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The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

byThomas Levenson
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Top positive review

Positive reviews›
Jim Davis
5.0 out of 5 starsTop notch popular science
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2015
This is popular science at its finest.

This is a very engrossing story bookended by two of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect, Newtonian mechanics and general relativity. The book deals with attempts to square the former with observations (the precession on Mercury's perihelion) that appeared to contradict it. This led to the hypothesizing of an intra-Mercurial planet, Vulcan, to explain them. Despite claims of discovery it became clear that Vulcan did not exist and it was left to Einstein and general relativity to explain the observed precession.

Along the way we are treated to the very human stories of the principals in this saga. Newton, Halley, Laplace, le Verrier, Einstein, and others become real people with real flaws along with enormous talents. I made a number of notes to follow up on a number of points raised which were tangential to the thread of the book.

A few things appear to have changed since I last read of the events covered in this book. Adams seems to no longer be considered the co-discoverer of Neptune. Also, I was under the impression that the alternative names for Uranus (Herschel or Georgium Sidus) were proposals only but apparently they had proponents and persisted for some decades.

The book has an extensive bibliography if the reader wants to pursue any point further. The only issue I had with the book proper was the overindulgence in Einstein's antiwar sentiments. I got the impression that author Levenson was using Einstein to express his own antiwar sentiments.

The Kindle edition was first rate. Especially gratifying was that all the illustrations were high resolution. I am glad that publishers are beginning to recognize that they are not limited in this regard. There are only two equations in the book (the famous mass energy equivalence and the general relativity field equation) but equations in general continue to be an issue on Kindles. They weren't graphics and they weren't text and they continue to be hard to read. Other than that the only quibble is with the sparse progress bars where only book parts are marked, not individual chapters.

This book is highly recommended. The author wove a compelling narrative around a scientific problem and how science and scientists responded. Very well done.
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2 people found this helpful

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Critical reviews›
bob nissen
3.0 out of 5 starsWhile I enjoyed what I read
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2015
Interesting, but short. I was surprised that about the last 30-40 pages of this pint-size 180-ish page book where either notes, bibliography, or index. While I enjoyed what I read, and learned a lot about astronomy in the 19th century, I guess I felt it was a little short, though I don't know what could have been added
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3 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Jim Davis
5.0 out of 5 stars Top notch popular science
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2015
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This is popular science at its finest.

This is a very engrossing story bookended by two of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect, Newtonian mechanics and general relativity. The book deals with attempts to square the former with observations (the precession on Mercury's perihelion) that appeared to contradict it. This led to the hypothesizing of an intra-Mercurial planet, Vulcan, to explain them. Despite claims of discovery it became clear that Vulcan did not exist and it was left to Einstein and general relativity to explain the observed precession.

Along the way we are treated to the very human stories of the principals in this saga. Newton, Halley, Laplace, le Verrier, Einstein, and others become real people with real flaws along with enormous talents. I made a number of notes to follow up on a number of points raised which were tangential to the thread of the book.

A few things appear to have changed since I last read of the events covered in this book. Adams seems to no longer be considered the co-discoverer of Neptune. Also, I was under the impression that the alternative names for Uranus (Herschel or Georgium Sidus) were proposals only but apparently they had proponents and persisted for some decades.

The book has an extensive bibliography if the reader wants to pursue any point further. The only issue I had with the book proper was the overindulgence in Einstein's antiwar sentiments. I got the impression that author Levenson was using Einstein to express his own antiwar sentiments.

The Kindle edition was first rate. Especially gratifying was that all the illustrations were high resolution. I am glad that publishers are beginning to recognize that they are not limited in this regard. There are only two equations in the book (the famous mass energy equivalence and the general relativity field equation) but equations in general continue to be an issue on Kindles. They weren't graphics and they weren't text and they continue to be hard to read. Other than that the only quibble is with the sparse progress bars where only book parts are marked, not individual chapters.

This book is highly recommended. The author wove a compelling narrative around a scientific problem and how science and scientists responded. Very well done.
2 people found this helpful
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Easy and Mert
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Take on Development of Physics / Astronomy
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
Readable, insightful history of physics / astronomy, telling the story of how our understanding of the solar system developed from Newton to Einstein. How the hypothesis of a planet Vulcan in our solar system came to be invented and then debunked.

There are some very insightful thoughts about the nature of scientific thought and method presented in a very readable way. I particularly liked the author's treatment of how stories and scientific thinking relate to each other.

Four stars instead of five, because a little too light on the math for my taste, general relativity needing a bit more explanation, and the ending a bit abrupt -- it could have given us a bit more about Einstein's unsuccessful attempts at a unified field theory, which would have added some additional context that I think is a significant part of this story.
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Heinrick Ludwig von Mencken
5.0 out of 5 stars An explanation of why something isn’t there
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
For they lay reader this is a fantastic explanation of why they thought there a planet Vulcan, and the reason Einstein managed to prove that there was relativity instead.

From the observations of Copernicus to the math of Newton which brought the new cosmology people studying the heavens with new tools. With Newton’s tools they found new planets. The math wasn’t always 100 % but it made predictions easier. Which meant that Vulcan had to be there, but it wasn’t. Einstein’s math solved the problem and created new ones.

This book is a fantastic read. It is a detective novel that is also a delight
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Susan O'Shaughnessy
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and engaging
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
I just finished The Hunt for Vulcan. It deserves awards for lots of things, like being a great read, and providing a clear explanation of not only how the hunt for Vulcan took place but also how Science is done. It drew a timely moral, brought in an intriguing Einstein quote, and wrapped with a great last line.

But what will stay with me longest may be something quite different. The story told here was almost exclusively about men. Yet, by using “she” and “her” in his everyday examples, Mr. Levenson lets the girl or young woman reading his book put herself into the story, see herself as a trainspotter or eclipse watcher, as an astronomer or mathematician or theoretical physicist — as a scientist. Well done, and thanks.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2016
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Fascinating blend of history and science, told by a writer with the skill of looking through the science to the people doing the work. Told with just the right blend of humor and intelligence and just enough detail so the reader can grasp the concepts
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B. Crounse
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great, Short, Accessible History of Science Book
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2015
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I love this book. My only criticism of it was that it was too short.

The other reviews describe the book pretty well. I will say that I like how the book really helps the reader understand a few key themes about science, such as:
- Individual scientists, and the scientific consensus, sometimes gets stuff wrong. But, eventually (and sometimes it takes awhile), thanks to the scientific method, which takes nothing on faith, the errors get discovered and corrected. Reading about the search for Vulcan did remind me to be more of a skeptic (the real kind).
- Newtonian physics works really well, most of the time. The small (but noticeable) impact of relativistic effects on Mercury's orbit help the reader get a sense for how Newton's physics are usually a really, really good approximation.
- The process of science is hard. This was true even for Einstein, who, after his MVP run in 1905, struggled for years to expand from Special Relativity to General Relativity.

Another interesting observation is that Einstein was indeed a cool guy, in contrast to e.g. La Verrier, who sounds like a total jerk.
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bob nissen
3.0 out of 5 stars While I enjoyed what I read
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2015
Verified Purchase
Interesting, but short. I was surprised that about the last 30-40 pages of this pint-size 180-ish page book where either notes, bibliography, or index. While I enjoyed what I read, and learned a lot about astronomy in the 19th century, I guess I felt it was a little short, though I don't know what could have been added
3 people found this helpful
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TimCBurgess
5.0 out of 5 stars An example of how settled science in never really science...
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2019
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Fabulously researched and put together. In the late 1800's and early 1900's the planet Vulcan became "settled science" and all the top scientists agreed that it either existed and had been spotted or it existed and would be confirmed. "Vulcan" even appeared in textbooks as a planet between the Sun and Mercury after it was endorsed by successful planet hunters and astronomers claimed "sightings". Amazing story of how confirmation bias creates an environment where scientists, lacking healthy skepticism, are "all in". Einstein provides an explanation (General Relativity) that suggests Vulcan unnecessary and the planet gently faded as a reality and failed to be sighted again on the same eclipse that saw the bending of star light predicted by Einstein. This should be required reading for all scientists as a caution about how the high priests of truth in our western society can be duped into believing in things that are not there and never were.
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Crle
5.0 out of 5 stars Indulge your nerdy side
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which was suggested to me via Bookbub. I'm a huge fan of my local library and all its hardcopy and digital offerings, but this book sounded so interesting that I purchased it for Kindle. It became almost a nerdy pleasure to sit and read it, but wasn't something that I could just whip out in any waiting room and read. I needed a bit more quiet and controlled atmosphere to be able to wrap my head around what the author was saying. He did a superb job of taking an impossibly complicated topic and making it accessible to the masses. I especially liked all the back history that he started with, which made the meat of the book much more relevant.
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RDD
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Work of Science History!
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2024
In his introduction to “Vulcan …And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe,” Thomas Levenson writes, “This book tells Vulcan’s story: its ancestry, its birth, its odd, twilit journey in and out of the grasp of eager would-be discoverers, its time in purgatory, and finally, on the 18th of November, 1915, its decisive end at the hands of Albert Einstein” (p. xii). He cautions those who would use historical hindsight to simply write-off the efforts to find Vulcan, writing, “We may – we do – know more than the folks back then. But we are not thus somehow immune to the habits of mind, the leaps of imagination, or the capacity for error that they possessed. Vulcan’s biography is one of the human capacity to both discovery and self-deceive. It offers a glimpse of how hard it is to make sense of the natural world, and how difficult it is for any of us to unlearn the things we think are so, but aren’t” (p. xiv-xv).

The book opens with Newton’s calculus and gravitation, two ideas that played critical roles in the discovery of ice giants Uranus and Neptune by William Herschel and Urbain Le Verrier, Johann Gottfried Galle, and John Couch Adams. Having proved the ability of calculus and Newtonian physics to map and describe the solar system, Le Verrier went on to refine the calculations for other known bodies. His measurements of Mercury revealed a precession of the perihelion in its orbit. Newtonian mechanics suggested that this must result from the gravity of an object between Mercury and the Sun. Le Verrier and other astronomers thus turned their attention toward finding this object, or set of objects if it were an inner asteroid belt (p. 64). Le Verrier’s reputation was enough that it, combined with possible partial sightings, took hold in the public’s imagination. Levenson writes, “Mercury’s perihelion precession was and is real. Newtonian gravitation provides an obvious solution to such a problem” (p. 78). The public dubbed the would-be planet Vulcan due to its proximity to the sun’s fires. Possible sightings continued to trickle in during the mid-nineteenth century, culminating in a search and possible discovery during the American eclipse of 1878. Over time, the theory remained in use but the popular and scientific press slowly petered off in their coverage of possible sightings or rebuttals to those sightings. As Levenson notes, the idea of Vulcan held on because it fit the known facts of Newtonian physics. Historically, Vulcan is no more unusual a hypothesis than the cosmic microwave background radiation, the Higgs boson, or even Neptune itself, all of which scientists eventually found and refined in their understanding of relevant disciplines. Why, then, would Vulcan not reveal itself to determined searchers?

In the twentieth century, Einstein began to explore his theory of relativity, developing an understanding of how gravitation affects space-time. He predicted that the sun’s gravity well should deflect the light from stars appearing near its edge, an experiment made possible during a total eclipse. The eclipse of August 1914 offered just the chance to test Einstein’s hypothesis. Levenson notes, “The symmetry is obvious: Vulcan, of course, had been sought and seen and unseen again in such conditions” (p. 158). Just as a team got underway to Siberia, war broke out. Einstein continued to refine his calculations for relativity and gravitation during the war. He determined that “a ray of light passing through the sun’s gravitational field would deflect by 1.7 arcseconds, double the number his 1913 theory predicted” (p. 170). Continuing to work the numbers, Einstein discovered that “no chunk of matter was required to explain Mercury’s track, no undiscovered planet, no asteroid belt, no dust, no bulging solar belly, nothing at all – except this new, radical conception of gravity. The sun with its great mass creates its dent in space-time. Mercury, so firmly embraced by our star’s gravitational field, lies deep within that solar gravity well” (p. 172).

Levenson concludes, “It was said of Newton that he was a fortunate man, because there was only one universe to discover, and he had done it. It had been said of Le Verrier that he discovered a planet at the tip of his pen. On the 18th of November, 1915, Einstein’s pen destroyed Vulcan – and reimagined the cosmos” (p. 172). Gµv=8πGTµv neatly summarizes Einstein’s theory and ended Vulcan’s place in the solar system. The Eclipse of May 1919 afforded the opportunity to gather photographic evidence of lensing, with careful checks of the data finding it matched Einstein’s prediction. Vulcan was dead, but Levenson returns to his introductory note to point out how the idea of Vulcan over the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries represents so much of human nature while its ultimate fate represents the best of the scientific method. Levenson’s book manages to capture science in action, placing it in cultural context and weaving a narrative that casual readers will find enthralling.
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