A History Of Classical Physics: From Antiquity to the Quantum

by J.D. Bernal

A History of Classical Physics; From Antiquity to the Quantum - 20th Century theories of the atom and the relativity of time and space radically altered thee landscape of physics. Yet these theories were not formulated in a vacuum, they extended the work of those who had previously made invaluable discoveries. The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus was the first to conceive of the atom, and Olaus Romer, in the seventeenth century was the first to propound the notion that light has a finite spee

Genres: Science, Physics, History

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

John Desmond Bernal FRS was one of the United Kingdom's most well-known and controversial scientists. Bernal is considered a pioneer in X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. He published extensively on the history of science. In addition, Bernal wrote popular books on science and society, and he was also a communist activist.

Reviews

[Jordan Bethea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of lectures about the history of physics converted into chapters in book form. The material is interesting, especially the details about the lives of the scientists and other discoverers, and how their lives intertwined. But because of the nature of the content, it can feel kind of meandering and disconnected. Some things are covered in lots of detail, others hardly at all. It was an enjoyable read, but could have stood some stronger editing and revisions.

[Sushil · Rating 3 out of 5]

G