How to Speak Science: Gravity, Relativity, and Other Ideas That Were Crazy Until Proven Brilliant

by Bruce Benamran, Michael Stevens (Foreword by)

Overview

A math-free introduction to the greatest scientific ideas of the last 2,000 years

As smartphones, supercomputers, supercolliders, and AI propel us into an ever more unfamiliar future, How to Speak Science takes us on a rollicking historical tour of the greatest discoveries and ideas that make today’s cutting–edge technologies possible.

Wanting everyone to be able to “speak” science, YouTube science guru Bruce Benamran explains–as accessibly and wittily as in his acclaimed videos–the fundamental ideas of the physical world: matter, life, the solar system, light, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, and much more.

Along the way, Benamran guides us through the wildest hypotheses and most ingenious ideas of Galileo, Newton, Curie, Einstein, and science’s other greatest minds, reminding us that while they weren’t always exactly right, they were always curious. How to Speak Science acquaints us not only with what scientists know, but how they think, so that each of us can reason like a physicist–and appreciate the world in all its beautiful chaos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615194032
Publisher:	The Experiment
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bruce Benamran is a YouTube personality whose popular science channels e–penser (in French) and Get It (in English) have over a million subscribers. Benamran holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Strasbourg. Already an international bestseller, How to Speak Science is his first book. @getitchannel

Michael Stevens is an educator, public speaker, comedian, entertainer, editor, and internet celebrity, best known for creating and hosting the popular educational YouTube channel, Vsauce.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction 1

0 Correlation and Causality 1

1 Models and Reality 4

Matter 7

2 Atoms 9

3 Good Old Science Dude: Dmitri Mendeleev 14

4 The Electron 22

5 The Nucleus of the Atom 25

Light 35

6 Is Light Made of Particles or Waves? 39

7 The Discovery of the Photoelectric Effect 45

8 First Detour: Heat 46

9 Second Detour: Black Bodies 49

10 Einstein in 1905: The First Article 51

11 Why Do They Turn Off Airplane Cabin Lights for Night Landings? 53

12 Why Is the Sky Blue and the Sun Yellow? 58

13 What Is a Rainbow? 61

14 How Many Senses Do Humans Have? 63

15 You Have Never Touched Anything in Your Life 71

Electromagnetism 73

16 Magnetism 73

17 Permanent Magnets 75

18 Electricity?! What Does That Have to Do with Anything? 77

19 Static Electricity 80

20 Electric Fields 82

21 Ampére, Gauss, Faraday, and Others … Right up to Maxwell 84

22 Maxwell's Four Equations 89

The Solar System 94

23 The Sun 94

24 Stellar Nucleosynthesis 96

25 Formation of the Solar System 100

26 Mercury 102

27 Good Old Science Dude: Guillaume Le Gentil-Gentle Willy 105

28 Earth, the Goldilocks of the Solar System 112

29 The Earth Is Round 114

30 Good Old Science Dude: Eratosthenes 115

31 Flow Old Is the Earth? 119

32 Mars 124

33 The Missing Planet 127

34 Pallas, Juno, Vesta, and Everyone Else and Their Mother 129

35 Jupiter 132

36 The Jovian System 134

37 Saturn 137

38 Mimas, Enceladus, and Titan 138

39 Uranus and Neptune 140

40 Pluto, the Fallen Planet 144

41 Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud 147

42 The Dimensions of the Solar System 149

Classical Mechanics 152

43 The Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything 152

44 Aristotle and Impetus 153

45 Archimedes and the First Mechanics 155

46 Eureka, or the Golden Crown of Hiero II, Tyrant of Syracuse 157

47 Good Old Science Dude: Galileo, Part 1 158

48 Giordano Bruno, Punk Genius and Father of Relativity 166

49 Good Old Science Dude: Galileo, Part 2 170

50 Good Old Science Dude: Isaac Newton 179

51 Force, Couple, Torque, and Work 186

52 Momentum and Collisions 190

53 Angular Momentum 194

Life 198

54 You Are Alive 199

55 The Incredible Highways and Byways of the Body 202

56 In a Cell 209

57 The Incredible Things Your Brain Does All by Itself 212

58 Why Is Yawning Contagious? 238

59 Left-Handers 246

60 A Conclusion About Life? 254

Thermodynamics 255

61 So, What Is It? Do Tell 255

62 Is the Cake Pan Hotter Than the Cake? 256

63 The First Steam Engine 257

64 Good Old Science Dude: Francis Bacon 258

65 Sadi Carnot, Father of Thermodynamics 263

66 The Three Laws of Thermodynamics 267

67 And Boltzmann? 270

68 Einstein in 1905: The Second Article 273

Special Relativity 275

69 To Move or Not to Move? That Is the Question 275

70 The Problem with Light 278

71 The Ether 279

72 Michelson's Interferometer 280

73 The Electrostatic Problem 282

74 Lorentz and Poincare 284

75 Einstein in 1905: The Third Article 285

76 A Problem with Clocks 286

77 The Problem with Two Lights 288

78 The Special Theory of Relativity 291

General Relativity 301

79 Newtonian Gravity 301

80 If a Roofer Fell Off a Roof 303

81 Equivalence Principle 304

82 Geometrization of Gravity 305

83 Non-Euclidean Space-Time 308

84 Better Together in 1913: Coauthoring an Article 309

85 Einstein in 1905: The Fourth Article 311

86 And Mercury Proves It 312

87 The General Theory of Relativity 313

88 Testing, Testing, 1-2-3 316

89 The Big Problem with Relativity and the Rest 318

Chronology of Scientists 320

Acknowledgments 325

About the Author 326

Editorial Reviews

"This is the book for the wannabe science nerd, an omnibus of scientific principles explained in a chatty style that makes difficult concepts relatively easy to understand."

The Toronto Star

This is the book for the wannabe science nerd, an omnibus of scientific principles explained in a chatty style that makes difficult concepts relatively easy to understand.”—The Toronto Star

From the Publisher