Popular Scientific Lectures

by Ernst Mach

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Science, Philosophy, Physics, Nonfiction

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher and is the namesake for the "Mach number" (also known as Mach speed) and the optical illusion known as Mach bands.

Reviews

[Luigi]

This wasn't an easy read, but I was really interested to read it after reading all about the group of scientists and philosophers of Vienna. Mach had great wit and intellect and I can imagine what their discussions must have been like. The great thing is that they weren't just discussions but they helped change the world. Whilst we sit in front of our TV's being entertained, that wouldn't have been possible without people like Mach who thought deeply about people and technology.

[Rajat Sirohi]

A charming and witty collection of lectures on various scientific topics, including the anatomy of ears, philosophy of science, and the physics of music, optics, motion, and much more. The writing is accessible to a reader with limited background knowledge, but sufficiently detailed so as to teach something to anybody and also to guide further reading. Unavoidably, some of the science is outdated, but this is mostly in terms of lacking the details provided by future science, rather than in terms of stating now-deprecated views. Overall, I found the book thoroughly enjoyable and was constantly entertained and impressed by Mach's writing style, which is filled with literary allusions and playful quips. Thus, the book is also a painful reminder of a once-widespread sophistication of writing which is now difficult to find.