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The Hunt for Vulcan: …And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe
Audible Audiobook
– Unabridged
The captivating, all-but-forgotten story of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and the search for a planet that never existed
For more than 50 years, the world's top scientists searched for the "missing" planet Vulcan, whose existence was mandated by Isaac Newton's theories of gravity. Countless hours were spent on the hunt for the elusive orb, and some of the era's most skilled astronomers even claimed to have found it.
There was just one problem: It was never there.
In The Hunt for Vulcan, Thomas Levenson follows the visionary scientists who inhabit the story of the phantom planet, starting with Isaac Newton, who, in 1687, provided an explanation for all matter in motion throughout the universe, leading to Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, who, almost two centuries later, built on Newton's theories and discovered Neptune, becoming the most famous scientist in the world. Le Verrier attempted to surpass that triumph by predicting the existence of yet another planet in our solar system: Vulcan.
It took Albert Einstein to discern that the mystery of the missing planet was a problem not of measurements or math but of Newton's theory of gravity itself. Einstein's general theory of relativity proved that Vulcan did not and could not exist and that the search for it had merely been a quirk of operating under the wrong set of assumptions about the universe. Levenson tells the previously untold tale of how the "discovery" of Vulcan in the 19th century set the stage for Einstein's monumental breakthrough, the greatest individual intellectual achievement of the 20th century.
A dramatic human story of an epic quest, The Hunt for Vulcan offers insight into how science really advances (as opposed to the way we're taught about it in school) and how the best work of the greatest scientists reveals an artist's sensibility. Opening a new window onto our world, Levenson illuminates some of our most iconic ideas as he recounts one of the strangest episodes in the history of science.
- Listening Length5 hours and 49 minutes
- Audible release dateNovember 3, 2015
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB015P0CYDA
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
| Listening Length | 5 hours and 49 minutes |
|---|---|
| Author | Thomas Levenson |
| Narrator | Kevin Pariseau |
| Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
| Audible.com Release Date | November 03, 2015 |
| Publisher | Audible Studios |
| Program Type | Audiobook |
| Version | Unabridged |
| Language | English |
| ASIN | B015P0CYDA |
| Best Sellers Rank | #116,351 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #160 in Philosophy & Science #174 in History of Science #186 in Relativity Physics (Books) |
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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Top reviews from other countries
As a child, I was well aware of the anomaly of the miserable 36" arc per century shown by Mercury's orbit. What I only learned as an undergraduate was that the total advance of the perihelion was nearly 600" arc per century. The theory miscalculated by a small anomaly in an already very small correction! This demonstrates the power of Newtonian celestial mechanics.
Levenson is very good in that he shows how, having failed to explain the discrepancy, scientists more of less ignored it for the following 50 years. After all, we all have careers and if the problem was too difficult for earler, very clever, scientists, then there must be more fruitful fields of endeavour for us. The truth will come out eventually.
Not only was it extremely informative, it was written in a very easy to digest format.
Reviewed in India on December 8, 2018
Not only was it extremely informative, it was written in a very easy to digest format.
Newtonian physics upended everyone's understanding of the world and ushered in the age of the scientific revolution. His laws of physics worked so well at explaining the way our universe worked, but with one slight problem - Mercury's orbit wobbled, by just a very tiny, tiny amount and under Newtonian physics that should not happen. You may ask yourself what does it matter if Mercury's orbit is off by a small amount? Well it did matter because it meant either Newton's laws of physics were wrong (which was unthinkable) or something was missing.
One theory that neatly reconciled Mercury's misbehaving orbit with Newtonian physics was that something was missing - there was some other planet or body, yet undetected, whose gravitational force was affecting Mercury's orbit. Thus commenced centuries long search for the mythical planet nicknamed Vulcan.
Levenson does a very good job of tracing and explaining this scientific history, of bringing to life the personalities of the scientists, as well as the amateur astronomers who contributed to the development of physics and astronomy in the hunt for Vulcan. He captures the genuine excitement of scientific discovery. He shows how the theoretical questions that Mercury posed contributed to Einstein's rethinking of Newton's laws and his upending of conventional understanding of physics (at the time) with his Theory of Relativity.
Thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend this book, especially for the general interest reader of science and astronomy.














