The Evolution Of Physics
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''The Evolution of Physics: The Growth of Ideas from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta'' is a science book for the lay reader. Written by the physicists
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
and
Leopold Infeld Leopold Infeld (20 August 1898 – 15 January 1968) was a Polish physicist who worked mainly in Poland and Canada (1938–1950). He was a Rockefeller fellow at Cambridge University (1933–1934) and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Ea ...
, it traces the development of ideas in physics. It was originally published in 1938 by
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
. It was a popular success, and was featured in a ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' cover story.


Background of collaboration

Einstein agreed to write the book partly as a way to help Infeld financially. Infeld collaborated briefly in Cambridge with
Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a n ...
, before moving to Princeton, where he worked with Einstein at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
. Einstein tried to get Infeld a permanent position there, but failed. Infeld came up with a plan to write a history of physics with Einstein, which was sure to be successful, and split the royalties. When he went to Einstein to pitch the idea, Infeld became incredibly tongue-tied, but he was finally able to stammer out his proposal. “This is not at all a stupid idea,” Einstein said. "Not stupid at all. We shall do it." The book was published by Simon & Schuster.


Book's point of view

In the book, Albert Einstein pushed his realist approach to physics in defiance of much of quantum mechanics. Belief in an “objective reality,” the book argued, had led to great scientific advances throughout the ages, thus proving that it was a useful concept even if not provable. “Without the belief that it is possible to grasp reality with our theoretical constructions, without the belief in the inner harmony of our world, there could be no science,” the book declared. “This belief is and always will remain the fundamental motive for all scientific creation.” In addition, Einstein used the text to defend the utility of field theories amid the advances of quantum mechanics. The best way to do that was to view particles not as independent objects but as a special manifestation of the field itself: "Could we not reject the concept of matter and build a pure field physics? We could regard matter as the regions in space where the field is extremely strong. A thrown stone is, from this point of view, a changing field in which the states of the greatest field intensity travel through space with the velocity of the stone."


Contents

The book has four chapters: ''The Rise of The Mechanical View''; ''The Decline of the Mechanical View''; ''Field, Relativity''; and ''Quanta''. The third chapter (''Field, Relativity'') examines
lines of force A line of force in Faraday's extended sense is synonymous with Maxwell's line of induction. According to J.J. Thomson, Faraday usually discusses ''lines of force'' as chains of polarized particles in a dielectric, yet sometimes Faraday discusses t ...
starting with gravitational fields (i.e., a physical collection of forces), moving on to descriptions of electric and magnetic fields. The authors explain that they are attempting to "translate familiar facts from the language of fluids...into the new language of fields." They state that the
Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, ...
, Maxwell, and
Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
experiments led to modern
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. They describe how "The change of an electric field produced by the motion of a charge is always accompanied by a magnetic field." The two pillars of the field theory (pp. 142–148) The reality of the field (pp. 148–156) Field and ether (pp. 156–160) The mechanical scaffold (pp. 160–171) Ether and motion (pp. 172–186) Time, distance, relativity (pp. 186–202) Relativity and mechanics (pp. 202–209) The time-space continuum (pp. 209–220) General relativity (pp. 220–226).


Reception


Partial list of reviews

*''Booklist'' v. 34 (Apr. 15 1938). *''New York Herald Tribune'' (May 8, 1938). *''The Boston Transcript'' (Apr. 30 1938). *''The Open Shelf'' (Mar. 1938). *''Commonweal'' v. 28 (July 8, 1938). *''Manchester Guardian'' (Apr. 12 1938). *''The Nation'' v. 146 (May 7, 1938). *''Nature'' v. 141 (May 21, 1938). *''The New Republic'' v. 94 (Apr. 20 1938). *''New Technical Books'' v. 23 (Apr. 1938). *''The New York Times'' (Early City Edition) (Apr. 10 1938). *''Pratt Institute Quarterly List of New Technical and Industry Books'' (winter 1939). *''Saturday Review of Literature'' v. 17 (Apr. 2 1938). *''Scientific Book Club Review'' v. 9 (Mar. 1938). *''Spectator'' v. 161 (Aug. 26 1938). *''Springfield Republican'' (July 3, 1938). *''Survey Graphic'' v. 27 (Dec. 1938). *''The Times Literary Supplement'' (Apr. 9 1938). *''The Yale Review'' v. 27 (summer 1938).


See also

* ''
The Feynman Lectures on Physics ''The Feynman Lectures on Physics'' is a physics textbook based on some lectures by Richard Feynman, a Nobel laureate who has sometimes been called "The Great Explainer". The lectures were presented before undergraduate students at the Californ ...
'' (Feynman) * ''
The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory ''The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory'' ( publisher: ''S. Hirzel Verlag'', 1930) by Nobel laureate (1932) Werner Heisenberg and subsequently translated by Carl Eckart and Frank C. Hoyt. The book was first published in 1930 by University ...
'' (Heisenberg) * ''
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics ''The Principles of Quantum Mechanics'' is an influential monograph on quantum mechanics written by Paul Dirac and first published by Oxford University Press in 1930. Dirac gives an account of quantum mechanics by "demonstrating how to cons ...
'' (Dirac)


References

* ''The Evolution of Physics'', Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, 1938, Edited by C.P. Snow, Cambridge University Press, ASIN: B000S52QZ4 * ''The Evolution of Physics from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta'', Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, 1966, Simon & Schuster, ASIN: B0011Z6VBK * ''The Evolution of Physics'', Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, 1967, Touchstone.


External links


Free book download on the right of the page, different formats (download at June 05, 2016)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evolution of Physics 1938 non-fiction books Books about the history of physics Cambridge University Press books English-language books English non-fiction books Philosophy of science books Popular physics books Works by Albert Einstein