Synopses & Reviews
Physicists invented a language in order to talk about the world. This book does not set out to explain the discipline, but rather to explore the relationship between the language of physics and the world it describes. The ``physics whose history the author traces here is concerned with understanding the ultimate constituents of matter and the nature of the forces through which these constituents interact. The very precise language (mathematics) of physicists gives us an opportunity to see more clearly than is otherwise possible just how much of what we find in the world is a result of the way we talk about it. Anyone interested in the history of physics and its language would enjoy reading this book.
Table of Contents
In the Beginning Was the Word....
The Invaluable Concept of Force.
The Indispensable Idea of Fields.
The Ingenious Notion of Atoms.
The Unimaginable Unity of Spacetime.
The Imponderable Nature of Matter.
The Intransigent Presence of Paradox.
The Inexhaustible Fecundity of Space.
The Improbable Prevalence of Symmetry.
W, Z Fields.
The Ineffable Color of Quarks.
The Unquestionable Imagination of Physicists.
The Inscrutable Essence of Mathematics.
The Unspeakable Power of Language.
The Last Word.
Epilogue.
Appendices.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.