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    For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time---A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics
    For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time---A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics
    For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time---A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics
    Audiobook10 hours

    For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time---A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics

    Written by Warren Goldstein and Walter Lewin

    Narrated by Kent Cassella

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    About this audiobook

    "You have changed my life" is a common refrain in the emails Walter Lewin receives daily from fans who have been enthralled by his world-famous video lectures about the wonders of physics. "I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics-colored eyes," wrote one such fan. When Lewin's lectures were made available online, he became an instant YouTube celebrity, and the New York Times declared, "Walter Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube's greatest hits."

    For more than thirty years as a beloved professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lewin honed his singular craft of making physics not only accessible but truly fun, whether putting his head in the path of a wrecking ball, supercharging himself with three hundred thousand volts of electricity, or demonstrating why the sky is blue and why clouds are white. Now, as Carl Sagan did for astronomy and Brian Green did for cosmology, Lewin takes listeners on a marvelous journey in For the Love of Physics, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power with which physics can reveal the hidden workings of the world all around us. "I introduce people to their own world," writes Lewin, "the world they live in and are familiar with but don't approach like a physicist-yet."

    Could it be true that we are shorter standing up than lying down? Why can we snorkel no deeper than about one foot below the surface? Why are the colors of a rainbow always in the same order, and would it be possible to put our hand out and touch one? Whether introducing why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm, why we briefly lose (and gain) weight when we ride in an elevator, or what the big bang would have sounded like had anyone existed to hear it, Lewin never ceases to surprise and delight with the extraordinary ability of physics to answer even the most elusive questions.

    Recounting his own exciting discoveries as a pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy-arriving at MIT right at the start of an astonishing revolution in astronomy-he also brings to life the power of physics to reach into the vastness of space and unveil exotic uncharted territories, from the marvels of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud to the unseeable depths of black holes.

    "For me," Lewin writes, "physics is a way of seeing-the spectacular and the mundane, the immense and the minute-as a beautiful, thrillingly interwoven whole." His wonderfully inventive and vivid ways of introducing us to the revelations of physics impart to us a new appreciation of the remarkable beauty and intricate harmonies of the forces that govern our lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 1, 2011
    ISBN9781452673745
    Author

    Warren Goldstein

    Warren Goldstein is a professor of history and chair of the History Department at the University of Hartford. A prizewinning historian, essayist, and journalist, he has had a lifelong fascination with physics. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and many other national periodicals. His prior books include Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball and William Sloane Coffin, Jr.: A Holy Impatience.

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    Reviews for For the Love of Physics

    4/5

    79 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Generally very interesting with a special life story maybe could have done without the two last appendix chapters
    • 3/5
      I have no doubt Lewin is a fantastic teacher. The anecdotes about his life were quite interesting as were the stories of how he teaches. But he covers way too much ground in this short book so the explanations are rushed and often unclear. If I knew nothing about physics, I dont think I would be able to follow at all. I think I’ll watch his online classes because I didn’t come away Learning a lot of new stuff from this book.
    • 5/5
      Unbedingt lesen! Für alle Physik-Liebhaber und Physikmuffel schreibt Lewin mit ansteckender Begeisterung.Unter Vermeidung fast aller Formeln, dafür sehr anschaulich schafft er es, dass sich jeder schlau fühlen kann und es wirklich Vergnügen macht, die Grundzüge der Physik zu verstehen. Nie wird der Autor überheblich gegenüber den Laien, sondern er verfährt nach dem Prinzip, dass Wissen geteilt werden sollte und zwar so gut wie möglich.Wer hätte gedacht, dass ich eines Tages erklären könnte, was eine Akkretionsscheibe ist oder wieso im Spektrum von Sternen die Absorptionslinien "fehlen"?Wermutstropfen ist die schlechte deutsche Übersetzung.Ansonsten unbedingte Leseempfehlung
    • 4/5
      Though I didn't quite gain the understanding that I'd expected, I love Lewin's passion and perspective, and he opened my eyes to a lot of gems we overlook in everyday life.
    • 3/5
      The initial discussion is a combination of high school physics and a few advanced discussions. The information on rainbows was beyond what I had ever heard before. Walter ends the book by discussing x-ray astrophysics. This was his area of research. Overall a good read.
    • 4/5
      Like a lot of people, I was introduced to Walter Lewin through his compelling physics lectures from MIT, which are freely available online. During my last trip to Chapters, I noticed he had written a book as well. His lectures were so fascinating, I picked the book up immediately.The book is a combination of memoir and physics (without the mathematical tedium). To be more specific, the introduction to physics is sandwiched between autobiographical information at the start and end of the book. Both parts of the book are interesting, but they don't seem to gel that well together as one work.Lewin's trademark humor and passion for teaching shines through clearly here. He often describes his classroom antics—along with the student's reaction—in a way that makes you feel like you're in the front row. Add to this a dash of Vonnegutesque interjections and you have one memorable physics primer.This book would have been even better had I not already listened to the lectures. I felt an odd sense of déjà vu a number of times when the book and lectures overlapped. Still, with my porous memory, I'm sure the repetition helped things to stick.For the Love of Physics is what you get when a talented teacher has loads of enthusiasm for the subject.