Synopsis
Challenging the image of theoretical physics as a dry discipline, The Beautiful Invisible shows that this highly abstract science is in fact teeming with beautiful concepts, and the task of imagining them demands profound creativity, just as creative as the work of poets or magical realist novelists such as Borges and Musil. "A good scientific theory is like a symbolic tale, an allegory of reality," writes Giovanni Vignale, as he uncovers the unexpected links between theoretical physics and artistic creativity. In engaging and at times poetic prose, and with ample quotations from many of the writers he admires, Vignale presents his own unorthodox accounts of fundamental theoretical concepts such as Newtonian mechanics, superconductivity, and Einstein's theory of relativity, illuminating their profound implications. Throughout, the author treats readers to glimpses of physics as "exercised in the still night, when only the moon rages." Indeed, as we delve behind now-familiar concepts such as "electron spin" and "black hole," the world that we take for granted melts away, leaving a glimpse of something much stranger.
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About the Author
Giovanni Vignale is Curator's Professor of Physics at the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
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The Beautiful Invisible: Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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ISBN 10: 0199574847
ISBN 13: 9780199574841
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The Beautiful Invisible: Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible : Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible : Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible: Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible. Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible : Creativity, Imagination, and Theoretical Physics
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The Beautiful Invisible: Creativity, imagination, and theoretical physics
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The realm of theoretical physics is teeming with abstract and beautiful concepts. And the task of imagining them is one that demands profound creativity, argues Giovanni Vignale. Explaining them is curiously akin to the craft of poets, or magical realist novelists such as Borges, and Musil, or Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. In this unusual and sometimes poetic book, Vignale presents his own unorthodox accounts of fundamental theoretical concepts such as Newtonian mechanics, superconductivity, and Einstein's theory of relativity, showing that what may seem at first quite simple in fact turns out to be much more profound. As we delve behind now-familiar metaphors such as 'electron spin' and 'black hole', the world that we take for granted melts away, leaving a glimpse of something much stranger. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002826806
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