommended too highly.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating!, March 26, 2006
This review is from: E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation (Hardcover)
Even though I like math & science subjects, I do not normally put math, science and fascinating all together in the same sentence. E = MC2 is such an interesting story, mostly because it brings "life" into the process. The analytical work was well described for each of the respective persons, along with their human side.
Excellent! I will read more by this author!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, anecdotal... and slightly flawed, November 8, 2007
This review is from: E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation (Hardcover)
I hate writing less than glowing reviews, but this almost excellent book disappointed me.
I was most impressed with this work- until I got almost to the very end. On the positive side, this is the first work I've read that clearly explains "the" equation in a manner even I could understand. It's done using a historical perspective using anecdotes. That makes most of the book a fun read.
Unfortunately, it's biased. In the closing portions of the book, when describing the use of the atomic bomb against Japan, it paints a very one-sided picture about our decision to use the bomb, only quoting sources who were (supposedly) opposed to its use. Some of the facts used were, simply put, stretched a bit, and others.... well, let's just say that my own reading and interviews with people involved paints a somewhat different picture. The author asserts that men such as Eisenhower, LeMay and others did not believe the bomb to be needed, and that's simply not true. The record itself shows that the controversy did not arise until much later- over 20 years later, to be exact.
When the author stays off of his soap box (as he does most of the time throughout the book), it's an excellent work. But I would caution any who read this work to take some of what is said regarding the use of the bomb against Japan with a grain of salt.
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