History Of Physics, A (pul)

SCIENCE is about 6,000 years old, while physics emerged as a distinct branch some 2,500 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. A History of Physics provides the perspective needed to understand contemporary developments in physics in relation to philosophical traditions as far back as ancient Greece. Roger G Newton presents a history of physics from the early beginning to our day—with the associated mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry. Along the way, he gives brief explanations of the scientific concepts at issue, biographical thumbnail sketches of the protagonists, and descriptions of the new instruments that enabled scientists to make their discoveries. He traces a profound transformation from a deterministic explanation of the world—accepted at least since the time of the ancient Greek and Taoist Chinese civilizations—to the notion of probability, enshrined as the very basis of science with the quantum evolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. This brought about a fundamental shift in the focus of physicists—from dynamics or motion to the underlying architecture of the universe. Their new goal—to explain being rather than change—may well be the defining characteristic of physics in the twenty-first century.