The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg

by Robert P. Crease

Overview

"Any reader who aspires to be scientifically literate will find this a good starting place." —Publishers Weekly

While we may be familiar with some of science’s greatest equations, we may not know that each and every equation emerged not in "Eureka!" moments but in years of cultural developments and scientific knowledge. With vignettes full of humor, drama, and eccentricity, philosopher and science historian Robert P. Crease shares the stories behind ten of history’s greatest equations, from the "first equation," 1 + 1 = 2, which promises a rational, well-ordered world, to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which reveals the limitations of human knowledge. For every equation, Crease provides a brief account of who discovered it, what dissatisfactions lay behind its discovery, and what the equation says about the nature of our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345766
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,029,661
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robert P. Crease is the chairman of the philosophy department at Stony Brook University and the author of several books on science, including The Quantum Moment and The Great Equations. He lives in New York City.

What People are Saying About This

Dick Teresi

More than just a celebration of the great equations . . . [Crease] shows how an equation not only affects science and math but also transforms the thinking of all people.

Editorial Reviews

Although most people can recite Einstein's famous little equation, even if we don't know quite what it means, who has heard of the 18th-century mathematician Leonhard Euler, let alone know anything at all about his famous equation? Crease, a Stony Brook philosophy professor and popular science writer, has already taken on "the ten most beautiful experiments in science" in The Prism and the Pendulum, and in this enjoyable book he explores 10 rather beautiful equations. He begins with the beguiling simplicity of the equation that bears Pythogoras' name (although he says the Greek wasn't the first to discover it) and moves on to Newton's second law of motion and law of universal gravitation, the second law of thermodynamics, Maxwell's celebrated equations, discoveries by Einstein and Schrödinger and, finally, Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle. Crease explains the significance of each of these formulas for science and, in brief "interludes" between chapters, explores the "journeys" these scientists took "from ignorance to knowledge," and the "social lives" of their theories-their impact on the larger culture. Any reader who aspires to be scientifically literate will find this a good starting place. 43 illus. (Jan.)

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Publishers Weekly

"Wry, probing, philosophically inclined."

Charles C. Mann

"More than just a celebration of the great equations…[Crease] shows how an equation not only affects science and math but also transforms the thinking of all people."

Dick Teresi