Boltzmanns Atom: The Great Debate That Launched A Revolution In Physics
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.70 (638 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1501142445 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-06-23 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Excellent Read! N I loved this book. I was very wrapped up in it throughout. I highly recommend it to any physics students who are about to undertake a course in Thermo or Stat Mech. Amazingly, Lindley does a better job of explaining some things than many textbooks. I learned a lot from this book. I think seeing the historical development aides in learning the science.One downside is the lack of more in-depth science. Only one equation is written (S=klnw). It would be nice to see more of the physics being developledpossibly an idea for a new textbookAll in all, very fun. I would love to read more history of physics books that are written similar. Harry Eagar said Difficult man, difficult ideas. In David Lindley's elegant little biography of Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the less-famed (at least in English-speaking lands) creators of modern physics gets due attention.Although no one scientist develops a revolutionary theory entirely on his own, Boltzmann's profound inquiries were most important in three fields: atomic theory, thermodynamics and quantum theory. His name is attached to two important equations, the Maxwell-Boltzmann equation and the Stefan-Boltzmann relation, and his formula for entropy (S = k log W) is as elegant and far-reaching as Einstein's more famous pithy statement. In answering questions about those th. "The harrowing fight for Boltzmann's atom" according to Mal Smith. Lindley states upfront that this book is not a proper biography. There is not much on Boltzmann's early life, and the account of his adult family life is very sketchy. Actually, I found this an advantage as I was most interested in the development of Boltzmann's physics and how Boltzmann related to other famous figures. Lindley is very good on this, showing exactly what Boltzmann's contributions were and how figures like Gibbs and Maxwell inspired him and were inspired by him. The accounts of his philosophical battle with Mach for the soul of physics were particularly intriguing - a battle that ended in Boltzmann's suicide. Mac
--Gregory McNamee. In this lively account, David Lindley tells the story of Boltzmann's many failures, and of his eventual success. "To an audience of physicists raised in the belief that scientific laws ought to encapsulate absolute certainties and unerring rules," writes scientist and journalist David Lindley, "these were profound and disturbing changes." Opposed by the then-influential physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, who urged that scientists stick to classical thermodynamics, Boltzmann was hard-pressed to convince his colleagues that the behavior of atoms could be explained by laws thought to apply only to the gaming table. Born in Austria and something of a bumpkin by nature, the 19th-century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann did not fit in easily in the highly cultured German univ
As the Habsburg Empire was crumbling, Germany's intellectual might was growing; Edinburgh in Scotland was one of the most intellectually fertile places on earth; and, in America, brilliant independent minds were beginning to draw on the best ideas of the bureaucratized old world.Boltzmann's nemesis in the field of theoretical physics at home in Austria was Ernst Mach, noted today in the term Mach I, the speed of sound. When at the end of his career he engaged with the philosophical authorities in the Viennese academy, the results were personally disastrous and tragic. Boltzmann did not get on well with authority in any form, and he did his best work at arm's length from it. Ludwig Boltz-mann battled with philosophers, the scientific establishment, and his own potent demons. Mach believed physics should address only that which could be directly observed. In 1900 many eminent scientists did not believe atoms existed, yet within just a few