The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein

by George Gamow

Book Overview

"This book is Gamow at his best, which means the very best in science for the layman." -- Library Journal
Widely recognized as one of the 20th century's foremost physicists, George Gamow was also an unusually capable popularizer of science. His talents are vividly revealed in this exciting and penetrating explanation of how the central laws of physical science evolved -- from Pythagoras' discovery of frequency ratios in the 6th century...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486257673
• ISBN13: 9780486257679
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An excellent overview of discoveries in physics.

I have read a fair amount of books on physics and found this one to be very enjoyable. Gamow keeps things pretty simple (until the end when he starts talking about his specialty) and very accessible. He is careful that the math is sequential; he always builds on previous examples to take you to the next step. The book was published in the 60's, so there are many recent discoveries missing, but you need to know your history of physics to see how we got where we are. In fact, I found that this book showed just how new all of our current theories are and that there is promise for many new things on the horizon.