What Makes Nature Tick?

by Roger G. Newton

Book Overview

For many of us, the physical sciences are as obscure as the phenomena they explain. We see the wonders of nature but miss the symmetry beneath, framed as it is in ever stranger symbols and concepts. Roger Newton's accessible account of how physicists understand the world allows the expert and novice alike to explore both the mysteries of the universe and the beauty of the science that gives shape to the unseeable. In What Makes Nature Tick? we find...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674950852
• ISBN13: 9780674950856
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

What Makes Nature Tick?

What Makes Nature Tick? written by Roger G. Newton is a book first and foremost about physics, but the physical sciences do play an intergral part. Now, that you know the book is about physics, don't shy away from it as it is written in a way that the lay person can understand. This is a book the physical tinkers and problems solvers will like. This book shows the reader the imagination, intuition, and elucidation of the author when it come to this book. He makes the reader feel at home as he egages us in a discussion of superconductors, quarks, strings, and phase space.From tachyons, time, and chaos we are on a journey of questions posed and answers given to some of the easier questions, while some of the more difficult are left to our imagination and the author's as well. But, I think the author will be able to answer those question well before I could.There are mysteries in the universe that need exploring, this book brings a surprisingly powerful influence toward that goal. The Contents of this book are as followed: Science, Mathematics, and Imagination; Chaos and the Ghost of Laplace; Time's Arrow; Forces acting through Space; Waves: Standing, traveling, and Solitary; Tachyons, the Aging of Twins, and Causality; Spooky Action at a Distance; What is an Elementary Particle?; Collective Phenoomena; and The beauty and Power of Symmetry.As you can see, this little tome covers a lot of physics, but it is presented in a why that will keep you very interested. This being said, you have to have a scientific leaning and a liking for science to appreciate the book. What I found interesting outside of this book is the further reading section. I enjoyed this book and it explains some of the new science that we are getting from observation.