Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics PDF Author: Gregory J. Gbur
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300231296
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
How do cats land on their feet? Discover how this question stumped brilliant minds and how its answer helped solve other seemingly impossible puzzles The question of how falling cats land on their feet has long intrigued humans. In this playful and eye-opening history, physicist and cat parent Gregory Gbur explores how attempts to understand the cat-righting reflex have provided crucial insights into puzzles in mathematics, geophysics, neuroscience, and human space exploration. The result is an engaging tumble through physics, physiology, photography, and robotics to uncover, through scientific debate, the secret of the acrobatic performance known as cat-turning, the cat flip, and the cat twist. Readers learn the solution but also discover that the finer details still inspire heated arguments. As with other cat behavior, the more we investigate, the more surprises we discover.

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics PDF Author: Gregory J. Gbur
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300231296
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
How do cats land on their feet? Discover how this question stumped brilliant minds and how its answer helped solve other seemingly impossible puzzles The question of how falling cats land on their feet has long intrigued humans. In this playful and eye-opening history, physicist and cat parent Gregory Gbur explores how attempts to understand the cat-righting reflex have provided crucial insights into puzzles in mathematics, geophysics, neuroscience, and human space exploration. The result is an engaging tumble through physics, physiology, photography, and robotics to uncover, through scientific debate, the secret of the acrobatic performance known as cat-turning, the cat flip, and the cat twist. Readers learn the solution but also discover that the finer details still inspire heated arguments. As with other cat behavior, the more we investigate, the more surprises we discover.

How Energy Considerations Have Shaped Our Fundamental Modern Theories of Physics

How Energy Considerations Have Shaped Our Fundamental Modern Theories of Physics PDF Author: E. B. Manoukian
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031511999
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description


Physics and Dance

Physics and Dance PDF Author: Emily Coates
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300195834
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
"A fascinating exploration of our reality through the eyes of a physicist and a dancer--and an engaging introduction to both disciplines. From stepping out of our beds each morning to admiring the stars at night, we live in a world of motion, energy, space, and time. How do we understand the phenomena that shape our experience? How do we make sense of our physical realities? Two guides--a former member of New York City Ballet, Emily Coates, and a CERN particle physicist, Sarah Demers--show us how their respective disciplines can help us to understand both the quotidian and the deepest questions about the universe. Requiring no previous knowledge of dance or physics, this introduction covers the fundamentals while revealing how a dialogue between art and science can enrich our appreciation of both. Readers will come away with a broad cultural knowledge of Newtonian to quantum mechanics and classical to contemporary dance. Including problem sets and choreographic exercises to solidify understanding, this book will be of interest to anyone curious about physics or dance."--Jacket.

How to Find a Higgs Boson—and Other Big Mysteries in the World of the Very Small

How to Find a Higgs Boson—and Other Big Mysteries in the World of the Very Small PDF Author: Ivo van Vulpen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300252463
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The history of particle physics, the hunt for the most elusive particle, and the fundamental questions the search has inspired How did physicists combine talent and technology to discover the Higgs boson, the last piece in our inventory of the subatomic world? How did the Higgs change our understanding of the universe? And now, nearly a decade after its detection, what comes next? Answering these questions, Ivo van Vulpen—a CERN particle physicist and member of the team behind the detection—invites us on a journey to the frontiers of our knowledge. Enjoy van Vulpen’s accessible explanation of the history of particle physics and of concepts like quantum mechanics and relativity—and ponder his inquiries regarding the search for new particles (to explain dark matter), a new force (to combine the existing fundamental forces), and new phenomena (undiscovered dimensions of space). This is a lively account of work at the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator, with inspiring personal reflections on humanity’s discoveries deeper and deeper into the world of the very small.

Frankenstein's Cat

Frankenstein's Cat PDF Author: Emily Anthes
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 142994952X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Winner of 2014 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Best Young Adult Science Book Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award One of Nature's Summer Book Picks One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring 2013 Science Books For centuries, we've toyed with our creature companions, breeding dogs that herd and hunt, housecats that look like tigers, and teacup pigs that fit snugly in our handbags. But what happens when we take animal alteration a step further, engineering a cat that glows green under ultraviolet light or cloning the beloved family Labrador? Science has given us a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life. How are we using it? In Frankenstein's Cat, the journalist Emily Anthes takes us from petri dish to pet store as she explores how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends. As she ventures from bucolic barnyards to a "frozen zoo" where scientists are storing DNA from the planet's most exotic creatures, she discovers how we can use cloning to protect endangered species, craft prosthetics to save injured animals, and employ genetic engineering to supply farms with disease-resistant livestock. Along the way, we meet some of the animals that are ushering in this astonishing age of enhancement, including sensor-wearing seals, cyborg beetles, a bionic bulldog, and the world's first cloned cat. Through her encounters with scientists, conservationists, ethicists, and entrepreneurs, Anthes reveals that while some of our interventions may be trivial (behold: the GloFish), others could improve the lives of many species-including our own. So what does biotechnology really mean for the world's wild things? And what do our brave new beasts tell us about ourselves? With keen insight and her trademark spunk, Anthes highlights both the peril and the promise of our scientific superpowers, taking us on an adventure into a world where our grandest science fiction fantasies are fast becoming reality.

Reimagining Time

Reimagining Time PDF Author: Tanya Bub
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300250126
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
A quirky, funny, and accessible blend of science and art that delves into the heart of Einstein's theory of relativity It was a link to his 1905 paper--an early attempt at explaining his revolutionary ideas on space, time, and matter--that drew Tanya Bub into Albert Einstein's imaginative vision of the world. What particularly struck her was how Einstein interwove words and math to create clear visuals illustrating his theories. As an artist, she naturally started doodling as she worked her way through his concepts, creating drawings that intuitively demonstrated Einstein's core principles. In Reimagining Time Tanya Bub teams up with her father, the distinguished physicist Jeffrey Bub, to create a quirky and accessible take on one of science's most revolutionary discoveries. Blending original art and text, they guide readers through Einstein's theory of special relativity to expose truths about our universe: time is relative, lengths get shorter with motion, energy and mass are interchangeable, and the Universe has a speed limit.

The Science of Spin

The Science of Spin PDF Author: Roland Ennos
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982196556
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
What exactly made the earth round? How do boomerangs turn around mid-air? And why do cats always land on their feet? “A basic scientific concept receives long overdue attention” (Kirkus Reviews) in this “fascinating” (Wall Street Journal) new book from the masterful author of The Age of Wood. From the solar system to spinning tops, hurricanes to hula hoops, power plants to pendulums, one mysterious force shapes almost every aspect of our lives: spin. Despite its ubiquity, rotational force continues to baffle and surprise, and few people realize how it makes our planet habitable or how it has been tamed by engineers to make our lives more comfortable. Charting the development of engineering and technology from the earliest prehistoric drills to the gas turbine, critically acclaimed author and scientist Roland Ennos presents a riveting account of human ingenuity and the seemingly infinite ways spin affects our daily lives. He also shows how this new approach not only helps us better understand the world but also ourselves. After all, even our own bodies are complex systems of rotating joints and levers. Artfully moving between astrophysics and anthropology, The Science of Spin shows how, whether natural or engineered, spin is really what makes the world go round.

Fundamentals of Physics I

Fundamentals of Physics I PDF Author: R. Shankar
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249586
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
A beloved introductory physics textbook, now including exercises and an answer key, explains the concepts essential for thorough scientific understanding In this concise book, R. Shankar, a well-known physicist and contagiously enthusiastic educator, explains the essential concepts of Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, waves, fluids, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Now in an expanded edition—complete with problem sets and answers for course use or self-study—this work provides an ideal introduction for college-level students of physics, chemistry, and engineering; for AP Physics students; and for general readers interested in advances in the sciences. The book begins at the simplest level, develops the basics, and reinforces fundamentals, ensuring a solid foundation in the principles and methods of physics.

The Mask of Enlightenment

The Mask of Enlightenment PDF Author: Stanley Rosen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300104516
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This landmark study is a detailed textual and thematic analysis of one of Nietzsche’s most important but least understood works. Stanley Rosen argues that in Zarathustra Nietzsche lays the groundwork for philosophical and political revolution, proposing a change in humanity’s condition that would be achieved by eliminating the decadent existing race and breeding a new race to take its place. Rosen discusses Nietzsche’s systematically duplicitous rhetoric of esoteric messages in Zarathustra, and he places the book in the contexts of Greek, Christian, Enlightenment, and postmodernist thought.

Asteroids

Asteroids PDF Author: Martin Elvis
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030023192X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
A unique, wide-ranging examination of asteroid exploration and our future in space Human travel into space is an enormously expensive and unforgiving endeavor. So why go? In this accessible and authoritative book, astrophysicist Martin Elvis argues that the answer is asteroid exploration, for the strong motives of love, fear, and greed. Elvis's personal motivation is one of scientific love--asteroid investigations may teach us about the composition of the solar system and the origins of life. A more compelling reason may be fear--of a dinosaur killer-sized asteroid hitting our planet. Finally, Elvis maintains, we should consider greed: asteroids likely hold vast riches, such as large platinum deposits, and mining them could provide both a new industry and a funding source for bolder space exploration. Elvis explains how each motive can be satisfied, and how they help one another. From the origins of life, to "space billiards," and space sports, Elvis looks at how asteroids may be used in the not-so-distant future.