The Ascent of Gravity

Posted on 04 May 2018 by Marcus Chown

Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world yet it is the strongest force in the universe It was the first force to be recognized and described yet it is the least understood It is a force that keeps your feet on the ground yet no such force actually exists.Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science what is space What is time What is the universe And where did it all come from Award winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the force of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics. New Read The Ascent of Gravity [ Author ] Marcus Chown [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr This is a highly entertaining history of gravity, full of quite interesting anecdotes and the gradual unfolding of our understanding from Newton through Einstein through our quest to reconcile quantum mechanics with the one aspect we re most familiar with but which we understand the least.From the first page to the last I was enraptured It s a tour of the inverse square law, the connection between electromagnetism, light, and matter, right down to the physics that keep most theoreticians up lat This is a highly entertaining history of gravity, full of quite interesting anecdotes and the gradual unfolding of our understanding from Newton through Einstein through our quest to reconcile quantum mechanics with the one aspect we re most familiar with but which we understand the least.From the first ...Marcus Chown is one of the UK s best writers on physics and astronomy it s excellent to see him back on what he does best Here we discover our gradual approach to understanding the nature of gravity the ascent of the title which, though perhaps slightly overblown in the words the force that explains everything quantum physics does quite a lot too, for example , certainly makes us aware of the importance of this weakest of fundamental forces Chown s approach to gravity is a game of t Marcus Chown is one of the UK s best writers on physics and astronomy it s excellent to see him back on what he does best Here we discover our gradual approach to understanding the nature of gravity the ascent of the title which, though perhaps slightly overblown in the words the force that explains everything quantum physics does quite a lot too, for example , certainly makes us aware of the importance of this weakest of fundamental forces Chown s approach to gravity is a game of three halves, as they say, broadly covering Newton, Einstein and where we go from general relativity.As far as the first two sections go, with the exception of the 2015 gravitational waves detection, there s not much that s actually new if you want a popular science exploration of these aspects of the topic withdepth there are good alternatives but no one has covered the topic with such a light ...As the story goes, in 1666 Isaac Newton watched an apple fall from a tree, and it was this simple action that gave him the inspiration to develop the theory and the mathematics that was first published in 1687 in Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy where he laid out the foundations of classical mechanics These new laws meant that for the first ...I did a double review of two books for the Wall Street Journal, so posting it under both titles The Ascent of GravityMarcus ChownPegasusOn GravityA ZeePrincetonGravity has become a hot topic in science, with the discovery of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space coming from colliding black holes and neutron stars Both The Ascent of Gravity and On Gravity mention those discoveries, but neither book f...Not a review but some kind of essay based on the book Gravitational waves are bombarding The Earth from all sides at all times But you don t know about it Or maybe you know, but don t care Or simply do not feel it More likely Ray is going to ask you to stop for a moment today, and listen What can I say, folks the book The Ascent Of Gravity is FASCINATING It is also The Science Book of the Year 2017 I picked it only because this is the book about Gravity I believe if we ll unde Not a review but some kind of essay based on the book Gravitational waves are bombarding The Earth from all sides at all times But you don t kn...From Newton to Einstein to the present theories of cosmology Chown takes us through a universe which shows itself to be a dichotomy of truths Everyone knows that gravity is an attractive force..right Well it appears that it also has a dark side which is helping the universe to expand and which may lead to a deeper theory of the universe This is a great book for those like me who looked into space pun intended with glazed eyes in physics For the first time i was engaged reading this book From Newton to Einstein to the present theories of cosmology Chown takes us through a universe which shows itself to be a dichotomy of truths Everyone knows that gravity is an attractive force..right Well it appears that it also has ...Not the first time I ve read through to the end of a Marcus Chown and realised that, though there are some good stories and some nice linking of events and people, I m not much better educated about the subject matter than when I started Perhaps I should stop reading the authorGravity is one of those concepts everyone thinks they understand, only occasionally discovering that their notions of gravity are identical to those held in the time of Newton Curiously enough, just as in every other area of scientific inquiry, there have been significant new discoveries and developments in our understanding of this force on huge and infinitesimally small scales Where this book succeeds is in providing the curious reader with a context to understand the current ways gravity is Gravity is one of those concepts everyone thinks they understand, only occasionally discovering that their notions of gravity are identical to those held in the time of Newton Curiously enough, just as in every other area of scientific inquiry, there have been significant new discoveries and developments in our understanding of this force on huge and infinitesimally small scales Where this book succeeds is in providing the curious reader with a context to understand the current ways gravity is being studied Beginning the the journey with Newton, venturing through Maxwell and Einstein and up to early developments of string theory, Chown writes very accessibly and vividly on the history of this study Perhaps the primary disappointment is that there is little in the way of contemporary accounts of quantum gravity He does a...Growing up in rural Connecticut presented some difficulties, namely, finding anything to do Reading proved a dependable pastime and mostly I scrounged through whatever books were left laying around by my six older siblings The Caine Mutiny, comic books, The Oxford Companion to American History, and lots of Isaac Asimov s science titles Like Asimov s books, Chown s title is wild informative, intelligent, and blessedly clear It does for gravity what Robert Penn did for wood in The Man Who Made Growing up in rural Connecticut presented some difficulties, namely, finding anything to do Reading proved a dependable pastime and mostly I scrounged through whatever books were left laying around by my six older siblings The Caine Mutiny, comic books, The Oxford Companion to American History, and lots of Isaac Asimov s science titles Like Asimov s ...Since the book is written in 2017, it has an advantage of being definite about gravitational waves It gives the book a promising start and defines its central focus on gravity It is divided into three parts first one dealing with classical gravity aka Newton , second one with space time aka Einstein , and the final one on possible future The book is filled with anecdotes and interesting implications of theories under consideration although the author imagining some life events of Einst Since the book is written in 2017, it has an advantage of being definite about gravitational waves It gives the book a promising start and defines its...

04 May 2018

Marcus Chown