From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Why Does E=mc²?

Brian Cox,

Jeffrey R. Forshaw

Start date: September 1, 2013

Finish date: September 30, 2013

Discussion: Book Club 2013

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Book Club 2013

December 2013: "The Strangest Man"
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June 2013 - Cosmos
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What Members Thought

Mar 09, 2018 Tippy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-history, mathematics, astronomy, technology, physics, 2018

Mind blown.

This book looks at how our understanding of the universe evolves- how it has in the past and potentially will in the future. It does a fantastic job of explaining how things that seem to contradict our own good senses work and why. Time is relative. What does that really mean? How does it impact our experience of the universe and technologies? Answers in here. Space and time are malleable and subjective. Real objects do shrink when they move. To use an example from the book, if you w Mind blown.

This book looks at how our understanding of the universe evolves- how it has in the past and potentially will in the future. It does a fantastic job of explaining how things that seem to contradict our own good senses work and why. Time is relative. What does that really mean? How does it impact our experience of the universe and technologies? Answers in here. Space and time are malleable and subjective. Real objects do shrink when they move. To use an example from the book, if you were trying to fit a 4m car into a 3.9m garage, you could if the car was moving at 22 percent of the speed of light. Before it bursts through the back wall. But you get the point.

The book then goes on to explain spacetime- a way of understanding the universe that's- well universal. Accurate regardless of the observation point in space. They derive this concept and again, it's fascinating.

But ultimately, while it describes the brilliance and experimental validation of Einstein's relativity, he also leaves you excited for the next step- at the precipice of a totally new understanding of the universe. He talks about quantum theory and that it can't be meshed with relativity... and reminds us that as soon as something better comes along, relativity may be revised or replaced. But that doesn't make it any less special and in fact, that's the exciting thing about science! Relativity replaced Newton's understanding of gravity and it will continue to evolve as we discover new things. Newton's understanding, which we know now to be more an approximation, helped us engineer bridges and skyscrapers. Einstein's gave us the GPS satellite system. What will we get with the next great theory?

That being said, this book was published in 2009. So much has happened since. I actually got to look up the results of one of the ongoing experiments he described and saw the results, which was kind of awesome. Ultimately, this book peaked my interest and had me looking for more. And gave me the framework to understand the importance of experiments taking place right now.

A few good quotes:

"Einstein was undoubtedly one of the great practitioners of the art of science, but as we have emphasized throughout this book, he was led to his radical revision of space and time by the curiosity and skill of many. he was not a freak of nature and his intellect was not supernatural. He was simply doing what great scientists do: He took simple things seriously and followed through the consequences logically."

"'From the simplest of ideas'... if there were ever to be an epitaph written for humanity's greatest scientific achievements, it might begin with these five words. Taking delight in observing and considering the smallest and seemingly most insignificant details of nature has led time and again to the most majestic of conclusions."

"Our musings on the nature of space and time have led us to understand that the earth is doing nothing more than falling in a straight line around the sun. It's just that the straight line is in a curved spacetime, which manifests itself as a (nearly) circular orbit in space." ...more

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