Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics

by Edward Teller, Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley

Overview

In Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, Teller returns to the fundamentals of physics to share with readers his unbridled enthusiasm for the world of physical reality — from the nature of molecules to quantum mechanics and superconductors, from the elementary laws of thermodynamics to how planets, asteroids, and comets develop their orbits. By simplifying the math and forgoing the often-confusing technical jargon, Teller helps the reader break through physic's bewildering formulas and equations and get to the wonders of our physical universe. A timeless and personal explanation of the importance of physics in our life, Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics is certain to become a classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738207650
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/17/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward Teller is one of the most celebrated and controversial physicists alive today. Through his work at Los Alamos and his development of the hydrogen bomb, he helped usher in the atomic age. He is currently Director Emeritus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and continues as a Senior Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Wendy Teller is a computer scientist, specializing in software for telecommunications.

Wilson Talley is currently a professor in the Department of Applied Sciences, University of California Davis/Livermore, and is president of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

Table of Contents

Prologue—A Warning.- 1. Relativity: Space and Time of the Physicist.- 2. Statics: The Science of No Motion.- 3. A Revolution Ignored, A Revolution Repressed.- 4. Newton.- 5. “Hypotheses Non Fingo”.- 6. Statistical Mechanics: Disorder Is also a Law.- 7. Electricity and Magnetism or The Structure of Vacuum.- 8. The Existence of Atoms.- 9. The Correspondence Principle: A New Science Based on a Contradiction.- 10. Wave-Particle Dualism.- 11. The Uncertainty Principle.- 12. Uses of New Knowledge.- Epilogue: After the Revolution.- Answers.

Editorial Reviews

These ``conversations'' on a dozen major themes of modern physics are derived from Edward Teller's physics appreciation course designed for high school students. The eminent physicist's scientific passions and confidence are everywhere on display here, beginning in the ``Prolog-Warning'' to the reader: ``I claim that relativity and the rest of modern physics is not complicated. . . . It is only unusual.'' From ``Relativity'' in chapter one he proceeds at full steam through the uncertainty principle, statistical mechanics, Maxwell's Equations, quantum mechanics, superconductors--straight up a steep learning curve of the most challenging and inspiring theories in the science of matter. To their credit, the coauthors (Wendy Teller, a computer scientist, is Edward Teller's daughter; Talley is a University of California professor of applied science) do not spare the general reader all of the mathematical summaries; on the other hand, the occasional footnote-repartee among them is seldom helpful. Teller's ``conversations'' do not have the charm of Richard Feynman's The Feynman Lectures on Physics , but they have the signature of the scientific human mind at its most admirable task: seeking the ``great remaining secrets.'' Readers are advised to bring a good scientific dictionary and sit up front for this tour of 20th-century physics with a distinguished scientist``scholar'' to avoid repetition?/no, Teller has never been noted as a scholar, strictly as a distinguished scientist.gs . (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

An appreciation of the basic ideas and discoveries of physics, communicated with enthusiastic narrative and undaunting mathematics by the famed physicist, who is assisted by his daughter, Wendy Teller, a computer scientist, and Wilson Talley, a professor of applied science and consultant to industry and government. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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