Cosmological Koans invites the reader into an intellectual adventure of the highest order. Through more than fifty Koans?pleasingly paradoxical vignettes following the ancient Zen tradition?leading physicist Anthony Aguirre takes the reader across the world from West to East, and through ideas spanning the age, breadth, and depth of the Universe. Using these beguiling Koans (Could there be a civilization on a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe?) and a flair for explaining complex science, Aguirre covers cosmic questions that scientific giants from Aristotle to Galileo to Heisenberg have grappled with, from the meaning of quantum theory and the nature of time to the origin of multiple universes. A playful and enlightening book, Cosmological Koans explores the strange hinterland between the deep structure of the physical world and our personal experience of it, giving readers what Einstein himself called 'the most beautiful and deepest experience' anyone can have: a sense of the mysterious.
Asked to name a great physicist, most people would mention Newton or Einstein, Feynman or Hawking. But ask a physicist and there’s no doubt that James Clerk Maxwell will be near the top of the list.
Maxwell, an unassuming Victorian Scotsman, explained how we perceive colour. He uncovered the way gases behave. And, most significantly, he transformed the way physics was undertaken in his explanation of the interaction of electricity and magnetism, revealing the nature of light and laying the groundwork for everything from Einstein’s special relativity to modern electronics.
Along the way, he set up one of the most enduring challenges in physics, one that has taxed the best minds ever since. ‘Maxwell’s demon’ is a tiny but thoroughly disruptive thought experiment that suggests the second law of thermodynamics, the law that governs the flow of time itself, can be broken. This is the story of a groundbreaking scientist, a great contributor to our understanding of the way the world works, and his duplicitous demon.
Veteran space journalist digs into the science and technology-past, present, and future-central to our explorations of Earth's only satellite, the space destination most hotly pursued today.
In these rich pages, veteran science journalist Leonard David explores the moon in all its facets, from ancient myth to future 'Moon Village' plans. David offers inside information about how the United States, allies, and competitors, as well as key private corporations like Moon Express and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, plan to reach, inhabit, and even harvest the moon in the decades to come.
Spurred on by the Google Lunar XPRIZE-$30 million for the first to get to the moon and send images home-the twenty-first-century space race back to the moon has become more urgent, and more timely, than ever. Accounts of these new strategies are set against past efforts, including stories never before told about the Apollo missions and Cold War plans for military surveillance and missile launches from the moon. Timely and fascinating, this book sheds new light on our constant lunar companion, offering reasons to gaze up and see it in a different way than ever before.
More than a few greatest hits of the physicists right from the singularities of the gravitational collapses, to the revolutionary quantum theory related to gravity, were astounding accomplishments of a sole man, who is renowned to the entire world today, as Stephen Hawking. That was not alone, though. There is much more to know about his spectacular findings about the cosmos.
Exact insight into the relativity theory, from both philosophical perspective and general scientific perspective, for all those who are not conversant in theoretical physics and the mathematical apparatus, can be handy enough to understand the nuances associated with the subject. Einstein ideas were inspired basically by the brilliant theoretical physicist by then, Boltzmann. The physical meanings of Geometrical proportions can be understood better with the clarifications given in the Einstein theory. Plane, point and the straight lines are understood to wholesomeness with the basic conceptions of geometry. More or less solid ideas evolve and emerge from these basic definitions and clarifications explained well through Einstein theories.
The history of quantum physics can never be complete without a cursory look at the diverse works of various scientists, both in the field of quantum physics and quantum chemistry. The early twentieth century marked the origin of the quantum physics concept, and it has been developed over the decades to become a household phenomenon in the physics world. Today, quantum physics has several applications in various human endeavors both in space and on the ground. Some of the outstanding physicists that contributed to the development of quantum physics are Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Neils Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Erwin Schrodinger, Wegner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Max Born and several others.
It has been said that science may be divided into two categories, astronomy which covers all things outside the Earth, and geophysics which deals with everything else. The geophysicist is dedicated to the study of the earth by physical means, and the Earth as a whole is his sphere. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the geophysicist and the geologist, for present geological techniques are based only on the study of the features of the Earth which are disclosed at the very surface of it. Although this sometimes gives a clue as to conditions at some depth below the surface, it is only by physical methods such as measurement of the Earth's gravity or magnetic fields, by the study of its thermal regime or of seismic waves that have traversed it that reliable information can be obtained about the interior of the Earth. It is at the surface that the geologists and geophysicists meet, and theories must be made to coincide. Nowhere is this common meeting ground more important than in Antarctica, for over most of the continent the ice sheet deprives the geologist of his access to the true surface of the solid earth.
Dark matter is a non luminous component of the cosmos. Yet, that can be detected or identified for its existence through the gravitational force. The gravity on the light emitting components that pass by proves the presence of this dark matter. The concept of black holes can be better understood too, in the same manner if there is a definite and concrete answer to this question of dark matter or dark energy. 96% of the universe constitutes the dark energy and the dark matter. Understanding the behavior of the dark energy and dark matter becomes a crucial need in that way. Significant findings in this subject are of global importance today. That can bring in revolutionary changes and seed for new and advanced technologies to come in the near future.
Scientists from Australia have found the smallest of the transistors recently. It is made by deliberately placing two atoms so closely. Then the university of Cambridge invention of the entangled LEDs is another revolutionary finding in the recent times. These two inventions are sure to back up with the efforts to build the quantum computers by and large. The research process is already on, since so many years now. The success is sure as it is expected by the scholars with the findings of the Entangles light emitting diodes and the world's first ever smallest transistors. Computing power will be increasing indefinitely in the upcoming years and that can be met out to precision only with the launch of the quantum computers in the market.
Several things, journals have been written and theories have been put forward with respect to the history and the origin of the Solar System. These writings, views, and theories have assumed only the natural processes that were involved in the formation of the Solar System. It has been believed that our Solar System is around billions of years in age. The current view or theory with this respect that has been accepted widely by the planetary scientists of the world is the "Modified Nebula Theory" and the "Capture Theory". Both these theories have been greatly critiqued in the light of providing the evidence for the existence of a younger solar system. As per the approach of the creationists, it is has been proposed that there could be an intelligent design that depicts the age of the Solar System to be less than 10,000 years and the occurrence of a major catastrophe in the solar system in its history. Several approaches for the occurrence of the catastrophe has been examined some of which include the existence of a destroyed planet in the asteroid region and the passing of a debris cloud through the solar system. This approach has been considered to be greatly successful in the explaining the origin of the Solar System rather than the usual naturalistic theories of the origin.
Black holes, supernovas, Dark matter, and the micro gravity or macro gravity related researches and studies for analysis can be of inbound curiosity to any professional in any subject stream. These are lessons about nature that is sure to trigger the curiosity in anyone. Shedding some light on these vitalities related to black holes, formation, creation, and deterioration is the objective here.
Enormous amount of gases in the black holes, in varied capacities, and the unpredictable size and nature of the black holes, with super gravity, make the studies to be too complicated to understand precisely about the physical properties of the black holes. To describe the difference between gravitational and inertial mass, brings in the need to know on when an astronaut in orbit experiences apparent weightlessness. That is the way to understand on how black holes are formed for anyone else too.
There are many fine scripts of quantum chemistry and physics in print at this time. So the question can be raised as to why we would write another script, especially one focusing on the smaller discipline of quantum chemistry. When we began this project years ago, we felt that we were a unique juncture in quantum chemistry and technology and that, immodestly, we had a unique perspective to offer to students.
Much of the mainstream of quantum chemistry is now deeply tied to quantum physics, in a cooperative endeavor called "quantum science." At the same time, there is a large, growing, and vital community of people who use the applications of quantum chemistry to tackle wide-ranging set of problems in the biological, physical and environmental sciences, engineering, medicine and so on.
We thought it was important to bring together, in a single volume, a rigorous, detailed perspective on both the "pure" and "applied" aspects of quantum chemistry. As such, one might find more detail about any particular subject than one might like. We hope this encourages instructors to summarize the script material and present it in a manner most suitable to a particular audience. The amount of material contained in this book is too much for a one quarter or one semester course and a bit too little for a yearlong course. Instructors can pick and choose which material seems most suitable for their course.
