Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Book

[Oli]

If anyone is alittle stuck on christmas presents I can recommend a very good book even for those (like me) who aren't too great on physics.Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Book by Carlo Rovelli. It's a small book but I find it explains each theory very clearly. I've let many of my work colleagues borrow it and each of them have very much enjoyed it. Even the New Scientist reviewed it. (https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830430-400-seven-brief-lessons-on-physics-is-lean-lucid-and-enchanting/)

(Amazon Link below)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Brief-Lessons-Physics-Rovelli/dp/0241235960

Oli

[laudropb]

Just ordered it. Thanks for the heads up.

[A40farinagolf]

Sounds interesting so have just ordered it.

I'll read it first then pass it in to my Dad as a stocking filler - it's not Bah Humbug, it's recycling.

Thanks for posting the link.

[Paul73]

Just added to the wish list!

I'm attempting to not open the new Baader Zoom & Barlow which arrived about 10 mins ago. It is supposed to be a Christmas present from my Mum.... It is OK to test presents to make sure that they work???

Paul

[A40farinagolf]

Just added to the wish list!

I'm attempting to not open the new Baader Zoom & Barlow which arrived about 10 mins ago. It is supposed to be a Christmas present from my Mum.... It is OK to test presents to make sure that they work???

Paul

In industry there are FATs and SATs related to new equipment so no problem with HATs (Home acceptance Tests) especially as it's only November so doesn't really count anyway.

(F stands for factory and S stands for Site by the way)

Hope you enjoy.

[ollypenrice]

This sounds like a great book. I'll order it as well. The authour only works down the road, too. Should I be cheeky and ask him for dinner?

lly

[Tinker1947]

This sounds like a great book. I'll order it as well. The authour only works down the road, too. Should I be cheeky and ask him for dinner?

lly

Reading the book is one thing Olly, eating the author is a munch to far........

[ollypenrice]

Reading the book is one thing Olly, eating the author is a munch to far........

Now now, we don't do cannibalism here. That's Villebois Les Pins, a village a considerable distance from here. More than three miles (and they only do it in winter out of strict necessity...)

lly

[ollypenrice]

My copy arrived today. Gosh, 'slim volume' would describe it nicely. It's about the size you'd expect for a recent collection of modern Japanaese Haiku poems.* However, in the first lession I've come across some lovely new ways of looking at things and I'm very much enjoying it.

Olly

*In seventeen syllables

 I distilled the universe.

 Well almost.

[Physopto]

The Italian author was on TV this morning (Sunday) and seemed completely amazed that his book had now been translated into 30 languages and had been so well received. He said he originally only expected a few hundred sales.

Derek

[ollypenrice]

The Italian author was on TV this morning (Sunday) and seemed completely amazed that his book had now been translated into 30 languages and had been so well received. He said he originally only expected a few hundred sales.

Derek

I wish I'd seen that. I finished my copy this morning and found it a delight. I was excited to discover that the quantum loop gravity theorists feel that time is one of the key things to sort out. This has been my (entirely amateur) conviction for quite a while.

While we are stuck with the tensed theory of time, which strikes me as obviously inadequate, I don't see how we can progress. I'll be re-reading his five pages on time - er -  time and time again, I suspect...

Olly

[Oli]

I wish I'd seen that. I finished my copy this morning and found it a delight. I was excited to discover that the quantum loop gravity theorists feel that time is one of the key things to sort out. This has been my (entirely amateur) conviction for quite a while.

While we are stuck with the tensed theory of time, which strikes me as obviously inadequate, I don't see how we can progress. I'll be re-reading his five pages on time - er -  time and time again, I suspect...

Olly

Glad you liked it! It's certainly a book I will be reading multiple times! One theory which struck me was how time and heat both only flow in one direction so is their direct link between these two? 

[ollypenrice]

Glad you liked it! It's certainly a book I will be reading multiple times! One theory which struck me was how time and heat both only flow in one direction so is their direct link between these two? 

I understood him to be saying so, yes. I've heard it said before that you can't run time backwards without violating the second law of thermodynamics. (Drop a glass and it can break in an infinite number of ways. There is only one way to put it back together so this needs an input of organizational energy.) What he seems to suggest near the end is that because we have only an approximate ability to predict micro-level interactions (one based on probability) the passage of time that we perceive might be generated by these approximations. He does say it isn't yet clear! However it reminds me of Feynman's suggestion that some of the waves in quantum electrodynamics can be thought of as probability waves.

I guess I suspect that if we didn't exist time wouldn't exist. Like a rainbow it has no objective reality, it exists only as a perception.

Olly

[A40farinagolf]

I've just started to read this and to be honest from a laymams point of view I'm struggling to understand some of the concepts despite wanting to.

Not sure if my brain is wired differently - I'm a Chartered Mechanical Engineer by profession(so not daft)and tend to rely on visual evidence and logic, could this be the issue. It would be beneficial if the book contained more diagrams at it would appeal to both visual and auditory people.

[Physopto]

Unfortunately Quantum Physics is not something that can be described in pictures in three dimensions, it requires an idea in 4 or more. It is very weird. You just have to accept some things on trust as the only other way is in some fairly complicated maths.

Derek

[A40farinagolf]

Derek,

Thanks for the advice, I'll persevere as I'd love to be able to master the basics.

Perhaps a single malt beforehand might lubricate my thought patterns enough, I'd better get a move on though as the book is my Christmas gift to my Dad. He's in his eighties and I'll be upset if he understands it quicker than I do.

[Physopto]

I definitely like the idea of a single malt. My favourite tipple. 16 year old Lagavulin double matured that'll help, if not the understanding at least to placate the frustration.

Derek

[ollypenrice]

Hehheh. The problem with quantum theory, in my view, is that it cannot be visualized. I'm not persuaded that this is because the quantum world cannot be visualized, per se, but because we are missing a key insight into it. As a total amateur I'm convinced that this key insight revolves around time.

For the moment we have to take quantum theory as 'the story so far,' and it's a good story. Remember that Newton wanted to distance himself from the idea (implicit in his theoy of gravity) that there was a force acting instantaneously at a distance. It would be 250 years before action at a distance could be dismissed from gravity theory. It may be another 250 years before we get a nice graphic cartoon showing how entangled photons do what they do, explain the double slit experiment and show electrons and positrons as single beings in a reversible time frame. Thank goodnessI'm only 62 and an optimist!

lly

[AWR]

The Italian author was on TV this morning (Sunday) and seemed completely amazed that his book had now been translated into 30 languages and had been so well received. He said he originally only expected a few hundred sales.

Derek

Which channel?

My copy of the book is downstairs but I'm not supposed to read it yet as it is a Christmas present.

Andrew

[Physopto]

Channel 4 Sunday Brunch with Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy. Last week

Derek

[AWR]

Thanks.  It's still on 4OD.

Andrew

[nameunknown]

I found "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum" by Suskind quite good, especially if taken together with his huge set of on-line lectures. The maths is not really that hard a refresher.

P

[AWR]

I found "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum" by Suskind quite good, especially if taken together with his huge set of on-line lectures. The maths is not really that hard a refresher.

P

I too like this book, along with its predecesor, "The Theoretical Minimum" which gives classical mechanics a similar treatment.

Andrew

[nameunknown]

On the 12th day of xmas my true-love sent to me:

12 months of star-charts

11 perihelions

10 trojan transits

9 nifty novas

8 earth-like planets

7 days of seeing

6 cephids pulsing

five chrome tube-rings

4 UFO's

3 tel rads

2 DSO's

and a book on special relativity