The Equations: Icons of Knowledge - Hardcover

Bais, Sander

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674019679 ISBN 13: 9780674019676

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2005

Synopsis

The mysteries of the physical world speak to us through equations--compact statements about the way nature works, expressed in nature's language, mathematics. In this book by the renowned Dutch physicist Sander Bais, the equations that govern our world unfold in all their formal grace--and their deeper meaning as core symbols of our civilization.

Trying to explain science without equations is like trying to explain art without illustrations. Consequently Bais has produced a book that, unlike any other aimed at nonscientists, delves into the details--historical, biographical, practical, philosophical, and mathematical--of seventeen equations that form the very basis of what we know of the universe today. A mathematical objet d'art in its own right, the book conveys the transcendent excitement and beauty of these icons of knowledge as they reveal and embody the fundamental truths of physical reality.

These are the seventeen equations that represent radical turning points in our understanding--from mechanics to electrodynamics, hydrodynamics to relativity, quantum mechanics to string theory--their meanings revealed through the careful and critical observation of patterns and motions in nature. Mercifully short on dry theoretical elaborations, the book presents these equations as they are--with the information about their variables, history, and applications that allows us to chart their critical function, and their crucial place, in the complex web of modern science.

Reading The Equations, we can hear nature speaking to us in its native language.

About this title

About the Author

Sander Bais is a theoretical physicist at the University of Amsterdam.

Review

An intriguing little book...founded on a quarrel with what the author calls the 'fashionable dogma' of not including equations in science books intended for general readers. 'The veto is like asking somebody to explain art without showing pictures,' Bais argues. And he's right. His book is worth a look for anyone feeling brave enough to journey into the language of physical science on its own ground: the terra firma of mathematics.
--Anthony Doerr (Boston Globe 2006-01-15)

The author writes clearly and incisively about the physical ideas...Most books of this genre take it as axiomatic that they must avoid equations. Bais embraces them, building his book around the equations of physics and using them as the vehicle for describing the counter-intuitive world of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and string theory.
--David M. Bressoud (Mathematical Association of America)

Let me say at once that I learnt a great deal from the author's broad-brush approach...The physics is very readable, with connections between different parts of the subject made well. And because the book is so short, the reader has a real chance to see "the big picture"...There is no doubt that The Equations is a bold and original book. And, in my view, imagination of this kind will be needed in the future if maths and science education is to avoid sliding gradually into lightweight stuff about what Newton ate for breakfast.
--David Acheson (Times Higher Education Supplement 2006-03-10)

In addition to its pedagogical value, Bais's book presents these icons of our physical world in all their beauty. It is very good to be reminded of this.
--Malcolm Longair (Nature 2006-03-23)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0674019679
• ISBN 13: 9780674019676
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96