George Gamow était un physicien théoricien et cosmologiste réputé pour ses travaux fondamentaux sur la désintégration radioactive et la formation stellaire. Sa découverte de la désintégration alpha par effet tunnel quantique a profondément modifié notre compréhension de la physique subatomique. Gamow s'est également penché sur les origines de l'univers, étudiant la formation des étoiles, la nucléosynthèse stellaire et de l'univers primitif, ainsi que le fond diffus cosmologique. Ses théories ont façonné la cosmologie et l'astrophysique modernes.
Mr Tompkins has become known and loved by many thousands of readers (since his first appearance over fifty years ago) as the bank clerk whose fantastic dreams and adventures lead him into a world inside the atom. George Gamow's classic provides a delightful explanation of the central concepts in modern physics, from atomic structure to relativity, and quantum theory to fusion and fission. Roger Penrose's new foreword introduces Mr Tompkins to a new generation of readers, and reviews his adventures in the light of current developments in physics today.
How did our sun come into being? What keeps it hot and luminous, and what will be its ultimate fate? This fascinating and informative book offers answers to some of nature's most exciting and difficult questions. George Gamow, renowned physicist and author of the best-seller One Two Three . . . Infinity, outlines the fundamental discoveries and theories of modern physics that illuminate the evolution of our world.One of the founders of Big Bang theory, Gamow traces the anatomy of matter in terms of modern physics. In language that's both scientifically accurate and simple enough for nonspecialists, he explains the development of atomic theory from its earliest articulation by Democritus in 375 B.C. through studies of nuclear reactions and radioactive decay. Along the way, Gamow discusses the formation of the stars and planets, the nature of red and white dwarfs, the dimensions of our stellar system, the infinity of space, and other fascinating subjects.
Lucid, accessible introduction to the influential theory of energy and matter features careful explanations of Dirac's anti-particles, Bohr's model of the atom, and much more. Numerous drawings. 1966 edition.
Nuclear physicist George Gamow takes the reader on an expedition through the problems, pleasures and puzzles of modern science. Among the topics scrutinized are the macrocosm and the microcosm, theory of numbers, relativity of space and time, entropy, genes, atomic structure, nuclear fission, and the origin of the solar system. In the pages of this book readers grapple with such crucial matters as whether it is possible to bend space, why a rocket shrinks, the "end of the world problem," excursions in the fourth dimension and a host of other topics
Outstanding text by one of the 20th century's foremost physicists dramatically explains how the central laws of physical science evolved, from Pythagoras' discovery of frequency ratios in the 6th century BC to today's research on elementary particles. Includes fascinating biographical data about Galileo, Newton, Huygens, Einstein and others. 136 illustrations.
A distinguished physicist and teacher, George Gamow also possessed a special gift for making the intricacies of science accessible to a wide audience. In Gravity , he takes an enlightening look at three of the towering figures of science who unlocked many of the mysteries behind the laws of physics: Galileo, the first to take a close look at the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of the concept of gravity as a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.Graced with the author's own drawings, both technical and fanciful, this remarkably reader-friendly book focuses particularly on Newton, who developed the mathematical system known today as the differential and integral calculus. Readers averse to equations can skip the discussion of the elementary principles of calculus and still achieve a highly satisfactory grasp of a fascinating subject.Starting with a chapter on Galileo’s pioneering work, this volume devotes six chapters to Newton's ideas and other subsequent developments and one chapter to Einstein, with a concluding chapter on post-Einsteinian speculations concerning the relationship between gravity and other physical phenomena, such as electromagnetic fields.
