Author: F. E. Close
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465021441
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
"Many mysteries of the atom have came unraveled, but one remains intractable- what Frank Close calls the 'Infinity puzzle'. The problem was simple to describe. Although clearly very powerful, quantum field theory ... was making one utterly ridiculous prediction: that certain events had an infinite probability of occurring. ... The Infinity Puzzle charts the birth and life of the idea, and the scientists, ... who realized it. Based on numerous firsthand interviews and extensive research, this book captures an era of great mystery and greater discovery. Even if the Higgs boson is never found, renormalization- the pursuit of an orderly universe- has led to one of the richest and most productive intellectual periods in human history."--Book jacket.
The Infinity Puzzle
Author: F. E. Close
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465021441
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
"Many mysteries of the atom have came unraveled, but one remains intractable- what Frank Close calls the 'Infinity puzzle'. The problem was simple to describe. Although clearly very powerful, quantum field theory ... was making one utterly ridiculous prediction: that certain events had an infinite probability of occurring. ... The Infinity Puzzle charts the birth and life of the idea, and the scientists, ... who realized it. Based on numerous firsthand interviews and extensive research, this book captures an era of great mystery and greater discovery. Even if the Higgs boson is never found, renormalization- the pursuit of an orderly universe- has led to one of the richest and most productive intellectual periods in human history."--Book jacket.
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465021441
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
"Many mysteries of the atom have came unraveled, but one remains intractable- what Frank Close calls the 'Infinity puzzle'. The problem was simple to describe. Although clearly very powerful, quantum field theory ... was making one utterly ridiculous prediction: that certain events had an infinite probability of occurring. ... The Infinity Puzzle charts the birth and life of the idea, and the scientists, ... who realized it. Based on numerous firsthand interviews and extensive research, this book captures an era of great mystery and greater discovery. Even if the Higgs boson is never found, renormalization- the pursuit of an orderly universe- has led to one of the richest and most productive intellectual periods in human history."--Book jacket.
Satan, Cantor, And Infinity And Other Mind-bogglin
Author: Raymond M. Smullyan
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307819825
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
More than two hundred new and challenging logic puzzles—the simplest brainteaser to the most complex paradoxes in contemporary mathematical thinking—from our topmost puzzlemaster (“the most entertaining logician who ever lived,” Martin Gardner has called him). Our guide to the puzzles is the Sorcerer, who resides on the Island of Knights and Knaves, where knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie, and he introduces us to the amazing magic—logic—that enables to discover which inhabitants are which. Then, in a picaresque adventure in logic, he takes us to the planet Og, to the Island of Partial Silence, and to a land where metallic robots wearing strings of capital letters are noisily duplicating and dismantling themselves and others. The reader’s job is to figure out how it all works. Finally, we accompany the Sorcerer on an alluring tour of Infinity which includes George Cantor’s amazing mathematical insights. The tour (and the book) ends with Satan devising a diabolical puzzle for one of Cantor’s prize students—who outwits him! In sum: a devilish magician’s cornucopia of puzzles—a delight for every age and level of ability.
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307819825
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
More than two hundred new and challenging logic puzzles—the simplest brainteaser to the most complex paradoxes in contemporary mathematical thinking—from our topmost puzzlemaster (“the most entertaining logician who ever lived,” Martin Gardner has called him). Our guide to the puzzles is the Sorcerer, who resides on the Island of Knights and Knaves, where knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie, and he introduces us to the amazing magic—logic—that enables to discover which inhabitants are which. Then, in a picaresque adventure in logic, he takes us to the planet Og, to the Island of Partial Silence, and to a land where metallic robots wearing strings of capital letters are noisily duplicating and dismantling themselves and others. The reader’s job is to figure out how it all works. Finally, we accompany the Sorcerer on an alluring tour of Infinity which includes George Cantor’s amazing mathematical insights. The tour (and the book) ends with Satan devising a diabolical puzzle for one of Cantor’s prize students—who outwits him! In sum: a devilish magician’s cornucopia of puzzles—a delight for every age and level of ability.
USA TODAY Up & Down Words Infinity
Author: U. S. A. USA TODAY
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 1449410014
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
USA TODAY Up and Down Words Infinity is a new puzzle book concept based on the hit puzzle featured each day in USA TODAY. In Up and Down Words Infinity, the second half of an answer becomes the first half of the next answer. Once started, Up and Down Words Infinity don't stop. The last half of the answer on the bottom of a page becomes the first half of the next answer on the following page. The book becomes one connected puzzle that can be played in sections. Solvers can work forward or backward from anywhere in the book. Packaged in a compact 4 x 6 trim size, USA TODAY Up and Down Words Infinity is the perfect puzzle book for the commute or the waiting room. The book fits easily into any size bag or briefcase.
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 1449410014
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
USA TODAY Up and Down Words Infinity is a new puzzle book concept based on the hit puzzle featured each day in USA TODAY. In Up and Down Words Infinity, the second half of an answer becomes the first half of the next answer. Once started, Up and Down Words Infinity don't stop. The last half of the answer on the bottom of a page becomes the first half of the next answer on the following page. The book becomes one connected puzzle that can be played in sections. Solvers can work forward or backward from anywhere in the book. Packaged in a compact 4 x 6 trim size, USA TODAY Up and Down Words Infinity is the perfect puzzle book for the commute or the waiting room. The book fits easily into any size bag or briefcase.
The Gödelian Puzzle Book
Author: Raymond M. Smullyan
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486315770
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
These logic puzzles provide entertaining variations on Gödel's incompleteness theorems, offering ingenious challenges related to infinity, truth and provability, undecidability, and other concepts. No background in formal logic necessary.
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486315770
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
These logic puzzles provide entertaining variations on Gödel's incompleteness theorems, offering ingenious challenges related to infinity, truth and provability, undecidability, and other concepts. No background in formal logic necessary.
The Infinity Puzzle
Author: Frank Close
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307399834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
We are living in a Golden Age of physics. With the mind of a scientist and the skill of a journalist, bestselling author and renowned physicist Frank Close gives us an insider's look at one of the most inspiring - and challenging - scientific breakthroughs of our time: the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. About 40 years ago, 3 brilliant, yet little-known scientists made breakthroughs that later inspired the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva: a 27-kilometre-long machine which has already cost $10 billion, taken 20 years to build and now promises to reveal how the universe itself came to be. The Infinity Puzzle is the inside story of those 40 years of research, breakthrough and endeavour. The work of Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft and James Bjorken is explored here, played out across the decades against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour and billion-dollar budgets. In The Infinity Puzzle, eminent physicist and award-winning author Frank Close writes from within the action and draws upon his close friendships with those involved.
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307399834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
We are living in a Golden Age of physics. With the mind of a scientist and the skill of a journalist, bestselling author and renowned physicist Frank Close gives us an insider's look at one of the most inspiring - and challenging - scientific breakthroughs of our time: the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. About 40 years ago, 3 brilliant, yet little-known scientists made breakthroughs that later inspired the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva: a 27-kilometre-long machine which has already cost $10 billion, taken 20 years to build and now promises to reveal how the universe itself came to be. The Infinity Puzzle is the inside story of those 40 years of research, breakthrough and endeavour. The work of Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft and James Bjorken is explored here, played out across the decades against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour and billion-dollar budgets. In The Infinity Puzzle, eminent physicist and award-winning author Frank Close writes from within the action and draws upon his close friendships with those involved.
The Brainiest Insaniest Ultimate Puzzle Book!
Author: Robert Leighton
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 9780761143864
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
Fully illustrated in color, this treasure trove features 250 puzzles on every imaginable theme and subject. The book is a bonanza of mazes, word games, visual and logic puzzles, and more.
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 9780761143864
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
Fully illustrated in color, this treasure trove features 250 puzzles on every imaginable theme and subject. The book is a bonanza of mazes, word games, visual and logic puzzles, and more.
The Beginning of Infinity
Author: David Deutsch
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141969695
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 571
Book Description
'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141969695
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 571
Book Description
'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman
A Brief History of Infinity
Author: Paolo Zellini
Publisher: Penguin Global
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
In A Brief History of Infinity, the infinite in all its forms - viewed from the perspective of mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians - is explored, as Zellini strives to explain this fundamental principle. What is the difference between trueand false infinity? How might we explain away the puzzle of Zeno's paradox? And how is the concept of infinity helping us as we wrestle with the fundamental uncertainties of the quantum world? Paolo Zellini shows that the concept of the infinite is a multifaceted one, and eloquently demonstrates the manner in which humanity has attempted to comprehend that concept for millenia.
Publisher: Penguin Global
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
In A Brief History of Infinity, the infinite in all its forms - viewed from the perspective of mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians - is explored, as Zellini strives to explain this fundamental principle. What is the difference between trueand false infinity? How might we explain away the puzzle of Zeno's paradox? And how is the concept of infinity helping us as we wrestle with the fundamental uncertainties of the quantum world? Paolo Zellini shows that the concept of the infinite is a multifaceted one, and eloquently demonstrates the manner in which humanity has attempted to comprehend that concept for millenia.
The Infinity Puzzle
Author: Frank Close
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593507
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
"Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there's more at stake-what we're really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesn't make sense-its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages when they should be something simpler, like the number 1. The kind of physics that the Higgs boson represents seeks to "renormalize" field theory, forcing equations to provide answers that match what we see in the real world. The Infinity Puzzle is the story of a wild idea on the road to acceptance. Only Close can tell it"--
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593507
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411
Book Description
"Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there's more at stake-what we're really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesn't make sense-its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages when they should be something simpler, like the number 1. The kind of physics that the Higgs boson represents seeks to "renormalize" field theory, forcing equations to provide answers that match what we see in the real world. The Infinity Puzzle is the story of a wild idea on the road to acceptance. Only Close can tell it"--
Theories of Everything: Ideas in Profile
Author: Frank Close
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1782833099
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
Physicist Frank Close takes the reader to the frontiers of science in a vividly told investigation of revolutionary science and enterprise from the seventeenth century to the present. He looks at what has been meant by theories of everything, explores the scientific breakthroughs they have allowed, and shows the far-reaching effects they have had on crucial aspects of life and belief. Theories of everything, he argues, can be described as those which draw on all relevant branches of knowledge to explain everything known about the universe. Such accounts may reign supreme for centuries. Then, often as a result of the advances they themselves have enabled, a new discovery is made which the current theory cannot explain. A new theory is needed which inspiration, sometimes, supplies. Moving from Isaac Newton's work on gravity and motion in the seventeenth century to thermodynamics and James Clerk Maxwell's laws of electromagnetism in the nineteenth to Max Planck's and Paul Dirac's quantum physics in the twentieth, Professor Close turns finally to contemporary physics and the power and limitations of the current theory of everything. The cycle in which one theory of everything is first challenged and then replaced by another is continuing right now.
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1782833099
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
Physicist Frank Close takes the reader to the frontiers of science in a vividly told investigation of revolutionary science and enterprise from the seventeenth century to the present. He looks at what has been meant by theories of everything, explores the scientific breakthroughs they have allowed, and shows the far-reaching effects they have had on crucial aspects of life and belief. Theories of everything, he argues, can be described as those which draw on all relevant branches of knowledge to explain everything known about the universe. Such accounts may reign supreme for centuries. Then, often as a result of the advances they themselves have enabled, a new discovery is made which the current theory cannot explain. A new theory is needed which inspiration, sometimes, supplies. Moving from Isaac Newton's work on gravity and motion in the seventeenth century to thermodynamics and James Clerk Maxwell's laws of electromagnetism in the nineteenth to Max Planck's and Paul Dirac's quantum physics in the twentieth, Professor Close turns finally to contemporary physics and the power and limitations of the current theory of everything. The cycle in which one theory of everything is first challenged and then replaced by another is continuing right now.