E mc2 biography equations
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E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
This is not a bad read, but it has some major flaws.
For one, this book fryst vatten aimed at kindergartners.
Fay Weldon, in an ebullient blurb, claims that by reading this book she achieved an understanding of Einstein’s theory of relativity “by osmosis”. I’m afraid my brain does not work that way. For me, insight is based on facts, concepts and reasoning. And some concepts are not easy, and some sophisticated reasoning fryst vatten sometimes necessary to "get" a difficult theory. In principle, even very hard concepts can be explained in simple terms, but it takes a very talented and patient author to do this well.
Mr Bodanis does not rise to the challenge. He aims his book squarely at readers who have no mathematics, no physics and no chemistry whatsoever, and who are not expecting to pick up any here. For instance, he patiently explains the concept of squaring: four squared is not eight but, don't be surprised, sixtee
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E=mc²
This is the first of my two books on Einstein: the story not of the man himself, but of his most famous equation. It touched a nerve – who doesn't want to know what E=mc² means? – and, translated into two dozen languages, worldwide sales have long since passed a million.
Here's how I first got the idea. Here's a first glimpse of Einstein in 1905 from within the book, as well as a look at how science was understood in his time (and how Einstein would see flaws with that). Next a separate account of how I wrote a central chapter; finally a section from the acknowledgements on what it was like fitting this writing into a busy day.
The book was later the basis for a drama-documentary, 'Einstein's Big Idea', jointly produced by PBS and the UK's Channel 4; the magnificent John Lithgow narrating in the US; Christopher Ecclestone in the UK. (It was also a ballet, choreographed by David Bintley, which had its London premiere at Sadler's Wells, but alas was never recorded.)
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E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
David Bodanis. Walker & Company, $25 (337pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1352-0
Most people know this celebrated equation has something to do with Einstein's theory of relativity, but most nonscientists don't know what it means. This very approachable yet somewhat limited work of popular science explains, and adorns with anecdote and biography, the equation and its place in history. Oxford lecturer Bodanis (The Secret Family) shows what happened to Einstein on the way to the discovery, what other scientists did to bring it about and how the equation created the atom bomb. Part Two tackles separately the components of the equation (E, =, m, c and ""squared""), which means that it covers 18th- and 19th-century physics. ""`E' Is for Energy"" opens with Michael Faraday, whose unusual religious beliefs helped him discover that electricity and magnetism were the same force. ""`m' Is for Mass"" brings in French chemist Lavoisier, who establish