From Clockwork to Crapshoot: A History of PhysicsScience is about 6000 years old while physics emerged as a distinct branch some 2500 years ago. As scientists discovered virtually countless facts about the world during this great span of time, the manner in which they explained the underlying structure of that world underwent a philosophical evolution. From Clockwork to Crapshoot provides the perspective needed to understand contemporary developments in physics in relation to philosophical traditions as far back as ancient Greece. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 47
... death in about 547 Bce . His fame was based in part on an enduring but no doubt apocryphal legend that he had correctly predicted ( us- ing the saros ) the solar eclipse of May 28 , 585 , which occurred in the middle of a stand - off ...
... death . Born on Samos , an island near Miletos , he may have been a student of Thales , who supposedly recognized his genius at an early age . As an adult , Pythagoras is said to have fled the tyranny of Polycrates , the ruler of Samos ...
... death in about 500 Bce his cult contin- ued to exist for another fifty years before it was suppressed . Following the Milesian tradition of Thales — namely , establishing a theorem rather than remaining satisfied with knowing special in ...
... death , engendered a philosophical dual- ism that cast a shadow over both science and religion for millennia . Another part of science to which Pythagoras significantly contrib- uted would turn out to be an early precursor of acoustics ...
... death penalty for corrupting the youth of Ath- ens . He had little positive effect on science , except perhaps for his skepticism toward the evidence underlying all the scientific specula- tions of his contemporaries . Let us then turn ...
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
11 | |
Science in the Middle Ages | 41 |
The First Revolution | 67 |
Newtons Legacy | 100 |
New Physics | 121 |
Relativity | 154 |
The Quantum Revolution | 210 |
Fields Nuclei and Stars | 248 |
The Properties of Matter | 279 |
The Constituents of the Universe | 290 |
Epilogue | 308 |
Notes | 313 |
Sources and Further Reading | 316 |
Index | 322 |