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. |
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... original form it had no signs for short vowels and neither Hebrew nor Arabic have such signs to this day — but when the Greeks imitated the Phoenician alphabet , they added symbols for these vowels as well . The newly acquired writing ...
... original with Leucippos ( who , unlike Democritus , was not widely traveled ) is unclear . Similar ideas appeared in Indian phi- losophy , but four hundred years later . Another tradition ascribes the origin of atomism to the ...
... original owner was named Academes ) was founded by Plato . " Let no one enter here who is ig- norant of mathematics " read the inscription over its gate . Plato's phi- losophy , which perceived reality as a pale image of a world of ...
... Aristotle's writings — which were translated into Latin and Arabic in ancient times , and from Arabic back into Latin during the medi- eval period , after the original Latin translations were lost The Greek Miracle 27.
A History of Physics Roger G. Newton. eval period , after the original Latin translations were lost — had a profound impact on Western thought and beyond . In the Middle Ages , the Catholic Church became actively hostile to his ...
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 |