Book Description
Designed as a text for upper-level undergraduate and first-year graduate students, this volume attempts to establish the curriculum for the modern student entering the fledgling field of space physics. The book provides a broad, yet selective, treatment of the subject, covering virtually all aspects of space plasmas in the solar system.There are sections on the sun and solar wind, the magnetized and unmagnetized planets, and the fundamental process of space plasmas including shocks, plasma waves, ULF waves, wave-particle interactions, and auroral processes.In addition to emphasizing analysis, the authors also place importance on underlying phenomenology with extensive attention to observations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Space Physics?OH YEAH!
When I'm in the mood for a little exploration of stellar structure or maybe some light magnetohydrodynamics, this is the first thing I grab off the shelf.It's kept me interested and not at all wanting to gouge my eyeballs out for weeks!

Introduction to Space Physics
This is a very comprehensive book. It is excellent if you are beginer who knows basic electricity and magnetism, but have not dealt with space plasmas. ... Read more

Book Description
Art interprets the visible world, physics charts its unseen workings--making the two realms seem completely opposed. But in Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain tracks their breakthroughs side by side throughout history to reveal an astonishing correlation of visions.

From teh classical Greek sculptors to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, and from Aristotle to Einstein, aritsts have foreshadowed the discoveries of scientists, such as when Money and Cezanne intuited the coming upheaval in physics that Einstein would initiate. In this lively and colorful narrative, Leonard Shlain explores how artistic breakthroughs could have prefigured the visionary insights of physicists on so many occasions throughtout history.

Provacative and original, Art & Physics is a seamless integration of the romance of art and the drama of science...and exhilarating history of ideas.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Fantastic Read
This is a wonderful book, a fantastic read. Those upset with Shlain and think his work twaddle don't appreciate the vision behind his words. Sure, he might not get everything right. Loosen up, science folks. The work is visionary - not proven theory. One thing he talks about that is incredibly fascinating is how the left/right brains of humans evolved. This man has a lot of fascinating things to say. He doesn't need to be perfectly perfect with his facts to interest me.

Glass half empty or half full?
I understand the criticism many people have had for this book.There is some fuzzy thinking here.There is a lot of repetition, a tendency to bend concepts to fit the narrative rather than letting the art and physics shape the argument.Dr. Shlain overreaches here, perhaps trying to say too much about subjects he does not have an adequate grasp of.There is room out there for a more scholarly work approaching the subject of the intersection of art and physics.I'd like to see someone go into more detail about what artists' real grasp of physics has been at any given time, I'd like to see the zeitgeist of the periods discussed better analyzed to truly reveal the larger cultural trends at work and how they relate to both artistic innovation as well as scientific discovery.I think there are profound weaknesses in Dr. Shlain's book.

All of that being said, I got a lot from this book.It provoked a curiosity in me for a large variety of subjects.Dr. Shlain's enthusiasm and curiosity is apparent, and also catching: I went to this site specifically to see what other books on the subject might be around, and what other people had to say and recommend on the subject.I think that is very positive and not to be dismissed.The book is certainly engaging, filled with interesting ideas (even if they are not all correct or entirely logical) and compelling: the basic premise is certainly worth considering, even if it is unclear on what level or to what degree an artistic "precognition" of scientific discovery is happening.

So, would I recommend this?Yes, I would, with the caveat that one should tread carefully and be skeptical...which is good advice for just about anything you read.

Fuzzy Thinking
I was hoping this book would be at the level of Louis Menand's "The Metaphysical Club." It's not. The core ideas grab the reader, but the writing is fuzzy and sometimes plain wrong. For example, on page 180-81 what begins as a fascinating insight into the "primitive" color words, black / white / red, quickly bogs down in error. Shlain claims that "only in the most mature languages... does a separate word for the color blue make an appearance..." Possibly technically correct, but conceptually wrong. "Indigo" has been aroundsince at least Herodotus (450 BC.) I suspect Dr. Shlain is a delightful generalist who has written a book far beyond his knowledge.

From one neophyte to another
Being that my day to day occupation involves no thinking about physics in any complex way, or composition of music, literature, sculpting or painting, I feel in some ways disqualified from making certain kinds of assessments about Shlain's book.

I cannot find fault with his understanding of the Theory of Relativity because, quite frankly, I am a physics neophyte.Similarly, I cannot fault his understanding of certain works of art or periods in art history because I am not a specialist in that field either.Some discontents will point out that this makes it possible for me to be hoodwinked into believing something because of my lack of expertise and, more importantly, given that Shlain is also a novice in either field, should automatically disqualify him from talking about something he knows very little about.

If that was all there was to the story, I would agree and I would lambast the book, but this is not the only thing that is at play here.

Many people take umbrage with Shlain for trying to make connections where they seemingly don't exist.Why should anyone believe that H.G. Welles stumbled upon the theory of relativity before Einstein?Why should anyone concede that the rediscovery of perspective in art would bring about revolutionary scientific and social movements?Why on earth should we buy into the idea that Duchamp's famous "Nude Descending Down a Staircase" presaged the advancements made by Feynman?Making connections of this sort is unconscionable, cries the critic, but is it really?

The book is a work of fancy and curiosity.Right off the bat Shlain professes his lack of expertise.You know you're dealing with one man's inquiry into what interest him. Simply put, Shlain is open to wonder."Is there a connection?" he asks and then he goes on to try to find one.Instead of complaining about him playing a questionable game of connect the dots, why not stop and consider what he is asking instead of what he knows?

Is it not possible at all that the curious and gifted human artist wonders about the things that surround him in the world? Does the curious and gifted artist not question his own place in the universe?And what makes the universe work as it does? Is it really that hard to believe that the rediscovery of perspective (if not brought about) at least presaged the coming of the renaissance?Can we find no proof at all in the world that the rediscovery of perspective in Europe influenced and changed the makeup of the continent?When Shakespeare wonders about the "orbs from whom we are and cease to be" he is not giving a kind of consideration that will also interest other philosophers, scientists and artists?Is it not at all possible that the discovery of the number 0 came directly as a result of a need to represent nothingness or void by writers and artists?

It said that the great books of mankind often talk to one another.This is very true.Every important book talks to Plato's books.All of Shakespeare's works talk to Dostoyevsky's.And every person who's ever wondered about anything at all will find their way into the conversation and discover this vast river of knowledge.Are we so proud as to say that man is nothing but an island? Is one field of inquiry so abstract and one so precise that they are mutually exclusive and therefore one could not have influenced the other?I find that very hard to believe.

And even if Shlain is wrong to conclude that developments in art presaged those in science what he has done here is important for a number of reasons. For one, Shlain makes his arguments gently and the reader is never bullied into believing something he does not want to believe. Secondly, he has written a book for the masses and in this day and age, when most intellectuals write books for each other, that is an important achievement. And lastly, it is a book that raises questions every person should give consideration to.

I, for one, enjoyed the book tremendously and have used it as a springboard or a torch light that is leading me to other artists, scientists and ideas.I hope that you give it a chance and should you find yourself in disagreement with it, be thankful that it at least dares to wonder and challenge.

Oblivious.
"Dr." Shlain's work is little more than mental masturbation. Here's a clue Einstien: People live in the same world! There's NO way they could hear things from one another, is there? (sarcasm folks)

This psuedo-analytical babble is written under the false construct that people are isolated in history and spacetime.

Shlain should have thought that... Maybe Plank's revolutionary ideas sparked ideas in both art and physics helping lead to the Impessionist and later Cubist movements as well as Bohr's understanding of sub-atomic particle makeup and Einstein's theory of gravity.

Plus one could take a second, literally a second, and realize that artists were hearing of scientific breakthroughs and vice versa not to mention from the myriad of other human endeavors. Einstein's celebrity helped form the concepts of Italian Futurism and Marcell Duchamp's breaking of the then artistic "rules" led Feynman to establish his QED diagrams.

No doubt current breakthroughs will inspire future artists and scientists to achieve greatness in the same or different times. If the war in Iraq of today inspires an artist to write a play or paint an oil, then some engineer ten years from now is similarly inspired to create a quantum computer will Shlain use his same illogical reasoning to make another misguided and uneducated link between the two and show NO concept of the true historical context or common source(s)???

Nothing is mutually exclusive and many people can garner different ideas from a common source. Obviously Shlain is oblivious to this fact and this sophmoric literary attempt is just psdueo-intellectual tripe, a mental abortion if you will. Please, use your brain and read some history. Nothing is exclusive. I'm sure Kurt Vonnegutt and Stephen Hawkings both read the Iliad and both consciously or not have been influenced by it. Should I write a book on such a contrived piece of fiction linking Slaughterhouse 5 to A Brief History of Time? Hmmm..... ... Read more

Book Description
Emphasizing basic plasma theory, with applications to both space and laboratory plasmas, the topics covered in this text include single-particle motions, kinetic theory, magnetohydrodynamics, small amplitude waves in both cold and hot plasmas, nonlinear phenomena and collisional effects. Applications comprise planetary magnetospheres and radiation belts, the confinement and stability of plasmas in fusion devices, the propagation of discontinuities and shock waves in the solar wind, and the analysis of various types of plasma waves and instabilities that can occur in planetary magnetospheres and laboratory plasma devices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good text but homework problems too easy
The text was nicely written and describes a lot of phenomena but the homework problems were way too easy and most of the time did not even require the knowledge presented in the chapters.For example, many of the problems were of the form "plug this into the quadratic equation" or "add these two equations and simplify".Without problems that present a test of knowledge it was hard for me to solidify my reading or to know whether I really understood it.That criticism aside, the author was able to present a lot of information in an understandable form without getting needlessly bogged down in details. ... Read more

Book Description

Art interprets the visible world. Physics charts its unseen workings. The two realms seem completely opposed. But consider that both strive to reveal truths for which there are no words––with physicists using the language of mathematics and artists using visual images. In Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain tracks their breakthroughs side by side throughout history to reveal an astonishing correlation of visions. From the classical Greek sculptors to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, and from Aristotle to Einstein, artists have foreshadowed the discoveries of scientists, such as when Monet and Cezanne intuited the coming upheaval in physics that Einstein would initiate. In this lively and colorful narrative, Leonard Shlain explores how artistic breakthroughs could have prefigured the visionary insights of physicists on so many occasions throughout history. Provicative and original, Art & Physics is a seamless integration of the romance of art and the drama of science––and an exhilarating history of ideas.

Customer Reviews (2)

Shallow and confused
Leonard Shlain is a surgeon, not an art historian neither a physicist. His culture is impressively broad, but unfortunately shallow. His main thesis in this book is that basically all scientific discoveries were anticipated by artists. I find the interwoven relationship between art and science absolutely fascinating, but this book is not a reference that I would recommand on the topic.

The main problem is that this book abuses of the juxtaposition of unrelated facts, and presents them with such virtuosity that a magical causality seem to appear. Shlain presents ancient thoughts with the enlightenment of modern frameworks, subtly rewriting them, emphasizing concept and translating them such that they seem to fit with forthcoming theories.

This kind of pitfall has been described by Kuhn (the structure of scientific revolution). For example, if Newtonian mechanics can be expressed in the framework of relativity, relativity is NOT and extension of Newtonian physics, there is a fundamental revolution between them. It is only because Newtonian physics has been rewritten that it becomes more compatible with Einstein's new insights.

Moreover, Shlain's understanding of relativity is weak at best. For example, he often makes the confusion between the effect of the finite speed of light (which can be expressed in a Newtonian context) and relativity.

I was all the more disappointed that some of the issues are actually relevant and fascinating: relativity, non Euclidean, surrealism and cubism for example do share a common revolution of the notion of space (and thus of the place of humans in the world). Unfortunately, Shlain's caricatural statements are irrelevant: Manet had absolutely no idea of the concepts involved in relativity, and Einstein himself pointed out that cubism had nothing to deal with relativity (as opposed to Picasso's claims).

If you want a good introduction to art history, read Gombrich, if you want to learn about physics in a broad context, read Zajong (Catching the light).

Art & Physics:Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light
I thought this was a wonderful book. Tying the evolution of art to the evolution of thinking and science gave me a more holistic way to look at art. From the ancient Greeks through the Dark and Middle Ages, the Impressionists, and into modern times the parallels of physics to art are simply amazing.Perfect for us "left-brained" types. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Bake a soufflé, and you'll never unscramble the ingredientsagain. Unless, that is, you twist the ends of a wormhole around several times and drive a rocket through it, traveling back to a time before you ever cracked an egg. In Time & Space, part of the Eyewitness Science series, you'll learn all about time travel, wormholes, and all the ways that the universe is thought to be constructed. Stand-ins from real life (like orange peels, broken glasses, and trains) help you figure out what Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other physicists mean when they refer to black holes, space-time distortion, and other strange cosmic things. Starting with ancient ideas about space and time, and ending with the imaginary construction of a wormhole through time, Time & Space takes you on a colorfully illustrated trip through history, with great photos of the tools people have used to measure time and distance in many cultures. This is a great starter book in astrophysics, and it will help you understand things like whether the universe has always existed, what star systems look like, and what would happen to you if you fell into a black hole. (Ages 12 and older) --Therese LittletonBook Description
Explore the changing ideas about our Universe -- from the flat Earth to black holes.

Here is a spectacular, thought-provoking, and highly informative guide to the mysteries of the Universe. Superb full-color photography of scientific instruments, experiments, and innovative 3-D models reveals the discoveries and latest research that have transformed our understanding of the Universe. See how time and space are measured, the world's largest telescope, in Hawaii, a sonic tape measure, inside an atom, and how pulsars flicker on and off with amazing precision. Learn how far it is to the Moon, whether time can stand still, how to pop through a wormhole, how Einstein helped prove that everything is made of atoms, when the world's oldest observatory was built, and why "London Time" was introduced in 1840. Discover how the Universe is expanding, whether Schrodinger's cat is dead or alive, bouncing universes, what astronomers call "spaghettification", the difference between biotime and biospace, how ripples in spacetime happen, and much, much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Very Detailed Book
I've read alot of books about space, but this is the most detailed space book I've ever read. The part about time machines and black holes was confusing but very interesting.I had no idea it was possible to make a time machine, or is it? This book may not be right on everything but I trust it.I trust all the books I read (not including fiction books). The part about the box and the light going through was really interesting.I don't get everything in the book, but I still liked it.

This book is extrodinary (and makes you think a lot.)
Eyewitness Time & Space tells about many time theorys as well as space theorys (actually, they are one, also known as "spacetime" as it metions in the book.) This book tells about the history of time and space and how people have dealed with it over the milleniums and centuries, bio-space and bio-time, and spacetime laws. It even talks about going "across the universes". This means there are parallel dimensions happening trillions at a time when someone makes a choice and goes up that "root" in time, also known as "quantam universes". Sound confusing enough? There's also a chapter at the end of the book that says how you can create a time machine, but it would be really difficult, becuase it says you need a black hole. This book is facinating, yet it may be confusing to some people.

Not just for kids...
I got this book from the kids' section at our public library to help with some research I was doing. I haven't been a kid in decades, but I still absolutely loved Time & Space. Today, after having renewed the library book three times, I decided to order it from Amazon. It's something I want in my permanent library. I do not have a scientific mind, but that's okay. This book is written for the non-Einsteins among us.

CONFUSING, yet interresting
I had to make a report on black holes and time traveling. I read this book knowing nothing about scientific theories, trying to search for knowledge on the topic. It helped me a lot. It showed me how a time machine can be build. HOWEVER, it didn't based this theory on much. I was left dazed and confused. When I asked teachers to help me understand, they said it was just IMPOSSIBLE! Should this book be categorized as fiction? I hope not. My grade depends on it! ... Read more

Book Description
Physics of Space Plasmas was one of the first textbooks published in the area of space plasma physics and included up-to-date observations from space available at that time. It has been used in the United States and abroad by many universities as a text in introductory space plasma physics courses. A considerable number of new space plasma observations have been made since publication of the first edition. These more recent observations have revealed new and exciting information about space plasma and will enhance the quality of the overarching discussion and analyses of space plasma physics. Citing results from several NASA and ESA space missions, the completely revised Second Edition now expands the interpretation using kinetic physics to explain the kinetic features in the plasma data.Parks also includes a clear and simple discussion of how electromagnetic fields behave in rotating frames. This revision retains the thoughtful examples and problems of the First Edition and includes new ones to complement the new material and changes in the Second Edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is the real deal
For one who wants the full mathematical plasma physics approach to geospace, this is the book to get.

When it comes to looking up phenomena associated with the maths however, I found the book difficult. It often doesn't explain in enough depth in simple terms certain happenings around the earth (whistlers, instabilities etc). The chapters are organised around the maths aswell.

I suppose it depends on what you need the book for. If you want the full maths approach, get this book. If you want something based around the concepts, get a copy of Kivelson & Russell, or Kallenrode - both excellent texts. ... Read more

Book Description
Presenting an introduction to the mathematics of modern physics for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this textbook introduces the reader to modern mathematical thinking within a physics context. Topics covered include tensor algebra, differential geometry, topology, Lie groups and Lie algebras, distribution theory, fundamental analysis and Hilbert spaces. The book also includes exercises and proofed examples to test the students' understanding of the various concepts, as well as to extend the text's themes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A fast introduction to mathematics in physics
The book does not assume prior knowledge of the topics covered. However, the reader will find use of prior knowledge in algebra, in particular group theory, and topology. Compared to texts, such as Arfken Weber, Mathematical Methods for Physics, A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics is different, and emphasis is on proof and theory. The text is reasonably rigorous and build around stating theorems, giving the proofs and lemmas with occasional examples. The style is not the strictest, although making the text more reader friendly, it is easy to get confused with which assumptions have been made, and the direction of the proof. Sometimes only the "if" part is proven.

Students familiar with algebra will notice that the emphasis is on group theory, interestingly the concept of ideals is left mostly untouched. For more on representation theory a good reference is Groups Representations and Physics by H.F. Jones where solutions to some of the exercises can be found, and examples of the use of the fundamental orthogonality theorem applied to characters of represenations.

The first 6 chapters are relatively straight forward, but in chapter 7 Tensors the text becomes much more advanced and difficult. Chapter 10 on topology offers some lighter material but the reader should be careful, these consepts are to re-appear in the discussion of differential geometry, differentiable forms, integration on manifolds and curvature. These are not the most simple subjects and it is clear that they deserve entire courses of their own.

The book has insight and makes many good remarks. However, chapter 15 on Differential Geometry is perhaps too brief considering the importance of understanding this material, which is applied in the chapters thereinafter. The book is suitable for second to third year student in theoretical physics.

Jumping over the Gap
Most physicists avoid mathematical formalism, the book attacks this by exposing mathematical structures, the best approach I've ever experience. After reading the first chapter of this books I can assure is a must for everyone lacking mathematical formation undergraduate or graduate.

It surely jumps over this technical gap experienced by most physics opening the gate for advanced books an mathematical thinking with physic intuition.

Unfortunately is very expensive, i hope i could have it some day.

A serious, wide spectrum introduction to modern mathematical physics
This book covers almost every subject one needs to begin a serious graduate study in mathematical and/or theoretical physics. The language is clear, objective and the concepts are presented in a well organized and logical order. This book can be regarded as a solid preparation for further reading such as the works of Reed/Simon, Bratteli/Robinson or Nakahara.

Not a review, only a little more information
Since I don't yet have this book, I cannot review it; however, I have found the contents of this book on the publisher's web site in case it would help anyone decide to purchase it or not.

Contents

Preface
1. Sets and structures
2. Groups
3. Vector spaces
4. Linear operators and matrices
5. Inner product spaces
6. Algebras
7. Tensors
8. Exterior algebra
9. Special relativity
10. Topology
11. Measure theory and integration
12. Distributions
13. Hilbert space
14. Quantum theory
15. Differential geometry
16. Differentiable forms
17. Integration on manifolds
18. Connections and curvature
19. Lie groups and lie algebras

I will return at a later date to properly review it in case I need to change the rating I gave it. ... Read more

Book Description
This textbook deals with the requirements of space physics. The first part starts with a description of the Earth's plasma environment, followed by a derivation of single particle motions in electromagnetic fields, with applications to the Earth's magnetosphere. Then the origin and effects of collisions and conductivities, formation of the ionosphere, magnetospheric convection and dynamics, and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling are discussed.

The second part of the book presents a more theoretical foundation of plasma physics, starting from kinetic theory. Introducing moments of the distribution function permits derivation of the fluid equations, followed by an analysis of fluid boundaries, with the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples. Finally, fluid and kinetic theory are applied to derive the relevant wave modes in a plasma.

A representative selection of the many space plasma instabilities and relevant aspects of nonlinear theory is given in a companion textbook, Advanced Space Plasma Physics, by the same authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not a bad introductory book
Quite useful tool for students intending to go on in the area of space plasmas, but it is also good reference book for those working in the area, when they need to recall some basic information. However, some parts couldbe treated in more detail, and some parts are not explained in the bestway. And main problem is that some parts should be in different order, thenin third or fourth chapter would need to be coments like: "We willshow it later in the fifth chapter". This might be not a problem for aresearcher in the area who uses the book as a reference tool, however,students who are new in the area, be aware. Overall, it is quiteinteresting reading. ... Read more

Book Description

This book on the terrestrial space environment is directed at a broad group of students and scientists, who seek knowledge of the methods and results of space research. The only prerequisites are fundamental physics and mathematics as usually acquired in introductory college courses in science or engineering curricula. Stressing physical insight rather than mathematical precision, Physics of the Earth's Space Environment derives further knowledge on selected topics as each phenomenon is considered and strives to present experimental results in conjunction with basic reasoning about the underlying physics. The content's breadth and introductory nature make this an ideal textbook for students in geophysics, meteorology, space sciences and astronomy.

Book Description

Space is a large natural plasma laboratory offering a wealth of phenomena which range from the simple to the highly complex and non-linear. This book begins with an introduction to basic principles such as single-particle motion, magnetohydrodynamics and plasma waves. It incorporates these concepts into an analysis of complex phenomena including the sun and solar activity, shocks, interplanetary space and magnetospheres, and finally the interaction between these entities in solar-terrestrial relationships. In all these subfields of space research, special attention is paid to energetic particles. The book concludes with a brief chapter on instrumentation. In this third edition, numerous examples have been added to illustrate the basic concepts and aid the reader in applying such concepts to real world physics. In addition, recent observations (ACE, TRACE, Wind) have been included. The chapter on solar-terrestrial relationships has been expanded to introduce the current research topic of Space Weather.

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Struggle to define and understand fundamental concepts
This book shows just how tortuous has been the struggle in physics (and science in general) to arrive at and comprehend its fundamental concepts.The very first paragraph in Einstein's foreword is worth the price of the entire book, if one truly understands what Einstein has said.Most of us came into physics via ordinary textbook courses, where unfortunately most of the approach was to quickly master the equations and their methods of application.Somehow we never understood that the very foundations of physics are still very much at issue, and our teachers either did not realize this themselves, or considered such musings trivial, or were just too busy to enlighten us. Most of us think that things like space, mass, time, charge, field, potential, zero, and unity are obvious, and it can come as a major shock to one's system to find out that they are not.Most such fundamental concepts still do not have a satisfactory definition.Jammer's book, while cumbersome by its very scholarship, does give one a grasp of just how difficult the foundations problems -- such as the nature of space -- really are. If one is seriously interested in this sort of "deep" problem, then one must discover the literature oneself.Jammer's book is a must.I gave the book a 9 instead of a 10 because of its overall ponderous nature, but highly recommend it to anyone who is deeply interested in the foundations concepts of physics, how we got where we are, what we did along the way, what we may have yet missed, and just how firmor shaky are our concepts today.We also recommend Jammer's other studies of the concept of force and the concept of mass.

An encompasing, albeit overtly scholarly, look at "Space".
A very deep book, filled with excerpts in native languages from ancient Greek to modern German, French, and Russian, and with tensor mathematics and other such nonsense. If you want to have your concept of space and time ripped out from under you and your horizons dramatically broadened, check this one out!

(BTW, I gave this a 9 instead of a 10 solely because of the weightiness of the material.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A masterpiece
It isn't often that one comes across books of this calibre: Friedman has put together nothing short of a masterpiece. His depth and clarity of exposition are laudable, and so are his findings.

In an impressive effort, Friedman has found his way through the intricate and tangled maze--or mess--that spacetime physics and philosophy has become. The most important revelation to be learnt is in what sense theoretical spacetime remains an absolute and literal reality despite its unobservability: on the one hand, general relativity did not achieve a relativization of all motion (or Mach's programme), and in it acceleration remains an absolute concept; on the other, spacetime can be granted physical reality (rather than it being a mere mathematical representation) due to its theoretical unifying power.

Friedman's book exceeded my already high expectations. In a time in which lousy scientific writing has become commonplace, it is an utmost pleasure to stumble upon a book such as this one. To put it in a nutshell, this book is enlightening in an extraordinary way. Superb!

Comfort food for the scientific scrounger
The complexity of the mathematics of General Relativity produce an unfortunate side-effect: however satisfying they are from an aesthetic viewpoint, dealing with their rigour obscures the philosophical basis of their development.

Friedman does an admirable job of investigating the currents of early twentieth century thought that led Einstein down the particular road he chose, via a number of useful visualizations made by clear and surprisingly elegant prose and clean math, without dumbing down the science involved in the name of science 'popularization.'

In short, Friedman does an excellent job of presenting the 'why' of relativity, rather than just the 'how'. ... Read more

Book Description

Planetary Aeronomy is a modern and concise introduction to the underlying physical and chemical processes that govern the formation and evolution of the upper atmospheres of planets. The general approach employed permits consideration of the growing number of extrasolar planets, the detailed observation of which will become possible over the next decades. The book explains the physics behind many atmospheric processes, which are relevant for the evolution of planetary atmospheres and their water inventories, and also contains useful scaling laws and analytical expressions that can be applied to any planet. Readers thus gain insight into the evolution of terrestrial planets and their long-time habitability, atmospheric stability, etc. This volume can be used both as graduate textbook for students wishing to specialize in the field as well as succinct compendium for researchers in the field.

Book Description
Ionospheres provides a comprehensive description of the physical, plasma and chemical processes controlling the behavior of ionospheres. The relevant transport equations and related coefficients are derived in detail and their applicability and limitations are described. Relevant wave processes are outlined and important ion chemical processes and reaction rates are presented. The various energy deposition and transfer mechanisms are described in some detail, and a chapter is devoted to the various processes controlling the upper atmosphere and exosphere. The second half of the book presents our current understanding of the structure, chemistry, dynamics and energetics of the terrestrial ionosphere, and other solar system bodies. The final chapter describes ionospheric measurement techniques. The book will form a comprehensive and lasting reference for scientists interested in ionospheres, and it will also prove an ideal textbook for graduate students. It contains extensive student problem sets, and an answer book is available for instructors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An invaluable textbook
For anyone who's at Postgrad or Postdoc level, this book is an invaluable addition to your library.Undergraduates may struggle with some of it, but I'm sure that any bright student could pick it up because it's written in clear, concise language.My only gripe is that the production quality of this paperback isn't what it should be for the money & I really wish I had bought the hardback version. ... Read more

Book Description
The second volume of the introductory text on Space Plasma Physics.Extends the material to the more advanced fields of plasma instabilitiesand nonlinear effects. ... Read more

Book Description
Space plasma is so hot that the atoms break up into charged particles which then become trapped and stored in magnetic fields. When critical conditions are reached the magnetic field breaks up, releasing a large amount of energy and causing dramatic phenomena. The largest space plasma activity events observed in the solar system occur on the Sun, when coronal mass ejections expel several billion tons of plasma mass into space. This book provides a coherent and detailed treatment of the physical background of large plasma eruptions in space. It provides the background necessary for dealing with space plasma activity, and allows the reader to reach a deeper understanding of this fascinating natural event. The book employs both fluid and kinetic models, and discusses the applications to magnetospheric and solar activity. This will form an interesting reference for graduate students and academic researchers in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. ... Read more

Book Description

Symplectic geometry, well known as the basic structure of Hamiltonian mechanics, is also the foundation of optics. In fact, optical systems (geometric or wave) have an even richer symmetry structure than mechanical ones (classical or quantum). The symmetries underlying the geometric model of light are based on the symplectic group. Geometric Optics on Phase Space develops both geometric optics and group theory from first principles in their Hamiltonian formulation on phase space. This treatise provides the mathematical background and also collects a host of useful methods of practical importance, particularly the fractional Fourier transform currently used for image processing.The reader will appreciate the beautiful similarities between Hamilton's mechanics and this approach to optics. The appendices link the geometry thus introduced to wave optics throughLie methods. The book addresses researchers and graduate students.

Book Description
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity leads to two remarkable predictions: first, that the ultimate destiny of many massive stars is to undergo gravitational collapse and to disappear from view, leaving behind a 'black hole' in space; and secondly, that there will exist singularities in space-time itself. These singularities are places where space-time begins or ends, and the presently known laws of physics break down. They will occur inside black holes, and in the past are what might be construed as the beginning of the universe. To show how these predictions arise, the authors discuss the General Theory of Relativity in the large. Starting with a precise formulation of the theory and an account of the necessary background of differential geometry, the significance of space-time curvature is discussed and the global properties of a number of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations are examined. The theory of the causal structure of a general space-time is developed, and is used to study black holes and to prove a number of theorems establishing the inevitability of singualarities under certain conditions. These conditions are shown to be satisfied in the vicinity of stars of more than twice the solar mass near the endpoint of their nuclear evolution, and in a time-reversed sense for the universe as a whole. In the first case, the singularity in our past. A discussion of the Cauchy problem for General Relativity is also included in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Large Scale structure of good science books (& spacetime
I think that this book has great depth, and is one of the best Stephen Hawking books I have read.My favourite remains 'A Brief History of Time', but still this book is extremely excellent.My compliments to the chef.

A classic in mathematical general relativity
This book is now a classic and is written by two giants in mathematics and physics. It wil be used for many years to come and is certainly one of the most widely quoted in the subject.

The authors begin the book by a discussion of the role of gravity in physics and its role as determining the causal structure of the universe. They introduce the idea of a closed trapped surface, setting the stage for the goal of the book, namely the study of the conditions under which a space-time singularity must occur. Black holes and the beginning of the universe are cited as examples of these singularities. The authors also outline briefly the content of each chapter. A neat argument is given for the significance of focal points via the use of Raychaudhari's equation.

The second chapter is an overview of the background in differential geometry needed in the rest of the book. Although complete from an axiomatic point of view, the approach is much too formal for readers who do not have a knowledge of differential geometry. Such a reader should gain the necessary background elsewhere.

General relativity as a theory of gravitation is discussed in chapter 3. Spacetime is assumed to be a connected 4-dimensional smoothmanifold on which is defined a Lorentz metric. The topologyis assumed to be Hausdorff. Some of the more interesting or well-written parts of this chapter include the example of a spacetime that is not inextendible, the determination of the conformal factor for the spacetime metric, and the discussion of alternative field equations.

The authors discuss the physicial significance of curvature in chapter 4, namely its effect on families of timelike and null curves. The most important part of this chapter is the discussion on certain inequalities tht the energy-momentum tensor should satisfy from a physical viewpoint. These inequalities, called the weak energy condition and the dominant energy condition, allow the authors to prove the existence of singularities ina later chapter. The reader can see clearly the role of the Jacobi equation, and its solution, the Jacobi field, in measuring the separation of nearby geodesics. The existence of conjugate points is proven, and shown to imply the existence of self-intersections in families of geodesics. As a warm-up to showing the non-existence of geodesics of maximal length, the authors employ variational calculus to study how to vary non-spacelike curves connecting points in convex normal neighborhoods in spacetime, and between points and hypersurfaces. In particular, it is shown that a timelike geodesic curve from a hypersurface to a point is maximal iff there is no conjugate point to the hypersurface along the curve. In addition, the authors prove that two points joined by a non-spacelike curve which is not a null geodesic can be joined by a timelike curve.

The authors consider the exact solutions of the Einstein field equations in chapter 5. Most of the "usual" spacetimes are considered, including Minkowski, De Sitter, Anti-de-Sitter, Robertson-Walker, Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, Kerr, Taub-Nut, and Godel. The emphasis in on the global properties of the spacetimes and the existence of singularities in them. The famous Penrose diagrams are used to "compactify" spacetimes in order to study their behavior at infinity and their conformal properties. The authors first introduce the concept of a future (past) Cauchy development here, so important in later developments in the book. The reader can see the tools developed in chapter 4 in play here; for example, the existence of a singularity in a spatially homogeneous cosmology is shown to follow directly from the Raychaudhuri equation. The existence of the singularity is proved to be independent of any acceleration or rotation of matter in such cosmologies.

In chapter 5, the authors consider the causal structure of spacetime, namely the study of its conformal geometry. The consideration of the set of all metrics conformal to the physical metric allows one to discuss "geodesic completeness" of spacetime, this concept forming the basis of a later definition of a singularity in spacetime. The more interesting topics discussed in this chapter include the causality conditions (there are no closed non-spacelike curves), and the Alexandrov topology and its connection with the strong causality condition (every neighborhood of a point contains a neighborhood of the point no non-separable curve of which intersects it more than once). When strong causality does hold, the Alexandrov topology is equivalent to the usual manifold topology, and thus the topology of spacetime can be determined by the observation of causal relationships. The discussion on the role of global hyperbolicity in showing the existence of a maximal geodesic is also very well-written.

The next chapter is pretty much independent of the rest, and was put in no doubt for the mathematician who desires to understand the Einstein equations as a set of nonlinear second-order hyperbolic partial differential equations with initial data on a 3-dimensional manifold, the famous Cauchy problem in general relativity.

Chapter 8 is the most important in the book, for its uses the constructions of earlier chapters to define the notion of a singularity in spacetime. The authors argue that singularities are points where physical laws break down and thus to characterize them one attempts to find out whether any such points have been removed, making spacetime "incomplete" in some sense. Such a notion of incompleteness is very meaningful in topological spaces with a positive definite metric, since in that case one can define completeness in terms of the convergence of Cauchy sequences. In spacetimes with a Lorentz metric, the authors discuss the notion of geodesic completeness for null and timelike geodesics. A very detailed treatment of the now famous singularity theorems is given, these theorems involving an inequality of the Ricci tensor. The last two chapters of the book are more physical in nature wherein the singularity problem is shown to have physical relevance via the occurence of black holes at the endpoint of evolution of massive stars.

A wonderful, foundational work of mathematical physics.
The early seventies saw a revolution in cosmology; for the first time, modern mathematical methods were applied to the discipline, with intriguing results.This book was (along with Penrose's articles) the seminal work in global general relativity.Often overlooked is that the first half ofHawking & Ellis is devoted to traditional GR via the tensor calculus,and the q-form conception.However, trying to learn GR with this volume isnot recommended (instead, cf. D'Inverno).The meat-and-potatoes of thebook is the discussion of gravitational collapse, and the singularitytheorems.They provide us with intuitively good reasons for believing insome very strange phenomenon.If you're interested in the frontiers ofmodern science, and have the appropriate mathematical background, this bookcannot be recommended too highly.The little yellow book stands supreme inthe hierarchy of works of modern physics.

Suitable only for mathematicians
Don't be mislead by Hawking's popular works, this is a book by a mathematician written for mathematicians.Unless you studied mathematics to at least graduate level (you need to understand vector calculus, vectorspaces and tensors to get anywhere) you are unlikely to get much from thisbook.Even then to read it at anything other than the most superficiallevel is very hard work.However even at the superficial level it givesone insights into some interesting aspects of general relativity.

The best book on modern General Relativity
This book of Stephen Hawking is the more elegant one on modern General Relativity and is my favorite book. It covers in brilliant form the gravitational collapse of a star, the theory of black holes, the space-time singularities, the causal structure of space-time, and in its end the initial singularity of the universe, popularly known as the Big Bang. Thebook is highly mathematical, and is pressuposed that the reader have studied basic abstract algebra and point set topology. But, for the readers highly interested in these subjects(as I am), this is not a obstacle. All theoretical physicists interested in modern General Relativity should have this book, a testimony of the Genius of Stephen Hawking. Definitively, a magnific book. ... Read more