50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know (50 Ideas You Really Need to Know series)

Lists with This Book. Mar 10, Paul rated it it was amazing. Everything from parallax to black holes and so on. What this book does well is not only give you simple, easy to un The executive summary: I highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever want to know EXACTLY what the theory of relativity is, or how orbits function, or any of the other topics that are in this book.

It doesn't get bogged down with a lot of formulas and equations something I am not particularly fond of, though I understand the need and importance of them , and it often uses simple and easy-to-understand examples when explaining concepts. Some people might say that this book is light on the actual math - that is a good thing in this case. There is a huge difference that some science people don't see. It's been my experience that sometimes people who live this stuff are too blinded by their own enthusiasm for the issue, which isn't bad but can be frustrating for all involved.

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Alternately, the other instance is when people who live this stuff can become too "Sheldon-esque" Big Bang Theory show reference there in their attitude as to why they can get and everyone else who can't is a moron. Not everyone is gifted at thinking "science", but many of us want to understand it still, and this book is for them.

While knowing the math is critical to working with these concepts, being able to understand them is the first step. More importantly, if people are going to buy-in to such concepts and support them, especially in today's day and age, where science seems to be constantly under attack by religious fundamentalists and anyone else who feels that the science doesn't support their outlook on life, it is critical that the basic understanding of such concepts is supported and encouraged with such books as this one.

I won't go into this debate any further other than to say that when people say "I wish I actually understood what XYZ theory is Bottom line - quick, easy read language-wise, as the concepts themselves sometimes take some time to construct mentally. No arcane terms or technical language not too much, anyways.

Each idea is given about pages of space, so they can be digested in "chunks" over time. Dec 23, Menglong Youk rated it really liked it Shelves: It highlights important moments of the discoveries in summaries with short biography of the prominent figures that developed the ideas. I'd recommend this book to those who need to look up at what we have gone so far in physics in a short reading, but I wouldn't recommend it to those who don't have background in physics or those who want the details of the ideas presented in 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know is a collection of, you guess it, ideas from classical physics to modern physics.

I'd recommend this book to those who need to look up at what we have gone so far in physics in a short reading, but I wouldn't recommend it to those who don't have background in physics or those who want the details of the ideas presented in the book. May 27, Eric rated it really liked it Recommends it for: People who read Wikipedia science articles out of curiosity. A nice, simple refresher for those of us who haven't gone near physics since the last time it was required course credit. Don't expect to head straight to a career in rocket science after finishing it, but Baker has a good head for clearly explaining the fundamentals of many familiar and some not-so-familiar concepts.

Makes for excellent "on the John" reading. Some excellent Newtonian physics on display in your own little home lab. Sep 23, Tyler rated it really liked it. Feynman was so taken with his diagrams that he painted them on the side of his van. Nov 23, Ricky Bosso rated it really liked it. For a patzer like myself, this is a good, broad introduction to some of the most important concepts in the physical sciences. The book itself can get quite thought-provoking at points.

One of my great regrets is that I never studied physics in high school.

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I've done a lot of reading since then, but it's hard to make up for that lack of fundamental understanding. I was hoping this book might give me some of that while speaking at a level I could understand, and while I suppose to some extent it did, there were still times when it went over my head as well as, to my surprise, a couple of times I understood more than was described , and it wasn't as engaging as I hoped.

Science One of my great regrets is that I never studied physics in high school. Science generally gets me pretty excited, but my eyes did glaze over from time to time. Still, it was a good broad view of some fundamental principles, and if what it did was lead me to read some more on a few of the subjects, well, I guess I'd have to call that successful. Jul 24, Christine marked it as to-read Shelves: Like chocolates for the logic side of my brain This is a lovely, lightly humorous, entirely enjoyable book that's chock full of brain-bending information.

I do want to delve more deeply into the mathematical side of physics; but I want to understand its beautiful abstract concepts first. This is a great book for t Like chocolates for the logic side of my brain This is a lovely, lightly humorous, entirely enjoyable book that's chock full of brain-bending information.

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This is a great book for that. Apr 24, David Schuster rated it really liked it. A cute summary of notable physics concepts with pleasant background info on the scientists. Once properly annotated to correct the five or so glaring errors, you're left with a nice intro to physics concepts, chock full of British spellings. At least she knows what a billion is. Dec 28, Krista rated it liked it. This is a good coffee-table book. There are vignettes about the scientists, a visual timeline, and accessible descriptions. Not in-depth, of course, but I keep forgetting the second law thermodynamics, so now I can just look it up.

Introduccion bastante descente a 50 temas fisicos que van desde las bases de la mecanica de Newton hasta temas de cosmologia. Recomendable si es tu el primer libro de divulgacion de ciencia y lo lees por diversion. Si has estudiado fisica o leido otros libros de divulgacion probablemente encontraras muy poco nuevo en este libro. Algunos temas estan conectados con otros, otros son completamente independientes. La autora los agrupa por secciones, pero bien podrian leerse en cualquier orden. La for Introduccion bastante descente a 50 temas fisicos que van desde las bases de la mecanica de Newton hasta temas de cosmologia.

La forma en que se explica cada tema es amena y facil de seguir.

50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know

Algunos capitulos se encuentran amenizados por una super corta biografia del fisico que tuvo la idea brillante de la cual se habla en el capitulo en cuestion. El libro es todo lo que se puede esperar de un libro que escoge 50 temas de fisica y trata de explicarlos en paginas. Obviamente se disculpa el hecho de que en el capitulo sobre "la particula divina" afirma que el boson de Higgs aun no se ha descubierto, al igual que el capitulo sobre "relatividad general" y las ondas gravitacionales, ya que el libro se escribio antes de que esos descubrimientos fueran confirmados.

Jul 24, Daniel Lupu rated it really liked it. Good to remember some terms. Not so in depth information. The format is a bit annoying. Sep 25, Steve rated it liked it Shelves: From Brownian motion to black holes, from dark matter to antimatter, 50 key key physics topics are presented here in the same 4-page format as other Quercus titles in the series, with quotes, mini biographies and other side panels livening up each essay.

The timeline along the bottom is useful in showing when certain ideas neutron stars, anti-particles, etc were predicted to exist, and then when they were actually detected - information which, beyond being a validation of the individual ideas, From Brownian motion to black holes, from dark matter to antimatter, 50 key key physics topics are presented here in the same 4-page format as other Quercus titles in the series, with quotes, mini biographies and other side panels livening up each essay.

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The timeline along the bottom is useful in showing when certain ideas neutron stars, anti-particles, etc were predicted to exist, and then when they were actually detected - information which, beyond being a validation of the individual ideas, also serves as an interesting tribute to the scientific method itself.

Given how difficult it is to condense certain scientific ideas into 4 pages, it's not surprising that some explanations are more successful than others. There are a few places where topics feel uncomfortably shoe-horned in to fit within the page limit superconductivity for instance , whereas others - like the Bernoulli equation - seem spread out a little too thinly.

All-in-all though, it's not so bad. Should at least be interesting and useful to anyone seeking a general introductory or refresher guide to physics. I really enjoyed reading this book. It's only a couple hundred pages but took a lot longer to read in order to absorb all the concepts.

50 quantum physics ideas you really need to know - CERN Document Server

My background is not physics, but business and aerospace. I do fine with Newtonian physics but the quantum stuff was all new to me. It would take double or triple the time to read each chapter pages because it inevitably triggered some broader questions that had to be researched online. This is a great introduction to some of the major scientific discoveri I really enjoyed reading this book. December release this month.



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