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
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... known to have existed quite early in Egypt, as the development of its stellar-based calendar clearly shows; this calendar can be. Figure 1 A representation of circumcision with a stone knife, beginning of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt ...
... known by name — an astronomer and an architect as well , later venerated as a god — lived about 3000 Bce . Good archeological evidence also indicates that trepanation — cut- ting out disks from the skull — was performed on living people ...
... known to have existed quite early in Egypt , as the devel- о Figure 1 A representation of circumcision with a stone knife , beginning of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt . ( Sarton , Introduction to the History of Science , vol . 1 , p . 43 ...
... known date in history . ) The construction of a calendar , of course , is the surest sign of faith in the regularity of daily life . Along with such proto - scientific learning , Egyptian technology be- came increasingly sophisticated ...
... known as Kidinnu ) is believed by some historians to have discovered the precession of the equinoxes — the slow circular motion of the point in the sky above the North Pole ( approximately the position of the North Star ) about which ...
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 |