It's all in how one precieves things. For instance, I had a customer come into my shop one day, and tell me that he bagged a deer (he, not me) with a 30-30 rifle, off hand, at a distance of 1000 yards. I told him that he was full of... well, that he was nuts, and then I dragged him outdoors where I had him point out what he believed to be the distance of his shot. He looked around for a second and then pointed accross the street to where a dumpster sat behind the school and said, "there". I told him that was about a 200 yards shot to which he replied, "yes, but I had to walk down the hill some 400 yards, and 400 yards back up the other side... What does this have to do with the subject? Absolutely nothing! But thanks for listening... ;) Quoting daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com>:
Most of us live in a world of words. We email our feeling and convey out thoughts but the science of physics requires numbers and (shutter) mathematics to be understood. There are popular science works written for the average amateur astronomer, and these works have the math removed. The soul of understanding; the thunderclap of recognition, the (dare I say) religious experience of physics is in the mathematics. Not only that but the word versions of physics leave holes big enough for skeptics to drive a truck through.
At age 50 I was unhappy with my knowledge of physics. So I picked up a copy of Richard Feynman?s ?Six Easy Pieces?. This was entertaining and informative but not quite there. Next I read ?Six Not So Easy Pieces? and this opened the door a crack and let in the blinding light of understanding. So I read it again. There is enough mathematics here to convey the concepts of Relativity but not enough to scare off college freshmen that are supposed to know some math. There is also discussion of the views of skeptics and why they are wrong. The science of physics is based on experimental evidence that reduces to numbers that plug into the equations that let the math tell you what is going on. The skeptics are cocktail party philosophers who play word games.
Richard has been gone now almost twenty years, but his books are still wonderful. They can pry open your skull and give your brain a cold shower.
Other popular science works are:
Kip S. Thorne?s ?Black Holes and Time Warps?: a good attempt by a physicist but the math is minimal and is banished to the footnotes so as not to scare the horses.
Timothy Ferris?s ?The Whole Shebang? and ?Seeing in the Dark?: Tim is a journalist and a life long amateur astronomer. He approaches the science with the soul of a poet. It?s just words but it?s words from a competent wordsmith who is on speaking terms with real scientists.
Jean Meeus?s: ?Mathematical Astronomy Morsels?, Lots of math about planetary positions. A great book with two sequels ?More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels? and ?Mathematical Astronomy Morsels III?. And for the computer programmers, ?Astronomical Algorithms?.
DT
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