Great physicists : the life and times of leading physicists from Galileo to Hawking /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Cropper, William H.
Imprint:	Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
Description:	1 online resource (xii, 500 pages) : illustrations
Language:	English
Subject:	Physicists -- Biography. SCIENCE -- Physics -- General. SCIENCE -- Mechanics -- General. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Science & Technology. SCIENCE -- Energy. Physicists. Electronic book. Electronic books. Biographies.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11135264

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780195350272 0195350278 9780195137484 0195137485 1280473738 9781280473739 0195302427 9780195302424
Digital file characteristics:	data file
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. Print version record.
Summary:	Here is a lively history of modern physics, as seen through the lives of thirty men and women from the pantheon of physics. William H. Cropper vividly portrays the life and accomplishments of such giants as Galileo and Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, right up to contemporary figures such as Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, and Stephen Hawking. We meet scientists--all geniuses--who could be gregarious, aloof, unpretentious, friendly, dogged, imperious, generous to colleagues or contentious rivals. As Cropper captures their personalities, he also offers vivid portraits of their great moments of discovery, their bitter feuds, their relations with family and friends, their religious beliefs and education. In addition, since scientists in a particular field often inspire those who follow, Cropper has grouped these biographies by discipline--mechanics, thermodynamics, particle physics, and so on--each section beginning with a historical overview. Thus in the section on quantum mechanics, readers can see how the work of Max Planck influenced Niels Bohr, and how Bohr in turn influenced Werner Heisenberg.; By sequencing the biographies in this way, Cropper gives us an overall portrait of each field. Our understanding of the physical world has increased dramatically in the last four centuries, starting with Galileo and his telescope and stretching to Stephen Hawking's work on black holes and cosmology. With Great Physicists, readers can retrace the footsteps of the men and women who led the way.
Other form:	Print version: Cropper, William H. Great physicists. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001 0195137485

Table of Contents:

Mechanics. Historical synopsis. How the heavens go / Galileo Galilei
A man obsessed / Isaac Newton. Thermodynamics. Historical synopsis. A tale of two revolutions / Sadi Carnot
On the dark side / Robert Mayer
A holy undertaking / James Joule
Unities and a unifier / Hermann Helmholtz
The scientist as virtuoso / William Thomson
The road to entropy / Rudolf Clausius
The greatest simplicity / Willard Gibbs
The last law / Walther Nernst. Electromagnetism. Historical synopsis. A force of nature / Michael Faraday
The scientist as magician / James Clerk Maxwell. Statistical mechanics. Historical synopsis. Molecules and entropy / Ludwig Boltzmann. Relativity. Historical synopsis. Adventure in thought / Albert Einstein. Quantum mechanics. Historical synopsis. Reluctant revolutionary / Max Planck
Science by conversation / Niels Bohr
The scientist as critic / Wolfgang Pauli
Matrix mechanics / Werner Heisenberg
Wave mechanics / Erwin Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie. Nuclear physics. Historical synopsis. Opening doors / Marie Curie
On the crest of a wave / Ernest Rutherford
Physics and friendships / Lise Meitner
Complete physicist / Enrico Fermi. Particle physics. Historical synopsis. i[gamma] · [delta] [psi] = m [psi] / Paul Dirac
What do you care? / Richard Feynman
Telling the tale of the quarks / Murray Gell-Mann. Astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Historical synopsis. Beyond the galaxy / Edwin Hubble
Ideal scholar / Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Affliction, fame, and fortune / Stephen Hawking.

Great physicists : the life and times of leading physicists from Galileo to Hawking /

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