Theory of Heat

Theory of Heat
Author: James Clerk Maxwell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 346
Release: 1871
Genre: Science
ISBN:

This classic sets forth the fundamentals of thermodynamics and kinetic theory simply enough to be understood by beginners, yet with enough subtlety to appeal to more advanced readers, too.

Capital as Power

Capital as Power
Author: Jonathan Nitzan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 853
Release: 2009-06-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134022298

Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an ‘economic’ entity that they count in universal units of ‘utils’ or ‘abstract labour’, respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don’t exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most – the accumulation of capital. This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape – or creorder – their society. Written in simple language, accessible to lay readers and experts alike, the book develops a novel political economy. It takes the reader through the history, assumptions and limitations of mainstream economics and its associated theories of politics. It examines the evolution of Marxist thinking on accumulation and the state. And it articulates an innovative theory of ‘capital as power’ and a new history of the ‘capitalist mode of power’.

The Story of Physics

The Story of Physics
Author: Lloyd Motz
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2013-11-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1489963057

Traces the development of physics from 2000 years ago to the experimental theories of the 20th century.

Technics and Civilization

Technics and Civilization
Author: Lewis Mumford
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2010-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226550273

Technics and Civilization first presented its compelling history of the machine and critical study of its effects on civilization in 1934—before television, the personal computer, and the Internet even appeared on our periphery. Drawing upon art, science, philosophy, and the history of culture, Lewis Mumford explained the origin of the machine age and traced its social results, asserting that the development of modern technology had its roots in the Middle Ages rather than the Industrial Revolution. Mumford sagely argued that it was the moral, economic, and political choices we made, not the machines that we used, that determined our then industrially driven economy. Equal parts powerful history and polemic criticism, Technics and Civilization was the first comprehensive attempt in English to portray the development of the machine age over the last thousand years—and to predict the pull the technological still holds over us today. “The questions posed in the first paragraph of Technics and Civilization still deserve our attention, nearly three quarters of a century after they were written.”—Journal of Technology and Culture

Wandering Significance

Wandering Significance
Author: Mark Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 691
Release: 2008
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199532303

"Mark Wilson presents a highly original and broad-ranging investigation of the way we get to grips with the world conceptually, and the way that philosophical problems commonly arise from this. He combines traditional philosophical concerns about human conceptual thinking with illuminating data derived from a large variety of fields including physics and applied mathematics, cognitive psychology, and linguistics. Wandering Significance offers abundant new insights and perspectives for philosophers of language, mind, and science, and will also reward the interest of psychologists, linguists, and anyone curious about the mysterious ways in which useful language obtains its practical applicability."--Publisher's description.

Skeletal Tissue Mechanics

Skeletal Tissue Mechanics
Author: R. Bruce Martin
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2015-10-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1493930028

This textbook describes the biomechanics of bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. It is rigorous in its approach to the mechanical properties of the skeleton yet it does not neglect the biological properties of skeletal tissue or require mathematics beyond calculus. Time is taken to introduce basic mechanical and biological concepts, and the approaches used for some of the engineering analyses are purposefully limited. The book is an effective bridge between engineering, veterinary, biological and medical disciplines and will be welcomed by students and researchers in biomechanics, orthopedics, physical anthropology, zoology and veterinary science. This book also: Maximizes reader insights into the mechanical properties of bone, fatigue and fracture resistance of bone and mechanical adaptability of the skeleton Illustrates synovial joint mechanics and mechanical properties of ligaments and tendons in an easy-to-understand way Provides exercises at the end of each chapter

Ludwig Boltzmann

Ludwig Boltzmann
Author: Carlo Cercignani
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2006-01-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191606987

This book presents the life and personality, the scientific and philosophical work of Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the great scientists who marked the passage from 19th- to 20th-Century physics. His rich and tragic life, ending by suicide at the age of 62, is described in detail. A substantial part of the book is devoted to discussing his scientific and philosophical ideas and placing them in the context of the second half of the 19th century. The fact that Boltzmann was the man who did most to establish that there is a microscopic, atomic structure underlying macroscopic bodies is documented, as is Boltzmann's influence on modern physics, especially through the work of Planck on light quanta and of Einstein on Brownian motion. Boltzmann was the centre of a scientific upheaval, and he has been proved right on many crucial issues. He anticipated Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions and proposed a theory of knowledge based on Darwin. His basic results, when properly understood, can also be stated as mathematical theorems. Some of these have been proved: others are still at the level of likely but unproven conjectures. The main text of this biography is written almost entirely without equations. Mathematical appendices deepen knowledge of some technical aspects of the subject.