Measuring the Universe

2013-01-31
 |  Science
Measuring the Universe

Author: Kitty Ferguson

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781448167227

Category: Science

Page: 320

View: 274

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Suppose you and I still wondered whether all of the pinpoints of light in the night sky are the same distance from us. Suppose none of our contemporaries could tell us whether the Sun orbits the Earth, or vice versa, or even how large the Earth is. Suppose no one had guessed there are mathematical laws underlying the motions of the heavens. How would - how did - anyone begin to discover these numbers and these relationships without leaving the Earth? What made anyone even think it was possible to find out “how far,” without going there? In Measuring the Universe we join our ancestors and contemporary scientists as they tease this information out of a sky full of stars. Some of the questions have turned out to be loaded, and a great deal besides mathematics and astronomy has gone into answering them. Politics, religion, philosophy and personal ambition: all have played roles in this drama. There are poignant personal stories, of people like Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Herschel, and Hubble. Today scientists are attempting to determine the distance to objects near the borders of the observable universe, far beyond anything that can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky, and to measure time back to its origin. The numbers are too enormous to comprehend. Nevertheless, generations of curious people have figured them out, one resourceful step at a time. Progress has owed as much to raw ingenuity as to technology, and frontier inventiveness is still not out of date.

Roman Ondák

2008
 |  Art, Slovak
Roman Ondák

Author: Roman Ondák

Publisher: Jrp Ringier

ISBN: UCSD:31822036432896

Category: Art, Slovak

Page: 182

View: 186

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Roman Ondák represents the Slovak Republic at the 2009 Venice Biennale. In this volume the Slovak artist Roman Ondák has brought together some of his works that deal with time, measurement, and surveying along with those that make visible what evades the visual, namely boundaries and experience. Alongside a complete documentation of the exhibition Measuring the Universe, where the museum attendants checked the body size of the visitors throughout its duration, one also finds Failed Fall (2008), a greenhouse's floor filled with dried autumn leaves, and Across that Place (2008), the story of the no longer existing Canal Zone by the Panama Canal. Whether working with installation, photography, drawing, or performance, Ondák underpins his work with processes, embedding them into the course of an action. The action extends over time, transcribes a scenario rather than explaining it, and can be attached to radically minimalist objects, or as in this case, to extremely narrative books. Anything that plays a role in his work has its place in this book: the displacement of people and places, presence and absence, the economy of time. This publication is part of the series of artists' projects by Christoph Keller Editions in collaboration with BAWAG Foundation. English text.

AQA A Level Science – AQA A Level Physics Year 1 and AS Student Book

2016-04-06
 |  Education
AQA A Level Science – AQA A Level Physics Year 1 and AS Student Book

Author: Dave Kelly

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

ISBN: 9780008154189

Category: Education

Page: 400

View: 320

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Covering AS and A-level Year 1 for the 2015 AQA specification, this Student Book combines the most comprehensive explanation with features that build skills in practical work, maths and evaluation. With a clear path of progress, it prepares students for the demands of A-level and beyond. AQA approved.

Measuring the Universe

1999-03-18
 |  Science
Measuring the Universe

Author: Stephen Webb

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 1852331062

Category: Science

Page: 364

View: 649

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Recounts the mathematical reasoning which was used to calculate first the size of the earth, then the solar system, and so on up to the universe.

The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science

2003-02-14
 |  Science
The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science

Author: John L. Heilbron

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0195112296

Category: Science

Page: 994

View: 350

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Containing 609 encyclopedic articles written by more than 200 prominent scholars, The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science presents an unparalleled history of the field invaluable to anyone with an interest in the technology, ideas, discoveries, and learned institutions that have shaped our world over the past five centuries. Focusing on the period from the Renaissance to the early twenty-first century, the articles cover all disciplines (Biology, Alchemy, Behaviorism), historical periods (the Scientific Revolution, World War II, the Cold War), concepts (Hypothesis, Space and Time, Ether), and methodologies and philosophies (Observation and Experiment, Darwinism). Coverage is international, tracing the spread of science from its traditional centers and explaining how the prevailing knowledge of non-Western societies has modified or contributed to the dominant global science as it is currently understood. Revealing the interplay between science and the wider culture, the Companion includes entries on topics such as minority groups, art, religion, and science's practical applications. One hundred biographies of the most iconic historic figures, chosen for their contributions to science and the interest of their lives, are also included. Above all The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science is a companion to world history: modern in coverage, generous in breadth, and cosmopolitan in scope. The volume's utility is enhanced by a thematic outline of the entire contents, a thorough system of cross-referencing, and a detailed index that enables the reader to follow a specific line of inquiry along various threads from multiple starting points. Each essay has numerous suggestions for further reading, all of which favor literature that is accessible to the general reader, and a bibliographical essay provides a general overview of the scholarship in the field. Lastly, as a contribution to the visual appeal of the Companion, over 100 black-and-white illustrations and an eight-page color section capture the eye and spark the imagination.

Measuring the Universe

2012-07-12
 |  Science
Measuring the Universe

Author: George H. Rieke

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781139536073

Category: Science

Page:

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Astronomy is an observational science, renewed and even revolutionized by new developments in instrumentation. With the resulting growth of multiwavelength investigation as an engine of discovery, it is increasingly important for astronomers to understand the underlying physical principles and operational characteristics for a broad range of instruments. This comprehensive text is ideal for graduate students, active researchers and instrument developers. It is a thorough review of how astronomers obtain their data, covering current approaches to astronomical measurements from radio to gamma rays. The focus is on current technology rather than the history of the field, allowing each topic to be discussed in depth. Areas covered include telescopes, detectors, photometry, spectroscopy, adaptive optics and high-contrast imaging, millimeter-wave and radio receivers, radio and optical/infrared interferometry, and X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, all at a level that bridges the gap between the basic principles of optics and the subject's abundant specialist literature. Color versions of figures and solutions to selected problems are available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521762298.

Continuous Quantum Measurements and Path Integrals

2017-10-19
 |  Science
Continuous Quantum Measurements and Path Integrals

Author: M.B Mensky

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781351458023

Category: Science

Page: 171

View: 185

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Advances in technology are taking the accuracy of macroscopic as well as microscopic measurements close to the quantum limit, for example, in the attempts to detect gravitational waves. Interest in continuous quantum measurements has therefore grown considerably in recent years. Continuous Quantum Measurements and Path Integrals examines these measurements using Feynman path integrals. The path integral theory is developed to provide formulae for concrete physical effects. The main conclusion drawn from the theory is that an uncertainty principle exists for processes, in addition to the familiar one for states. This implies that a continuous measurement has an optimal accuracy-a balance between inefficient error and large quantum fluctuations (quantum noise). A well-known expert in the field, the author concentrates on the physical and conceptual side of the subject rather than the mathematical.

The Extravagant Universe

2016-10-04
 |  Science
The Extravagant Universe

Author: Robert P. Kirshner

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN: 9780691173184

Category: Science

Page: 304

View: 366

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The Extravagant Universe tells the story of a remarkable adventure of scientific discovery. One of the world's leading astronomers, Robert Kirshner, takes readers inside a lively research team on the quest that led them to an extraordinary cosmological discovery: the expansion of the universe is accelerating under the influence of a dark energy that makes space itself expand. In addition to sharing the story of this exciting discovery, Kirshner also brings the science up-to-date in a new epilogue. He explains how the idea of an accelerating universe--once a daring interpretation of sketchy data--is now the standard assumption in cosmology today. This measurement of dark energy--a quality of space itself that causes cosmic acceleration--points to a gaping hole in our understanding of fundamental physics. In 1917, Einstein proposed the "cosmological constant" to explain a static universe. When observations proved that the universe was expanding, he cast this early form of dark energy aside. But recent observations described first-hand in this book show that the cosmological constant--or something just like it--dominates the universe's mass and energy budget and determines its fate and shape. Warned by Einstein's blunder, and contradicted by the initial results of a competing research team, Kirshner and his colleagues were reluctant to accept their own result. But, convinced by evidence built on their hard-earned understanding of exploding stars, they announced their conclusion that the universe is accelerating in February 1998. Other lines of inquiry and parallel supernova research now support a new synthesis of a cosmos dominated by dark energy but also containing several forms of dark matter. We live in an extravagant universe with a surprising number of essential ingredients: the real universe we measure is not the simplest one we could imagine.