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On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy
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In On the Shoulders of Giants, Stephen Hawking brings together the greatest works by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Einstein, showing how their pioneering discoveries changed the way we see the world.
From Copernicus revolutionary claim that the earth orbits the sun and Keplers development of the laws of planetary motion to Einsteins interweaving of time and space, ...more
From Copernicus revolutionary claim that the earth orbits the sun and Keplers development of the laws of planetary motion to Einsteins interweaving of time and space, ...more
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Paperback, 256 pages
Published
January 1st 2006
by Penguin Books
(first published 2002)
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Lucy: "On The Shoulders Of Giants - The Great Works Of Physics And Astronomy" by Stephen Hawking
(Original Review, 2002)
Back in the day, Einstein opened up my head to what I thought of as the architecture of the way things are, that level of intelligence/information where I clearly understood what reality was and wasnt despite the limitations of my senses. I'd try to hold onto it but it ultimately faded. I'd feel myself coming closer ...more
Lucy: "On The Shoulders Of Giants - The Great Works Of Physics And Astronomy" by Stephen Hawking
(Original Review, 2002)
Back in the day, Einstein opened up my head to what I thought of as the architecture of the way things are, that level of intelligence/information where I clearly understood what reality was and wasnt despite the limitations of my senses. I'd try to hold onto it but it ultimately faded. I'd feel myself coming closer ...more
Totally unreadable -- even if you are an expert on the contents by profession, you will find the methods archaic and the notation obfuscatory -- but five stars for being full of genius. The brief section from Einstein is more accessible, as are Hawking's commentaries, but Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton are very difficult indeed. It is, however, pretty neat to see what these important original works looked like.
The man has always wondered about the Universe around him.
What laws reign on the cosmos? Does the Universe have a center? Where is he ? Which rules obeys the movement of celestial bodies? What forces keep the planets in their orbits?
Stephen Hawking gathered in this book the texts that successively revolutionized the human perception of the world:
"From the revolution of the celestial spheres" by Nicolas Copernicus, "Dialogues on the two great systems of the world" of Galileo Galilei,
"The Secret ...more
What laws reign on the cosmos? Does the Universe have a center? Where is he ? Which rules obeys the movement of celestial bodies? What forces keep the planets in their orbits?
Stephen Hawking gathered in this book the texts that successively revolutionized the human perception of the world:
"From the revolution of the celestial spheres" by Nicolas Copernicus, "Dialogues on the two great systems of the world" of Galileo Galilei,
"The Secret ...more
This is a really intimidating book, both in size and most definitely, in content! It's a highly recommended read for anyone who has an interest in physics as it contains much of the original material from which huge sections of classical physics are derived.
The problem with this however is that four of the five texts contained in this book are between 500 and 350 years old and so the writing style is incredibly far removed from modern scientific writing. Galileo's section for example is ...more
The problem with this however is that four of the five texts contained in this book are between 500 and 350 years old and so the writing style is incredibly far removed from modern scientific writing. Galileo's section for example is ...more
It took me months to finish this colossus but I did it!
Right, about the book...
Reading On The Shoulders of Giants is like time traveling through the most significant moments of physics. At times it was challenging, I'm not going to lie, but in the end it was totally worth. Stephen Hawking's intros about each physicist were some of my most favourite parts of the book. Unfortunately, you cannot review this book in the traditional sense since it's a collection of works by different authors. So I'm ...more
Right, about the book...
Reading On The Shoulders of Giants is like time traveling through the most significant moments of physics. At times it was challenging, I'm not going to lie, but in the end it was totally worth. Stephen Hawking's intros about each physicist were some of my most favourite parts of the book. Unfortunately, you cannot review this book in the traditional sense since it's a collection of works by different authors. So I'm ...more
On the shoulders of giants, the reader may well have their head in the clouds. The book contains five giants of astronomy and physics, namely Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Their famous works are 'On the revolutions of heavenly spheres' by Copernicus. 'Dialogues concerning two new sciences' by Galileo Galilei, 'Harmonies of the world' by Johannes Kepler, 'Principia' by Isaac Newton and 'The principle of relativity' by Albert Einstein.
All ...more
All ...more
Let me state from the very beginning that the book "On The Shoulders of Giants" with commentary from Stephen Hawkin is not, in any way or form, a book for everyone. It is not a book for beginners. As someone who came to read this book, after having read biographies on Einstein and DaVinci, the theories of Einstein, Newton, and Copernicus, I was nevertheless lost at least half the time, totally lost. Yet, even in the dark I had gained knowledge that just a short time ago I had no idea existed. It
...more
4.5/5 stars
"On the Shoulders of Giants" is a collection of some of the most influential works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton and Einstein with Stephen Hawking provided the short biography and his comments on each scientist above. I must admit that the original work of the four most important figures (with the exception of Einstein's) is completely incomprehensible to me as they are around four hundred years old, thus making the method of writing and explaining concepts quite different ...more
"On the Shoulders of Giants" is a collection of some of the most influential works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton and Einstein with Stephen Hawking provided the short biography and his comments on each scientist above. I must admit that the original work of the four most important figures (with the exception of Einstein's) is completely incomprehensible to me as they are around four hundred years old, thus making the method of writing and explaining concepts quite different ...more
While the book does contain landmark works that inspired paradigm shifts, it is almost completely unreadable. This, if anything, is a testament to the good work that many scientists have done in recent days to popularise science and make it accessible to the general public.
Even for someone who is studying physics at university, I found the arguments presented by Galileo and Copernicus extremely hard to follow.
It is difficult to decide what rating to give this book. Clearly contains genius, yet ...more
Even for someone who is studying physics at university, I found the arguments presented by Galileo and Copernicus extremely hard to follow.
It is difficult to decide what rating to give this book. Clearly contains genius, yet ...more
You'll need about 20 grams of caffeine, 12 months and a public storage facility to house the book when you're not reading it. It's only a few hundred pages yet it takes up like half of my bookshelf. I could do about 30 pages at a time. Fascinating stuff though.
This book is really interesting in parts. I'll be likely to be reading this for the rest of my life. The biggest challenge is that all of the math (except for Einstein's) is old school geometry. Reading this book is always a stretching experience.
Interesting but a bit dense and tough to comprehend at times.
Doubles as an amazing recount of scientific advancement and a club to thwart off theives.
If you're interested in a detailed exploration of the foundations of fundamental physics and astronomy this is the book for you.
Hawking has compiled a well-rounded collection of the most significant scientific papers ever written and even the casual science-minded person would benefit from a quick review of these pages. I mostly focused on reading the overview of each author, as well as skimming the papers when the language grew overly technical. Even though I avoided a deep dive into the substance of each of the papers, I felt a sense of appreciation for the impact of each paper presented. I'm very happy that I took the
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Stephen Hakwing is th author of this book, which is basically a compilation of some of the works/papers of 5 of the most important minds in Physics.
Each chapter is preluded by a very short and simple biography of each one (Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Einstein) and then we're presented by what Hakwing considered the most important work of each one.
When I bought this book I thought it was something more in the way of showing how their work had impacted our current society and/or visible ...more
Each chapter is preluded by a very short and simple biography of each one (Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Einstein) and then we're presented by what Hakwing considered the most important work of each one.
When I bought this book I thought it was something more in the way of showing how their work had impacted our current society and/or visible ...more
While this book is an excellent collection of science writings, it also shows how science writing has evolved since the time of Copernicus. Included in each section is a short biography of each writer. Some of the works are rather confusing to me. For instance, Kepler spends most of his time talking about ratios of planetary distances and relating them to music.
Copernicus speaks of his calculations and observations, finding a number of astronomical distances and things. Of course he uses ...more
Copernicus speaks of his calculations and observations, finding a number of astronomical distances and things. Of course he uses ...more
A compilation of works by Some greatest minds in the history of Physics And Astronomy , Greatest parts in the book are the Introduction By Sir Stephen Hawking given in his own words before beginning of each scientist's work.In this books there are works of Nicolas Copernicus ,Galileo Galilei , Johannes Kepler , Sir Isaac Newton , Albert Einstein . This book is like a Dictionary for Astronomy and astrophysics Enthusiasts ......Your Book shelf,and your knowledge just isn't complete without this
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I didn't read it all from cover to cover because it is not as acessible as Hawking's other popular writings for the most part. Reading the scientists from Copernicus to Einstein, you will discover your favorite. Mine was Galileo because he wrote dialogues that were easy to digest and made you think. His style and characters reminded me a bit of Plato.
I wonder how much work Stephen Hawking actually put into this book, all I konw for sure is that the foreword and brief biographies are probably ...more
I wonder how much work Stephen Hawking actually put into this book, all I konw for sure is that the foreword and brief biographies are probably ...more
I've really enjoyed the 'life and works' sections, written by Hawking. The actual published works of the scientists mentioned are somewhat more tedious, especially the older ones, because of the language used and my inability to grasp some of the math easily. I'm not finished with all of the originally published stuff, but I'm working through it in bits and pieces, not in chronological order. While all of these men are fascinating, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein are clear
...more
In these pages, Stephen Hawking has compiled a marvelous collection of excerpts from the science greats of the past. They are, like any serious scientific literature, extremely dense, specific, and often difficult to read. Hawkings himself gives us a Barney-style overview of the accomplishments of each scientist, followed by excerpts from their primary works. I found it absolutely fascinating to follow the logic and thoughts of these men. Not only that, but you can gain an enormous respect for
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Didn't read entire book, of course. But, only having scientific masterpieces from different eras is a big deal! Imagine having Copernicus' "On the revolutions of heavenly spheres", Galileo's "Dialogues...", Kepler's "Harmonies of the worlds". Newton's "Principia..." and Einstein's "The principles of relativity" in one place! Amazing!
book giving the history of both physics and astronomy through the works of the most influential of its practicioners. Includes a lot of sketches and some pretty technical terms but I think still a book many could pick up and read.
This is a collection of essays/papers from the scientific greats: Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein. Hawking provides introductions that explain each of the selections so that you have a rough idea of what each author is attempting to communicate.
The old scientists used to give praises to God, quote from the Bible and that sort of stuff. Sadly, it doesn't happen anymore.
When Hawking quotes Copernicus, he includes Copernicus' comments about God. I'm glad he did that.
Good book! Wide and deep in science.
When Hawking quotes Copernicus, he includes Copernicus' comments about God. I'm glad he did that.
Good book! Wide and deep in science.
Hawking enthusiasts should beware! This particular book is likely not for you. His intended audience are people with a background and sharp understanding physics, plus those fascinated by history of science, but not afraid of a bit of math.
Great read. While some of the math is difficult to understand its enough to just read through and get an idea of how these great minds percieved the world around them. Also Hawkings write ups are almost worth it in itself.
Very satisfying to read the original works of these great astronomers and to follow their lines of arguments. A valuable reference work.
Brief biographies of all the researchers/astronomers who came before Mr Hawkings, upon whom his own knowledge and research is built. An easy read for those who are interested.
I'm a nerd and I enjoyed it.
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Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's old college.
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