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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 |
The physics resources thread from two months ago listed a few books, to which I can add "The Manga Guide to Physics" and the "Mr. Tompkins" books by George Gamow, which my 11yo is reading. Another book by Gamow to consider is "One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science". Thorne has written some books for a popular audience, including "The Science of Interstellar". The movie may be of interest. http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-weekend-interview-finding-our-place-in-the-stars-1416005859Finding Our Place in the Stars: The physicist who kept the ‘Interstellar’ science sharp talks about black holes, space travel and his optimistic vision of human possibility. By SOHRAB AHMARI Wall Street Journal Updated Nov. 14, 2014 6:28 p.m. ET Mr. Thorne served as executive producer and scientific consultant for “Interstellar,” director Christopher Nolan ’s riveting new science-fiction epic.
...
Kip Thorne was born in 1940 in Logan, a small university town in northern Utah. “When I was a child I wanted to be a snowplow driver,” he recalls, “because in Logan the snow drifts 7 or 8 feet high, and for a child it’s fabulous to be able to push those around.” He abandoned that aspiration when, at age 8, he accompanied his mother to a lecture on the solar system. Then, at 13, he read “One, Two, Three . . . Infinity,” a 1947 primer by the physicist George Gamow. “That got me hooked on relativity and theoretical physics and I never got unhooked,” he says.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,453
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Sold! Thanks Bostonian - just ordered this from Amazon.
Become what you are
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 161
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 161 |
We picked this one up from the library today. The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection by Clifford Pickover
Nice find ohmathmom! We love Pickover's The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics too.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 |
There is a NASA educational site Mathematical Thinking in Physics with topics such as Fermi's Piano Tuner Problem How Old is Old? If the Terrestrial Poles were to Melt... Sunlight Exerts Pressure Falling Eastward What if an Asteroid Hit the Earth Using a Jeep to Estimate the Energy in Gasoline How do Police Radars really work? How "Fast" is the Speed of Light?
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 |
Physics books by Martin Gardner, a prolific writer on math and science for a popular audience, are described at http://martin-gardner.org/Physics.html .
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640
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Joined: Feb 2010
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The new book Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology By Johnjoe McFadden & Jim Al-Khalili Crown, 353 pages, $28 is favorable reviewed at http://www.wsj.com/articles/physics-for-bird-brains-1438375279Physics for Bird Brains Quantum weirdness helps explain how plants make food, animals migrate and humans think. By JOHN GRIBBIN Wall Street Journal July 31, 2015 There is a sense in which all of biology is quantum biology. The entangled strands of DNA, the famous double helix of the molecule of life, are held together by a quantum phenomenon known as hydrogen bonding. The way in which those strands untwist and build new double helixes during the process of reproduction is at heart a quantum phenomenon, closely related to the way in which quantum entities such as electrons can be both wave and particle at the same time.
In their remarkable book, “Life on the Edge,” Johnjoe McFadden, an expert in molecular genetics, and Jim Al-Khalili, a quantum physicist, join forces to explain many everyday aspects of life in terms of what is often referred to as quantum weirdness. After teasing the reader with an introduction presenting the puzzle of how birds can detect the Earth’s magnetic field and use it for navigation, the authors lead us gently by the hand through discussions of the nature of life itself, right down to the molecular level and the mysteries of quantum physics. This is material that has been covered in many books but nowhere more succinctly and clearly than here. The authors have an easily accessible style, free from jargon, that can make complex issues clear even to the non-scientist.
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