Books to Read
Roderick, from Texas, asks:
Any good books you can recommend on physics that break it down in laymen's terms? Something like the Bill Bryson's book, A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Hi Roderick,
Hmmm.... I have been thinking about this since yesterday, and I am appalled at how poor my memory seems to be regarding the titles of the books I have read! However, I have come up with two at the moment, and as I think of more, I'll just keep adding them to this post.
The first book I thought of is How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life by Louis A. Bloomfield. I have to give credit to Gary for remembering the title of this one, since I could not remember it! It is a book that strives to give an understanding of physics by illustrating concepts from everyday life. We have a laboratory class at William and Mary called "How Things Work" that uses this as a textbook. The class is primarily for non-scientists who want a better understanding of physics. Here is the information listed about it at the Library of Congress, as well as the description that the Library has from the publisher (thanks to Julie for the idea of listing this information).
The second book is one about black holes entitled Prisons of Light by Kitty Ferguson. Somehow this book makes this very complicated subject easy to understand. It is also a fun book to read, even though many books about physics are rather dry. I really enjoyed it! Here is the information from the Library of Congress, as well as the description they have from the publisher.
Well, I hope that you enjoy both of those books. As I think of some other ones, I will add them to this post for you and anyone else who is looking for a book to read about physics!
Best Wishes,
Sarah K
How about Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide to Physics"?
Or Feynmann's "QED" or "Six Easy Pieces", which should both be accessible to the layman?
Posted by: Dennis Sustare | May 31, 2005 at 12:55 PM
Feynman's "Lectures in Physics" are also very good I think.
Posted by: Kapil | June 01, 2005 at 03:14 AM
two great books for QM are "in search of schrodinger's cat" and a follow-up about "schrodinger's kitten"
i require my students to do readings as part of their class grade and these 2 books are very popular.
i'm not at work, but i'm 99% sure that the author for both is john gribbon (spelling may be off).
have fun
Posted by: carolyn haas | June 06, 2005 at 02:01 PM