The Six-Cornered Snowflake

The Six-Cornered Snowflake PDF Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589882857
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
"In 1611, Kepler wrote an essay wondering why snowflakes always had perfect, sixfold symmetry. It's a simple enough question, but one that no one had ever asked before and one that couldn't actually be answered for another three centuries. Still, in trying to work out an answer, Kepler raised some fascinating questions about physics, math, and biology, and now you can watch in wonder as a great scientific genius unleashes the full force of his intellect on a seemingly trivial question, complete with new illustrations and essays to put it all in perspective."—io9, from their list "10 Amazing Science Books That Reveal The Wonders Of The Universe" When snow began to fall while he was walking across the Charles Bridge in Prague late in 1610, the eminent astronomer Johannes Kepler asked himself the following question: Why do snowflakes, when they first fall, and before they are entangled into larger clumps, always come down with six corners and with six radii tufted like feathers? In his effort to answer this charming and never-before-asked question about snowflakes, Kepler delves into the nature of beehives, peapods, pomegranates, five-petaled flowers, the spiral shape of the snail's shell, and the formative power of nature itself. While he did not answer his original question—it remained a mystery for another three hundred years—he did find an occasion for deep and playful thought. "A most suitable book for any and all during the winter and holiday seasons is a reissue of a holiday present by the great mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler…Even the endnotes in this wonderful little book are interesting and educationally fun to read."—Jay Pasachoff, The Key Reporter —New English translation by Jacques Bromberg —Latin text on facing pages —An essay, "The Delights of a Roving Mind" by Owen Gingerich —An essay, "On The Six-Cornered Snowflake" by Guillermo Bleichmar —Snowflake illustrations by Capi Corrales Rodriganez —John Frederick Nims' poem "The Six-Cornered Snowflake" —Notes by Jacques Bromberg and Guillermo Bleichmar

The Six-Cornered Snowflake

The Six-Cornered Snowflake PDF Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589882857
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book Here

Book Description
"In 1611, Kepler wrote an essay wondering why snowflakes always had perfect, sixfold symmetry. It's a simple enough question, but one that no one had ever asked before and one that couldn't actually be answered for another three centuries. Still, in trying to work out an answer, Kepler raised some fascinating questions about physics, math, and biology, and now you can watch in wonder as a great scientific genius unleashes the full force of his intellect on a seemingly trivial question, complete with new illustrations and essays to put it all in perspective."—io9, from their list "10 Amazing Science Books That Reveal The Wonders Of The Universe" When snow began to fall while he was walking across the Charles Bridge in Prague late in 1610, the eminent astronomer Johannes Kepler asked himself the following question: Why do snowflakes, when they first fall, and before they are entangled into larger clumps, always come down with six corners and with six radii tufted like feathers? In his effort to answer this charming and never-before-asked question about snowflakes, Kepler delves into the nature of beehives, peapods, pomegranates, five-petaled flowers, the spiral shape of the snail's shell, and the formative power of nature itself. While he did not answer his original question—it remained a mystery for another three hundred years—he did find an occasion for deep and playful thought. "A most suitable book for any and all during the winter and holiday seasons is a reissue of a holiday present by the great mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler…Even the endnotes in this wonderful little book are interesting and educationally fun to read."—Jay Pasachoff, The Key Reporter —New English translation by Jacques Bromberg —Latin text on facing pages —An essay, "The Delights of a Roving Mind" by Owen Gingerich —An essay, "On The Six-Cornered Snowflake" by Guillermo Bleichmar —Snowflake illustrations by Capi Corrales Rodriganez —John Frederick Nims' poem "The Six-Cornered Snowflake" —Notes by Jacques Bromberg and Guillermo Bleichmar

The Six-cornered Snowflake

The Six-cornered Snowflake PDF Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher: Oxford Classic Texts in the Ph
ISBN: 9780198712497
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Kepler's essay, On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, provides the first published evidence of the ideas of regular arrangements and close-packing which have proved fundamental to crystallography. In it, Kepler ponders on the problem of why snowflakes are hexagonal, two centuries before the first successful steps were taken towards its solution. The purpose of this volume is to display the historical, literary, scientific, and philosophical treasures of Kepler's essay. The book includes the modernized text of the 1611 Latin edition, with an English translation by Colin Hardie on the opposite pages. The text is accompanied by an introduction giving details of the history of the work, and two essays; Professor B. J. Mason's discussion of the scientific meaning and validity of Kepler's arguments and their relation to the history of crystallography and of space filling, and L. L. Whyte's examination of Kepler's facultas formatrix in relation to the history of philosophical and scientific ideas on the genesis of forms.

The Six-cornered Snowflake and Other Poems

The Six-cornered Snowflake and Other Poems PDF Author: John Frederick Nims
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811211437
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
As a preeminent modernist poet and translator of the classics, John Frederick Nims's work is an elegant fusion of contemporary sensibility with formalist experimentation. But form, for this writer of meditative verse, is only a helpmeet to the quintessential content of the poem, the meaning that gives it value in our time and, one hopes, beyond. Concerning the formal elements of poetry, Nims comments: "One might say they are like the scaffolding at a construction site, meant to be thrown away and not regarded once the building is completed." In his newest collection, The Six-Cornered Snowflake, his poems range through an astonishing variety of complex structures: the shaped-poem of the title work, the sestina, the vocal "Pindar's lattice" of the "First Olympian Ode," the nervous galliambics of "Catullus 63"--just to name a few. As William Pritchard, writing for The New York Times Book Review, so aptly observed, "Mr. Nims has consistently had the nerve to be interested in what language could be made to do, rather than what the psyche would be made to reveal."

Snow Crystals

Snow Crystals PDF Author: Wilson Alwyn Bentley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Crystallization
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


Nature's Numbers

Nature's Numbers PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
"It appears to us that the universe is structured in a deeply mathematical way. Falling bodies fall with predictable accelerations. Eclipses can be accurately forecast centuries in advance. Nuclear power plants generate electricity according to well-known formulas. But those examples are the tip of the iceberg. In Nature's Numbers, Ian Stewart presents many more, each charming in its own way.. Stewart admirably captures compelling and accessible mathematical ideas along with the pleasure of thinking of them. He writes with clarity and precision. Those who enjoy this sort of thing will love this book."—Los Angeles Times

Optics

Optics PDF Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
First (and only) English translation of the work that founded the modern science of optics. Originally published in Latin in 1604. Many diagrams and footnotes.

The Physics Book

The Physics Book PDF Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Publisher: Union Square + ORM
ISBN: 1402790996
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1054

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Book Description
“A thrilling, fast-paced excursion through the history of physical discovery . . . from silly putty to string theory” (Dr. Paul Halpern, author of Collider). Following his previous volumes, The Science Book and The Math Book, acclaimed science writer Clifford Pickover returns with a richly illustrated chronology of physics, containing 250 short, entertaining, and thought-provoking entries. In addition to exploring such engaging topics as dark energy, parallel universes, the Doppler effect, the God particle, and Maxwells demon, The Physics Book extends back billions of years to the hypothetical Big Bang and forward trillions of years to a time of “quantum resurrection.” Like the previous titles in this series, The Physics Book offers a lively and accessible account of major concepts without getting bogged down in complex details.

Geometric Inequalities

Geometric Inequalities PDF Author: Yurii D. Burago
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662074419
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
A 1988 classic, covering Two-dimensional Surfaces; Domains on the Plane and on Surfaces; Brunn-Minkowski Inequality and Classical Isoperimetric Inequality; Isoperimetric Inequalities for Various Definitions of Area; and Inequalities Involving Mean Curvature.

Kepler's Cosmological Synthesis

Kepler's Cosmological Synthesis PDF Author: Patrick J. Boner
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004246096
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
The cosmology of Johannes Kepler remains a mystery. On the one hand, Kepler’s speculations on spiritual faculties are seen as the remnants of Renaissance philosophy. On the other, his comparison of the cosmos to a clock summons the mechanical metaphor that shaped modern science. This book explores the inseparable connections between Kepler’s vitalistic views and his more enduring accomplishments in astronomy. The key argument is that Kepler’s ‘celestial biology’ served as a bridge between his revolutionary astronomy and other ‘less scientific’ interests, particularly astrology. Kepler's Cosmological Synthesis sheds new light on one of the foundational figures of the Scientific Revolution. By uncovering a new form of coherence in Kepler’s world picture, it traces the unlikely intersections of mechanism and vitalism that transformed the fabric of the heavens.

Bellman & Black

Bellman & Black PDF Author: Diane Setterfield
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 147671195X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Killing a bird with his slingshot as a boy, William Bellman grows up a wealthy family man unaware of how his act of childhood cruelty will have terrible consequences until a wrenching tragedy compels him to enter into a macabre bargain with a stranger in black.