The Lazy Universe

The Lazy Universe
Author: Jennifer Coopersmith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191060720

This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what `the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

The Lazy Universe

The Lazy Universe
Author: Jennifer Coopersmith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-05-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191060739

This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what `the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

Energy, the Subtle Concept

Energy, the Subtle Concept
Author: Jennifer Coopersmith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2015
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0198716745

Energy is at the heart of physics and of huge importance to society and yet no book exists specifically to explain it, and in simple terms. In tracking the history of energy, this book is filled with the thrill of the chase, the mystery of smoke and mirrors, and presents a fascinating human-interest story. Moreover, following the history provides a crucial aid to understanding: this book explains the intellectual revolutions required to comprehend energy, revolutions as profound as those stemming from Relativity and Quantum Theory. Texts by Descartes, Leibniz, Bernoulli, d'Alembert, Lagrange, Hamilton, Boltzmann, Clausius, Carnot and others are made accessible, and the engines of Watt and Joule are explained. Many fascinating questions are covered, including: - Why just kinetic and potential energies - is one more fundamental than the other? - What are heat, temperature and action? - What is the Hamiltonian? - What have engines to do with physics? - Why did the steam-engine evolve only in England? - Why S=klogW works and why temperature is IT. Using only a minimum of mathematics, this book explains the emergence of the modern concept of energy, in all its forms: Hamilton's mechanics and how it shaped twentieth-century physics, and the meaning of kinetic energy, potential energy, temperature, action, and entropy. It is as much an explanation of fundamental physics as a history of the fascinating discoveries that lie behind our knowledge today.

A Universe from Nothing

A Universe from Nothing
Author: Lawrence M. Krauss
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2012-01-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1451624476

Bestselling author and acclaimed physicist Lawrence Krauss offers a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists came to be in the first place. “Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?” One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, A Universe from Nothing uses Krauss’s characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end. Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.

The Universe in Bite-sized Chunks

The Universe in Bite-sized Chunks
Author: Colin Stuart
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2018-03-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1782438661

The whole cosmos in your hands, The Universe in Bite-sized Chunks is your one-stop guide to everything you ever wanted to know about space and our place in it.

Lake Views

Lake Views
Author: Steven Weinberg
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2012-07-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674071999

Just as Henry David Thoreau “traveled a great deal in Concord,” Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg sees much of the world from the window of his study overlooking Lake Austin. In Lake Views Weinberg, considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive today, continues the wide-ranging reflections that have also earned him a reputation as, in the words of New York Times reporter James Glanz, “a powerful writer of prose that can illuminate—and sting.” This collection presents Weinberg’s views on topics ranging from problems of cosmology to assorted world issues—military, political, and religious. Even as he moves beyond the bounds of science, each essay reflects his experience as a theoretical physicist. And as in the celebrated Facing Up, the essays express a viewpoint that is rationalist, reductionist, realist, and secular. A new introduction precedes each essay, explaining how it came to be written and bringing it up to date where necessary. As an essayist, Weinberg insists on seeing things as they are, without despair and with good humor. Sure to provoke his readers—postmodern cultural critics, enthusiasts for manned space flight or missile defense, economic conservatives, sociologists of science, anti-Zionists, and religious zealots—this book nonetheless offers the pleasure of a sustained encounter with one of the most interesting scientific minds of our time.

The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment
Author: Thaddeus Golas
Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publishers
Total Pages: 112
Release: 1995-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780879056988

Thaddeus Golas is a lazy man. Laziness keeps him from believing that enlightenment demands effort, discipline, strict diet, non-smoking and other evidences of virtue. He found a way to enlighten himself - and you - with two sentences. The first is We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. The second? The universe is made of one kind of entity; each one is alive, each determines the course of his own existence. If you remember this, that's all you really need to know to understand this book. Originally published in 1972, and in print for 15 years, THE LAZY MAN'S GUIDE TO ENLIGHTNMENT teaches you, amongst other things, how to feel good.

The Lazy Genius Way

The Lazy Genius Way
Author: Kendra Adachi
Publisher: WaterBrook
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0525653910

Be productive without sacrificing peace of mind using Lazy Genius principles that help you focus on what really matters and let go of what doesn't. If you need a comprehensive strategy for a meaningful life but are tired of reading stacks of self-help books, here is an easy way that actually works. No more cobbling together life hacks and productivity strategies from dozens of authors and still feeling tired. The struggle is real, but it doesn't have to be in charge. With wisdom and wit, the host of The Lazy Genius Podcast, Kendra Adachi, shows you that it's not about doing more or doing less; it's about doing what matters to you. In this book, she offers fourteen principles that are both practical and purposeful, like a Swiss army knife for how to be a person. Use them in combination to "lazy genius" anything, from laundry and meal plans to making friends and napping without guilt. It's possible to be soulful and efficient at the same time, and this book is the blueprint. The Lazy Genius Way isn't a new list of things to do; it's a new way to see. Skip the rules about getting up at 5 a.m. and drinking more water. Let's just figure out how to be a good person who can get stuff done without turning into The Hulk. These Lazy Genius principles--such as Decide Once, Start Small, Ask the Magic Question, and more--offer a better way to approach your time, relationships, and piles of mail, no matter your personality or life stage. Be who you already are, just with a better set of tools.

Teach Yourself Physics

Teach Yourself Physics
Author: Jakob Schwichtenberg
Publisher: No-Nonsense Books
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2020-02-12
Genre: Science
ISBN:

This is a handbook containing all the advice and recommendations about learning physics I wished someone had told me when I was younger. It is neither a career guide nor a comprehensive textbook. What’s inside? - Understand why self-learning is an effective strategy. Learn why most university students never develop a deep understanding and what alternatives are possible. - Grasp the internal structure of physics. Learn how the fundamental theories of physics are connected and why physics works at all. - Develop an understanding of the landscape. Read bird's eye overviews that give a first taste of what the various theories of physics are all about. - Everything you need to get started. Read detailed reading and learning recommendations that allow you to carve out a personal learning path.