Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them

by Clifford A. Pickover

Archimedes to Hawking takes the reader on a journey across the centuries as it explores the eponymous physical laws--from Archimedes' Law of Buoyancy and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion--whose ramifications have profoundly altered our everyday lives and our understanding of the universe.
Throughout this fascinating book, Clifford Pickover invites us to share in the amazing adventures of brilliant, quirky, and passionate people after whom these laws are named. These lawgivers turn out to be a fascinating, diverse, and sometimes eccentric group of people. Many were extremely versatile polymaths--human dynamos with a seemingly infinite supply of curiosity and energy and who worked in many different areas in science. Others had non-conventional educations and displayed their unusual talents from an early age. Some experienced resistance to their ideas, causing significant personal anguish. Pickover examines more than 40 great laws, providing brief and cogent introductions to the science behind the laws as well as engaging biographies of such scientists as Newton, Faraday, Ohm, Curie, and Planck. Throughout, he includes fascinating, little-known tidbits relating to the law or lawgiver, and he provides cross-references to other laws or equations mentioned in the book.
For several entries, he includes simple numerical examples and solved problems so that readers can have a hands-on understanding of the application of the law.
A sweeping survey of scientific discovery as well as an intriguing portrait gallery of some of the greatest minds in history, this superb volume will engage everyone interested in science and the physical world or in the dazzling creativity of these brilliant thinkers.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, Physics, History Of Science, Popular Science, Biography

528 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2008

About the author

Clifford Alan Pickover is an American author, editor, and columnist in the fields of science, mathematics, science fiction, innovation, and creativity. For many years, he was employed at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York, where he was editor-in-chief of the IBM Journal of Research and Development. He has been granted more than 700 U.S. patents, is an elected Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and is author of more than 50 books, translated into more than a dozen languages.

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most interesting book. I've noticed that, in the world of physics, there is a certain celebration of celebrity and interest in the character and life of great physicists. This book has all that, but it also gives at least equal weight to their work. And I'm forced to admit that their lives are frequently interesting.

This book also suffers from the problem of technical editing. There is a lot of math (which is a good thing to me, but a reader could skip it easily and not really miss out), but when I stop and drive down into it, I'm left without fully understanding what it was. A little more attention to wrapping up the conceptual (especially the mathematical) details would enhance the book a lot.

[Caroline E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I’d just read a chapter or two but I’m almost finished! I’ve skimmed some of the math but loved the examples of real-life applications of the laws as well as the biographies.
My only question is … where are the entries (I know they are few) of the women who have made great discoveries. I missed that.
Still…an amazing book!

[Behrooz Parhami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pickover, a prolific author, has produced many books in the popular-science genre. I have come across several of them, including The Math Book, The Physics Book, and A Passion for Mathematics. You can examine a complete list of Pickover's 50 books on his home page:

https://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/picko...

Fascination with physical laws, aka laws of nature, has been around for many centuries. Archimedes' Law of Buoyancy is one of the oldest, proposed around 250 BCE (the exact date is unknown). Newer examples include Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion. These law-producers, quite diverse and sometimes eccentric, oozed curiosity and, more often than not, were polymaths working in many different domains.

In this book, Pickover examines 40+ laws, explaining the science behind them along with biographies of the scientists who proposed them, cross-referencing and relating the laws to each other where appropriate. The book is organized in 4 parts covering the periods 250 BCE to 1700 CE, 1700 to 1800, 1800 to 1900, and 1900 & beyond.

Some of the other scientists one encounters in this book include Bernoulli, Curie, Faraday, Kirchhoff, Newton, Ohm, and Planck. Nearly all eponymous laws date back to the 19th century and earlier. There have been very few eponyms in science since the 20th century.

[Cristian Juan]

C

[(_____) (____) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot praise Pickover's writing, which is rather disorganized and somewhat bland. He also has an irritating tendency to quote dozens of more eloquent sources at length whenever he sees the opportunity, including passages from his other books. Nonetheless, this is a great book because it offers an enormous amount of mathematically sophisticated information that I have never found in any other popular-science book. It is so wonderfully detailed that the stylistic issues can be forgiven; one suspects that the author's mind is so full of ideas and wonder that he overlooks the execution a little bit.
This is, quite specifically, a book about laws of science. Pickover focuses almost exclusively on scientific discoveries called "laws" (e.g. the Three Laws of Motion, Planck's Law of Blackbody Radiation, the Curie-Weiss Law of Magnetism). Of course, he also touches on the irritating unsystematicity of law nomenclature and what this excludes (notably, much of modern physics). Each law is presented in a fully mathematical manner with an explanation of the terms involved. This is usually very useful, but occasionally it's irritating when Pickover discusses equations like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle or Maxwell's equations without explaining that they're far more complicated mathematically than the other laws. Still, in most cases the mathematical presentations are useful and interesting. Pickover almost never displays equations as interesting curiosities to be admired like abstract art, as other writers regrettably do.
In terms of mathematical complexity, it's usually not that advanced. It occupies something of a middle ground between Penrose's "The Road to Reality", which has about as many equations as pages (that is, hundreds) and "A Brief History of Time" (one equation). Nonetheless, there are probably more equations than chapters, and there are many chapters.
The coverage of laws is also excellent; probably the only other sources that cover so much ground are specialized, probably college-level textbooks. As far as I know, most of the information won't be found in any other popular-science books. Many of the laws seem relatively obscure, though of course Pickover explains their importance. There's also extensive coverage of chemistry, which seems hard to find in popular-science books.
The historical sections focus mainly on biographical details. There's little in the way of any broad historical overviews, but the biographies are quite detailed.
Overall, this book has definite aesthetic flaws, but it is so excellently informative that it's a must-read. I would recommend reading it with Bill Bryson's history of science "A Short History of Nearly Everything", which could provide more context for the laws and figures discussed.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm about half way through the book at this writing. I am a big fan of the layout of this book. The book in whole is a case-by-case synopsis of arguably the 100 most profound scientific laws from antiquity to date and the people behind them. Each chapter (if you want to call it that) addresses one law. The opening is a two or three sentence introduction to the law. Two or three sentences follow, highlighting random historical facts bearing only a chronological relationship to the law at hand. I like that Pickover uses this to really bring out the personality of the era in which discovery is taking place. The author then presents the law and the circumstance of its discovery over the space of a page or two or several. Completing his treatment of the law, he abruptly begins a micro-biography of the person(s) behind the law. Next is a section of references for further reading. Concluding each chapter is my favorite section, "Interlude: Conversation Starters" that may or may not relate directly to the law at hand but always presents intriguing notions presented briefly, elegantly.

Make no mistake, this is not a serious scientific reference. The history is anecdotal; the science is elementary. But that's what makes it a Good Read! It's a book for fans of science and history. If science were a spectator sport, you could think of this book as your program.

--

I have now completed this book. My reading shifted from leisurely enjoying every sentence at the beginning to laboriously reading the details beyond the halfway point to just skimming the final hundred pages. As the science and the author's approach moved from elementary and anecdotal to complex and theoretical, my comprehension and interest waned. Maybe the ideas of thermodynamics and relativity just got in my way, but it seemed to me like a different person wrote the last couple hundred pages. The end seemed a little scattered and unnecessarily complex--downright pedantic--whereas the early going seemed more like a collection of short stories about science. Overall I liked this book a lot...I just felt disappointed at the end.

[Chris Mallows]

Alex’s Review:
Alex Knapp in Forbes:

I simply cannot say enough good things about this book. It has a very simple structure: chronologically, Pickover walks through some of the most famous eponymous scientific laws, touches on their historical background and describes how the laws themselves work. Then the description of each law is followed by a short biographical essay about the person for whom the law is named. Both parts of the structure are equally fascinating. Pickover is adept both at explaining the natural laws in an easy to understand way, and he’s expert at guiding through the lives of the brilliant, eccentric and tragic men who discovered them. It’s a terrific read that I highly recommend.

In particular, one thing that caught my eye while reading this was a concept of religion that’s almost alien now. For many of the scientists who discovered natural laws, the pursuit of science was part and parcel of their religious beliefs. To understand nature was to understand God. Indeed, as Pickover notes, Isaac Newton wrote more about the interpretation of the Bible than he did about physics. (Quick note: according to Newton’s calculations, the world is going to end in 2060. Mark your calendars accordingly.)

It’s a sad thing that we live in an age now where religion and science often find themselves at odds, and Pickover’s book was a reminder that it doesn’t have to be that way.

[Sahrish Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Archimedes to Hawking takes the reader on a journey across the centuries as it explores the eponymous physical laws--from Archimedes' Law of Buoyancy and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Hubble's Law of Cosmic Expansion--whose ramifications have profoundly altered our everyday lives and our understanding of the universe.

Pickover examines more than 40 great laws, providing brief and cogent introductions to the science behind the laws as well as engaging biographies of such scientists as Newton, Faraday, Ohm, Curie, and Planck. Throughout, he includes fascinating, little-known tidbits relating to the law or lawgiver, and he provides cross-references to other laws or equations mentioned in the book. For several entries, he includes simple numerical examples and solved problems so that readers can have a hands-on understanding of the application of the law.

A sweeping survey of scientific discovery as well as an intriguing portrait gallery of some of the greatest minds in history, this superb volume will engage everyone interested in science and the physical world or in the dazzling creativity of these brilliant thinkers.

[Jeffrey Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read Wikipedia

This book is more a coffee table book than any kind of tome to be read cover to cover. It lacks cohesiveness and a underlying story and is just a collection of interesting facts and very vague contexts. I personally found it tedious to read through despite items of rather interest interspersed like gems in impenetrable granite. And a book of scientific laws to me lacks one of the most fundamental laws, that of change through natural selection as revealed by Darwin. And yet, what was a complete waste of time was the discussion of the so-called Bode's Law, which is just a curve-matching which does not even follow the planets subsequently discovered in our solar system never mind extrasolar bodies. Bode's Law is not a Law, at best it is a conjecture! Overall, not by any means the worst book I've read, but it leaves much to be desired and I personally could not recommend this book to anyone.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't recommend this book highly enough, as it delves into important laws of science, what makes them important, and the personalities behind them. Pickover also takes time to examine just what makes a scientific law, and some of the philosophical thoughts behind science in general.

The diversity of scientists is highlighted in the various quotes sprinkled throughout the book. Some highly religious, and some, just the opposite. It was interesting to get an idea of what drove each scientist to discover and define the world around them, as many had radically different belief systems.

While a fairly large book, the fact that each section offered such a different look at persons and ideas made it a breeze to get through. I loved every minute.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice, succinct and entertaining summary of many great physical laws and bios of the scientists - several laws I didn't recognize, but some were not there that I thought should be - like only oblique references to Einstein. Is e=mc squared considered a theory, not a law? And the special theory of relativity? And what about Schrodinger's wave equation? Also, many of the laws and examples could use some diagrams and illustrations to clarify the meaning of the variables for the uninitiated.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waste of time. The book is poorly constructed with a preface that tells nothing. Some statistics on origins of personal laws by nation/century/sex et al are quaint but otherwise this book is analogous to printing out 200 Wikipedia articles a 1/2 decade ago.

The additional readings are useless and presented without context seemingly presented to show how well read the author was. The idiosyncratic arrangement of articles is not terribly useful and the shallow descriptors of the biographies section not worth the paper.

Avoid.d

[David Brewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but at the end of the day I found it quite a slog to make it through. It read more like a series of encyclopedia entries and excerpts from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations than a coherent book. There were individual parts that I enjoyed, mostly in the biographical sections, but as a whole I feel this book never really hits a stride.

It may be that I would have enjoyed it more if my math skills weren't pretty dusty.

[Janet Dougherty]

I bought this book for Ian to read and I started reading it. Very interesting

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author did an excellent job of combining both an explanation of the science with biographical information about the scientist.

[Chris Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book - if you want to have a primer on what you learned at school! I really liked it

[Mills College Library]

509.22 P5977 2008