The Prism And The Pendulum棱镜与钟摆
分類: 图书,进口原版书,科学与技术 Science & Techology ,
作者: Robert Crease著
出 版 社:
出版时间: 2004-10-1字数:版次: 1页数: 244印刷时间: 2004/10/01开本: 32开印次: 1纸张: 胶版纸I S B N : 9780812970623包装: 平装内容简介
“Science and scientists are so often seen as cold and emotionless, but they are passionately drawn to beauty and truth, no less intensely than artists or poets. One can open this book anywhere and get a sense of this special passion—each chapter has its own special feel and delectations, and all of them bring out that beauty, for scientists, is no less important than truth, and that one can be ravished by an experiment no less than by a work of art.”
—Oliver Sacks
“In an era in which the public perceives science as a string of ethereal ideas conjured up by cute men in tweed jackets sitting in overstuffed leather chairs in the faculty lounge, The Prism and the Pendulum creates a refreshing portrait of beauty in science: of men with rough hands polishing inclined planes, peering into wells, climbing towers, or sitting in the dark looking for the one spark in eight thousand that would ignite the nuclear age. In this readable, narrative-driven book, we meet scientists wresting the truth from nature by confronting her on a physical, visceral level. Robert Crease, with this volume, destroys and corrects the ‘damn good stories’ commonly used to teach science, and places himself among our most important science historians and philosophers.”
—Dick Teresi, author of Lost Discoveries, coauthor of The God Particle, cofounder of Omni
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
?Science and scientists are so often seen as cold and emotionless, but they are passionately drawn to beauty and truth, no less intensely than artists or poets. One can open this book anywhere and get a sense of this special passion?each chapter has its own special feel and delectations, and all of them bring out that beauty, for scientists, is no less important than truth, and that one can be ravished by an experiment no less than by a work of art.?
?Oliver Sacks
?In an era in which the public perceives science as a string of ethereal ideas conjured up by cute men in tweed jackets sitting in overstuffed leather chairs in the faculty lounge, The Prism and the Pendulum creates a refreshing portrait of beauty in science: of men with rough hands polishing inclined planes, peering into wells, climbing towers, or sitting in the dark looking for the one spark in eight thousand that would ignite the nuclear age. In this readable, narrative-driven book, we meet scientists wresting the truth from nature by confronting her on a physical, visceral level. Robert Crease, with this volume, destroys and corrects the ?damn good stories? commonly used to teach science, and places himself among our most important science historians and philosophers.?
作者简介
ROBERT P.CREASE is a professor in the department of Philosophy at Stony brook University in new york,and historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory.He writes a monthly column,"Critical Point,"for physics World Magcine.His previous books include Making Physics:A Biography of Borrkhaven National Laboratory; The play of Nature:Experimentation as performance; The Second Creation:makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physice(wiht Charles C.Mann); and -with Robert Serber-peace War:Reminiscences of a Life on the Frontiers of Science.Crease's Translations include American Philosophy of Technology:The Empirical Turn. He lecures Widely,and his articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly,The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal,Smithsonian,and elsewhere.He lives in New york City.
目录
Earliest known hour-counter The Louvre,photo RMN
Eratosthenes'reasoning
Eratosthents'measurement
The Leaning Tower of pisa
The belled plane Copyright istituto e Museo di Storia
Inclined plane and free fall
Reconstruction of Galileo's demonstration Reprinted With
newton's experimentum crucis
Light passing through prism
Experimentum crucis
Cavendish's equipment to measure earth's density
Cavendish's beam and balls
Interference pattern
Inter ference pattern
Foucault's Pendulum at the Pantheon
Foucault's pendulum at the pantheon
Robert Millikan's oil-drop apparatus courtesyof the Archives,California Institute of Techonlogy
Diagram of the oil-drop apparatus
Rutherford's first note on atomic structure
Detecting wide-angle scattering
Gradual buildup of elecron interference patern from single electrons
Three two-slit experiments used With permission from the estate
Optical and electron biprisms
Electron interference pattern
First BNL g-2squiggle