FOR MORE THAN FORTY YEARS as a beloved professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Walter Lewin honed his singular craft of making physics not only accessible but truly fun. Now Lewin takes readers on a marvelous journey in
For the Love of Physics, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power with which physics can reveal the hidden workings of the world around us.
Whether introducing why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm, or what the big bang would have sounded like, Lewin never ceases to surprise and delight with the extraordinary ability of physics to answer even the most elusive questions. “For me,” Lewin writes, “physics is a way of seeing—the spectacular and the mundane, the immense and the minute—as a beautiful, thrillingly interwoven whole.” His wonderfully inventive and vivid ways of introducing us to the revelations of physics impart to us a new appreciation of the remarkable beauty and intricate harmonies of the forces that govern our lives.
| Introduction |
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1 From the Nucleus to Deep Space |
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1 | (20) |
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2 Measurements, Uncertainties, and the Stars |
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21 | (16) |
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37 | (22) |
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4 The Magic of Drinking with a Straw |
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59 | (19) |
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5 Over the Under-Outside and Inside-the Rainbow |
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78 | (25) |
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6 The Harmonies of Strongs and Winds |
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103 | (22) |
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7 The Wonders of Electricity |
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125 | (24) |
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8 The Mysteries of Magnetism |
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149 | (19) |
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9 Energy Conservation-Plus ca change... |
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168 | (21) |
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10 X-rays from Outer Space! |
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189 | (11) |
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11 X-ray Ballooning, the Early Days |
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200 | (17) |
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12 Cosmic Catastrophes, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes |
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217 | (18) |
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235 | (13) |
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248 | (13) |
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261 | (12) |
| Acknowledgments |
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273 | (4) |
| Appendix 1 |
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277 | (2) |
| Appendix 2 |
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279 | (6) |
| Index |
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285 | |
Walter Lewin taught the three core classes in physics at MIT for more than thirty years and made major discoveries in the area of X-ray astronomy. His physics lectures have been the subject of great acclaim, including a 60 Minutes feature, stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Newsweek and US News and World Report. They have also been top draws on YouTube and iTunes University. He was awarded three prizes for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He has published more than 450 scientific articles, and his honors and awards include the NASA Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, the Alexander von Humboldt Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1993. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Warren Goldstein is a professor of history and chair of the History Department at the University of Hartford. A prizewinning historian, essayist, and journalist, he has had a lifelong fascination with physics. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and many other national periodicals. His prior books include Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball and William Sloane Coffin, Jr.: A Holy Impatience.
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