Galileo's pendulum

From the rhythm of time to the making of matter

Roger G. Newton

154 pages, parution le 03/06/2004

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Résumé

Bored during Mass at the cathedral in Pisa, the seventeen-year-old Galileo regarded the chandelier swinging overhead--and remarked, to his great surprise, that the lamp took as many beats to complete an arc when hardly moving as when it was swinging widely. Galileo's Pendulum tells the story of what this observation meant, and of its profound consequences for science and technology.

The principle of the pendulum's swing--a property called isochronism--marks a simple yet fundamental system in nature, one that ties the rhythm of time to the very existence of matter in the universe. Roger Newton sets the stage for Galileo's discovery with a look at biorhythms in living organisms and at early calendars and clocks--contrivances of nature and culture that, however adequate in their time, did not meet the precise requirements of seventeenth-century science and navigation. Galileo's Pendulum recounts the history of the newly evolving time pieces--from marine chronometers to atomic clocks--based on the pendulum as well as other mechanisms employing the same physical principles, and explains the Newtonian science underlying their function. The book ranges nimbly from the sciences of sound and light to the astonishing intersection of the pendulum's oscillations and quantum theory, resulting in new insight into the make-up of the material universe. Covering topics from the invention of time zones to Isaac Newton's equations of motion, from Pythagoras' theory of musical harmony to Michael Faraday's field theory and the development of quantum electrodynamics, Galileo's Pendulum is an authoritative and engaging tour through time of the most basic all-pervading system in the world.

L'auteur - Roger G. Newton

Newton, Roger G., Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University. He is editor of the Journal of Mathematical Physics and author of several books, including Scattering Theory of Waves and Particles, The Truth of Science, and What Makes Nature Tick?

Sommaire

Biological Timekeeping: The Body's Rhythms
The Calendar: Different Drummers
Early Clocks: Home-Made Beats
The Pendulum Clock: The Beat of Nature
Successors: Ubiquitous Timekeeping
Isaac Newton: The Physics of the Pendulum
Sound and Light: Oscillations Everywhere
The Quantum: Oscillators Make Particles

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Harvard University Press
Auteur(s)	Roger G. Newton
Parution	03/06/2004
Nb. de pages	154
Format	13,5 x 21
Couverture	Relié
Poids	311g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780674013315
ISBN13	978-0-674-01331-5