Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

by Carlo Rovelli

Overview

The New York Times bestseller from the author of The Order of Time and Reality Is Not What It Seems, Helgoland, and Anaximander

“One of the year’s most entrancing books about science.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Clear, elegant...a whirlwind tour of some of the biggest ideas in physics.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. Carlo Rovelli, a renowned theoretical physicist, is a delightfully poetic and philosophical scientific guide. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: to the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds. The book celebrates the joy of discovery.  “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world,” Rovelli writes. “And it’s breathtaking.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399184413
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the United States and currently directs the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille, France. His books, including Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Helgoland, are international bestsellers that have been translated into more than fifty languages.

Read an Excerpt

From the First Lesson: The Most Beautiful of Theories
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Carlo Rovelli.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

In clear, elegant prose, Rovelli guides the reader through a whirlwind tour of some of the biggest ideas in physics. His passion for his chosen field is evident on every page. For him, general relativity is on a par with such masterpieces of human genius as Mozart's Requiem, Shakespeare's King Lear and the Sistine Chapel…The reader will come away from [Seven Brief Lessons on Physics] with a deeper understanding of how modern physics has brought us closer to an ultimate understanding of reality.

The New York Times Book Review - Jennifer Ouellette

The essays in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics arrive like shots of espresso, which you can consume the way the Italians do, quickly and while standing up. As slim as a volume of poetry, Mr. Rovelli's book also has that tantalizing quality that good books of poems have; it artfully hints at meanings beyond its immediate scope…[The] book is a roll call of the scientists who have taken us so far, from Einstein and Niels Bohr through Werner Heisenberg and Stephen Hawking. Like us and everything else in our universe, they emerged from one small, dense hot cloud. These men's intellects simply burned a bit brighter. The lessons in Mr. Rovelli's book, as elegiac as they are incisive, do them justice.

The New York Times - Dwight Garner