How Big is Big and How Small is Small
The Sizes of Everything and Why
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19 635 Ft (18 700 Ft + 5% VAT)
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19 635 Ft
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 24 October 2013
- ISBN 9780199681198
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages266 pages
- Size 225x153x21 mm
- Weight 450 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 61 b/w illustrations 0
Categories
Short description:
This book is a panoramic view of nature, from quarks to the edge of the universe. It holds this wide range of topics together by addressing the question how big are things and why are they that size. The book is full of curios as well as interesting facts and unique descriptions of dozens of things in the universe.
MoreLong description:
This book is about how big is the universe and how small are quarks, and what are the sizes of dozens of things between these two extremes. It describes the sizes of atoms and planets, quarks and galaxies, cells and sequoias. It is a romp through forty-five orders of magnitude from the smallest sub-nuclear particles we have measured, to the edge of the observed universe. It also looks at time, from the epic age of the cosmos to the fleeting lifetimes of ethereal particles. It is a narrative that trips its way from stellar magnitudes to the clocks on GPS satellites, from the nearly logarithmic scales of a piano keyboard through a system of numbers invented by Archimedes and on to the measurement of the size of an atom.
Why do some things happen at certain scales? Why are cells a hundred thousandths of a meter across? Why are stars never smaller than about 100 million meters in diameter? Why are trees limited to about 120 meters in height? Why are planets spherical, but asteroids not? Often the size of an object is determined by something simple but quite unexpected. The size of a cell and a star depend in part on the ratio of surface area to volume. The divide between the size of a spherical planet and an irregular asteroid is the balance point between the gravitational forces and the chemical forces in nature.
Most importantly, with a very few basic principles, it all makes sense. The world really is a most reasonable place.
Smith's book "How Big is Big and How Small is Small " is a most enjoyable read, erudite and entertaining. You can learn a great deal not just about how and why we measure things the way we do, but also what limits the sizes of the smallest and largest animals as well as the smallest and largest objects in the Universe. It also puts our human lives into (a Cosmic) perspective. I highly recommend it.
Table of Contents:
From Quarks to the Cosmos - An Introduction
Scales of the Living World
Big Numbers; Avogadro's Number
Scales of Nature
Little Numbers; Boltzmann's and Planck's Constant
The Sand Reckoner
Energy
Fleeting Moments of Time
Deep and Epic Time
Down to Atoms
How Small is Small
Stepping Into Space - The Scales of the Solar System
From the Stars to the Edge of the Universe
A Little Chapter About Truly Big Numbers
Forces That Sculpture Nature and Shape Destiny
