Sm 8vo 7-1/2" ~ 8"; 214 pages; Stated First Edition. Mylar Cover on dust jacket. Dust Jacket shows little wear of usage. Book Tight. Text is clean no markings seen. Previous Owner Name.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Neptune File Planet Detectives and the Discovery of Worlds Unseen
Publisher: Allen Lane / the Penguin Press, London, England
Publication Date: 2000
Language: English
ISBN 10: 071399472X
ISBN 13: 9780713994728
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition.
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Weight: 2 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

In 1841, while browsing in a Cambridge bookshop, a young English student named John Couch Adams happened upon a perplexed remark in an astronomical report on the erratic behavior of the planet Uranus. A gifted mathematician, Adams set about arriving at an explanation, commenting to a fellow student, "You see, Uranus is a long way out of his course. I mean to find out why." Eventually, he did, using not direct observation but, controversially, mathematical modeling of a sort that has become commonplace today. Adams's work, built in a close race against rival French scientist Urbain Le Verrier, eventually established that Uranus's path was influenced by the gravitational pull of the then unseen planet of Neptune; Standage credits both Adams and Le Verrier with its discovery. Drawing on long-forgotten archives, including a scrapbook by the author of the remark that fired Adams's imagination, science correspondent Tom Standage serves up a fine tale of discovery. His story begins with the earliest scientific descriptions of Uranus, an annoyingly wayward planet whose "position in the sky obstinately refused to match up with the position predicted by theory"--the classical theory, that is, of a regular, clockwork universe, which obtained in Adams's day and would not quite be laid to rest until Einstein's time. Standage's story continues to the present, an era when astronomers are, it seems, discovering new planets at every turn. Thanks to Adams and Le Verrier, Standage writes at the end of this graceful book, "Uranus lit the way to Neptune--and Neptune now points the way to the stars." --Gregory McNamee

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Established in 1991, as family run used bookstore with thousands of gently read books, in stock to chose from. How it all came about I like to read and in about 1987 the house got full. The spare bedroom was literally boxed in. Then in May of 1991 the garage over flowed and then it happen the books had to go as their was no more room in the house or in the garage. So the Book Shop was opened. Well I'm still here and a lot more books have passed through the door of our shop the Ye Old Bookworm. All I wanted was a quite little used bookstore. Well that's how it was suppose to happen. We started with 69,873 and growing to well over 170,000. we got so many book we don't even know what we got. I never planned on being rich and famous. Well I'm still not rich, but the old man is really cleaning up (he's the janitor) and a lot of folks know us now so were sort of famous. We would like to get to know you too. Specialty: General Stock of Paperback and Hardcover, covering just about every subject, most titles listed are Out-Of-Print. Too many too list on line. We Strive to list all of our Hardback books and only a selected few of the Paperback. So if it is not listed that doesn't mean we don't have it. Drop us a line to search our bookshelves for that book your looking for.

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