Remarkable Physicists From Galileo to Yukaa [Paperback]

Portrayals of 55 physicists, which collectively convey how the subject developed into its modern form.The 250 years from the second half of the 17th century saw the birth of modern physics and its growth into one of the most successful of the sciences. The reader will find here the lives of 55 of the most remarkable physicists from that era described in brief biographies. Scientific and mathematical detail is kept to a minimum, so the reader who is interested in physics, but perhaps lacks the background to follow technical accounts, will find this collection an inviting and easy path through the subject's development.The 250 years from the second half of the 17th century saw the birth of modern physics and its growth into one of the most successful of the sciences. The reader will find here the lives of 55 of the most remarkable physicists from that era described in brief biographies. Scientific and mathematical detail is kept to a minimum, so the reader who is interested in physics, but perhaps lacks the background to follow technical accounts, will find this collection an inviting and easy path through the subject's development.This book is ideal for anyone who would like to read about the lives of some of the most remarkable physicists born since the second half of the seventeenth century. Each of the fifty-five physicists profiled have made important contributions to physics, through their ideas and teaching, or in other ways. The biographies are arranged chronologically by the physicists' dates of birth, so that, when read in sequence, they convey how physics developed over time. However, the book emphasizes their varied life stories, not the details of their achievements. Ioan James is Professor at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. He is the author of Remarkable Mathematicians (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Topological and Uniform Spaces (Springer-Verlag, 1999).Prologue; 1. From Galileo to Daniel Bernoulli; 2. From Franklin to Laplacel.