A01=John M. Charap
Amplitude
Astronomer
Atomic nucleus
Author_John M. Charap
Axion
Big Bang
Binary pulsar
Black-body radiation
Boson
Category=PDZ
Category=PH
Classical electromagnetism
Classical mechanics
Classical physics
Compactification (physics)
Cosmological constant
Elementary particle
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Equivalence principle
Fermion
Feynman diagram
Gamma ray
Gauge theory
General relativity
Gravitational wave
Gravity
Hidden variable theory
Higgs boson
Hubble's law
Imaginary time
Interferometry
Measurement
Molecule
Neutrino
Neutron
Neutron star
Nuclear fusion
Particle physics
Phase space
Photon
Physicist
Planck constant
Positron
Prediction
Probability
Quantity
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum field theory
Quantum fluctuation
Quantum gravity
Quantum mechanics
Quantum superposition
Renormalization
Richard Feynman
Scanning tunneling microscope
Schwarzschild metric
Special relativity
Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Statistical mechanics
Stephen Hawking
String theory
Strong interaction
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Supernova
Superstring theory
Supersymmetry
Temperature
Tests of general relativity
Theory of relativity
Ultimate fate of the universe
Wavelength
Weak interaction
Weakly interacting massive particles
X-ray
Product details
- ISBN 9780691117447
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 191 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 21 Mar 2004
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In this fascinating book, John Charap offers a panoramic view of the physicist's world as the twenty-first century opens--a view that is entirely different from the one that greeted the twentieth century. We have learned that the universe is billions of galaxies larger than we imagined--and billions of years older. We know more about how it came to be and what it is. Because of physics, we live in a world of greater danger and more convenience, smaller particles and bigger ideas. Charap introduces these ideas but spares us the math behind them. After a review of the twentieth century's thorough transformation of physics, he checks in on the latest findings from particle physics, astrophysics, chaos theory, and cosmology. His tour includes ongoing efforts to find the universe's missing matter and to account for the first moments after the big bang. Taking readers right to the field's speculative edge, he explains how superstring theory may finally unite quantum mechanics with general relativity to produce a consistent quantum theory of gravity. Along the way, Charap poses the questions that continue to inspire research. Why is the universe flat? Why can't we forecast weather better?
Can Schrodinger's cat really be simultaneously dead and alive? Why does fractal geometry keep showing up in strange places? Might spacetime have eleven dimensions? What does quantum mechanics mean about the nature of our world? In this book's pages, the nonphysicist will accept as commonsensical Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and physicists can meet across specialties. Students can access physics' critical concepts, and poets can learn a new language to describe the universe's many wonders. Taking us from the ultraviolet catastrophe that undid the Newtonian world to tomorrow's Theory of Everything, Charap brings today's most fascinating science down to Earth, where we can all enjoy it.
John M. Charap is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary, University of London. He is an internationally acclaimed particle theorist and the editor of "Geometry of Constrained Dynamical Systems".
