Tag: Book Reviews

Quick Easy Introduction to Astrophysics

The goal of this blog is to create a list of what I call super facts. Important facts that are known to be true and yet they are surprising, shocking or disputed among non-experts. In a sense it is myth busting. However, it is not the only type of posts I do. This is a review for a popular book on Astrophysics called “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” by Neil De Grasse Tyson. It is a New York Times best seller and the #1 best seller in Astronomy & Astrophysics on Amazon. It has almost 37,000 ratings/reviews on Amazon and more 194,000 reviews/ratings on Goodreads.

Below is a list of the four formats in which it comes on Amazon.

  • Hardcover –  Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (May 2, 2017), ASIN : 0393609391, ISBN-10 : 9780393609394, ISBN-13 : 978-0393609394, 224 pages, item weight : 2.31 pounds, dimensions : ‎ 7.3 x 4.8 x 0.9 inches, it costs $6.21 – $13.26 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle –  Publisher – W. W. Norton & Company (May 2, 2017), ASIN : B01MAWT2MO, 222 pages, it costs $9.00 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Audiobook –  Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc (May 2, 2017), ASIN : B06XB2PX7G, it costs $10.20 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Audio CD –  Publisher : Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (May 2, 2017), ISBN-10 : 1538408015, ISBN-13 : 978-1538408018, it costs $24.95 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of the book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and more than a million copies sold.

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

This is my four-star review for Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

The reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is because I felt that if you have an interest in the topic, you will have heard it all before. However, in retrospect that might not be a good reason to deduct a star. After all, the book seems to be targeting people who do not know much about the subject and thus will not have heard it all before.

Quick and Entertaining Overview of Astrophysics

I’ve read a number of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s books and I love them. This book is a compressed version of what he has been explaining in other books. If you’ve already read a number of Neil De Grasse books, or perhaps other popular science Astrophysics books such as those by Stephen Hawking, you will not find much new in this book. However, I think it is a brief but good summary of Astrophysics written for a layman. It is 208 pages, each page having about half as much text per page as a typical popular science book. It is an easy and fairly quick read.

He briefly explains the Big Bang, physical laws, spectra, nebulae, the speed of light, very briefly relativity and quantum physics, the cosmic background radiation, galaxies, gravitational lensing, dark matter, dark energy, neutron stars, the composition of the solar system and exoplanets. He covers a lot of ground quickly and he makes it easy to understand without simplifying so much that it becomes misleading. This book is exactly what the title says. However, as I mentioned, if you’ve read a lot on the topic already, especially if it is Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s books, you’ve seen it before. I still think it was very enjoyable though and I still learned something new. He is a very entertaining author.

Front cover of the book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.
To see the Super Facts click here

The Special Theory of Relativity by David Bohm

The goal of this blog is to create a list of what I call super facts. Super facts are important and true facts that are nevertheless highly surprising to many, disputed among the public, or unnecessarily misunderstood. They are special facts that we all can learn something important from. However, I also make posts that are not super facts but feature other interesting information, such as this book review and book recommendation.

The Special Theory of Relativity by David Bohm

David Bohm a close colleague of Albert Einstein was one of the most interesting theoretical physicists of the 20th century. This book “The Special Theory of Relativity” is one of the most interesting and thorough introductory books on the Special Theory of Relativity that I have come across. It is a series of lectures on the topic. It features algebra, equations, and a little bit of differentials but not too much.

You may want to have some math, physics and some relativity under your belt before you tackle this book. In my estimate it is written for those who have taken high school AP physics and AP algebra, maybe calculus as well, or one or two college level physics classes and math classes (or more). It is probably too basic for professional physicists, but it is not written for laymen. I bought the paperback version.

  • Hardback –  Routledge; 1st edition (October 10, 1996), ISBN-10 : 0415148081, ISBN-13 : 978-0415148085, 256 pages, item weight : 13.6 ounces, dimensions : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 9 inches. It is out of stock, and it costs $75.60 – $144.00 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Paperback –  Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (September 4, 2006), ASIN : 0415404258, ISBN-13 : 978-0415404259, 304 pages, item weight : 12 ounces, dimensions : 5.08 x 0.69 x 7.8 inches. It is out of stock, and it costs $12.36 – $17.21 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle –  Published : Routledge; 1st edition (September 29, 2015), ASIN : B009W3W6MG, 306 pages, it costs $10.10 – $13.77 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of the paperback version of The Special Theory of Relativity by David Bohm. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of the Book

In these inspiring lectures David Bohm explores Albert Einstein’s celebrated Theory of Relativity that transformed forever the way we think about time and space. Yet for Bohm the implications of the theory were far more revolutionary both in scope and impact even than this. Stepping back from dense theoretical and scientific detail in this eye-opening work, Bohm describes how the notion of relativity strikes at the heart of our very conception of the universe, regardless of whether we are physicists or philosophers.

This is my five-star review for The Special Theory of Relativity

Note, I wrote this review in 2014, so it is relatively old, pun intended.

Lorentz Electrodynamics, Special Relativity, and our Perception of Reality

This book is a thorough and well written introduction to the “Special Theory of Relativity”. In addition to the basics of special relativity it covers the history of Special Relativity and it includes 60-pages of Lorentz Electrodynamics. The book also discusses Minkowski Diagrams, the Twin Paradox, relativistic Doppler effects, K-Calculus, and philosophy related to relativity. The book does not discuss General Relativity.

Bohm does not derive many formulas for electrodynamics, optics, quantum physics, thermodynamics, etc., and therefore this book does not resemble a textbook. Bohm’s focus is on a deeper understanding of the special theory of relativity itself, and on time and space.

He discusses perception of reality and includes discussions on child development, psychology and neurology related to perception, the meaning of the relational concepts in relativity, the structure of scientific revolutions (T.S. Kuhn), our perceptions of time and space, philosophy, and other related topics that cannot be classified as physics.

In K Calculus you draw the world lines of light pulses sent at constant intervals between different observers. Then you calculate what is essentially the Doppler factor K and uses it to explain what is going in relativity. In contrast the Lorentz transform is concerned with the space-time coordinates that you measure after taking into account that light have to travel a certain distance and that this takes time. Basically, the “actual time and space coordinates”.

K Calculus on the other hand is including both relativistic effects and the distance and time it takes for light to travel. K Calculus is thus not what you “measure” but what you “observe”. K Calculus makes it very easy to explain special relativity to an audience that is not strong in math and it also adds a new understanding to the special theory of relativity.

However, I see an inherent risk with K-Calculus in that it can end up fooling the student into believing that he understands relativity, for example, if a student incorrectly comes to believe that time dilation is some form of Doppler Effect.

Except for the fact that some of the mathematical derivations were unnecessarily complex I thought this book presented relativity lucidly, the philosophical discussions were insightful, and it added to my understanding of the topic. It should probably not be your first book on Special Relativity but it is a very good second book. I highly recommend it for those who want to think through the concepts of relativity a little deeper.

Back cover of the paperback version of The Special Theory of Relativity by David Bohm. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the kindle version of the book.

To see the Super Facts click here