The Little Book of Scientific Principles, Theories and Things

by Surendra Verma

The Little Book of Scientific Principles, Theories, & Things explains 175 laws, principles, equations, theories and things that form the foundations of science. It features all the great names in science, including Pythagoras, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, as well as more recent contributors such as Rachel Carson, James Lovelock, and Stephen Hawking.

This little book presents serious science simply, answering questions like:

What is Pythagorean Theorem?

What is the difference between circadian rhythms and the popular concept of biorhythms?

What is Hawking’s Black Hole Theory?

Who developed the World Wide Web?

Genres: Science, Reference, Physics, Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ariyan Abidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

تقريبا ٢٠٠تا از مهم ترين نظريه هاى جهان كه از قضيه فيثاغورث شروع ميشه با نظريه همه چيز پايان ميابه و نويسنده سعى كرده هر كدوم رو تو حداقل ٢ صفحه و به ساده ترين شكل ممكن توضيح بده؛
به طور كلى خوب بود.
براى منى كه جز فيزيك به هيچ علم ديگه اى علاقه ندارم و از طرفي هم نميخوام به طور كلى تو بحث هاى علمى كم بيارم خيلى مفيد بود
البته بازم بيشتر از ٧٠ درصد نظريه ها مربوط به رياضى و فيزيك بودن

يه سرى ايرادات جزئى هم داره و بعضى از توضيحات براى چيزايى مثل نظريه نسبيت و كوانتوم خيلى كلى بودن و بعضى مواقع هم غلط هايى داشت
ولى قابل چشم پوشى هستن چون قرار نيست يه كتاب تخصصى باشه.

[Sarah Far · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب قوانین،نطریه های علمی، و چیزهای دیگر;
۱۷۶ قانون،اصل،معادله،نطریه و چیزهای دیگری را به زبان ساده توضیح میدهد که پایه های دانش را می سازند.
مانند:
قضیه فیثاغورث چیست؟
نظریه سیاهچاله چیست؟
چه کسی اینترنت را ابداع کرد؟!
ووو...

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and interesting light read. The author sums up, as the title says, over 175 'scientific principles, theories, and things' from the 6th century BC to the 21st century (it was published in 2005.)
I'd have given it more stars, but I caught a significant error in a subject I know, which makes me wonder whether there are more in areas I don't know as well (he described the hydrogen isotope tritium as having 2 protons and one neutron. He got protons and neutrons backward - two protons would make it a different element, helium. A pretty important difference.)
I did like the fact that he included some whimsical entries, e.g. Murphy's Law and the Tumbling Toast Theory.
Again, fun light reading. One fact that he didn't specifically note that jumped out: in the first part of the book, new discoveries are centuries apart. By the end, they were coming almost every year and sometimes several per year, showing the acceleration of scientific knowledge's growth.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The timeline is really well explained and very useful, but the descriptions aren't as insightful as you'd expect sometimes.

[Norah Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chronology makes the material much more interesting than it would be if arranged according to a plan of, say, like principles of mathematics. At first I didn't like how short all the references were, but then I realized that I would likely not have kept on reading if the entries had been longer. And since I read it I have realized how many references in the world I had been missing - in particular, the Turing test must have come across my path now a dozen times since I have finished the book...and I bet I would not have even noticed the reference, or spent the time when reading out there in the "big wide world" to find out what the reference meant.

So now that I have read the book I have a lot more respect for it than while I was reading it as "reading lite" during lunches.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's concise and easy to read. At times, it also offers a glimpse into some fascinating lives. A fun little science book to have. It's a good "spring-board" book, where you get a little bit of information on a person/scientific principles and want to go off and learn more.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to read, but not for the usual reasons. First of all, the collection of items is brilliant. For that Mr. Verma gets 4*. But the discussions are all over the map ranging from mediocre to abominable. I should caveat this by saying I am a physicist and so I am holding the content to my standard of discussion. Mr. Verma's discussion may be good for a non-scientist but I cannot rate that and I also cannot give the hypothesis much credence. So for content he gets 0*.

One of the reasons the book is hard to read is that, because the discussions are so bad, often negative, I frequently stop and try to fix them with marginalia or sticky notes. Often that is nothing more than a crucial point or equation that I fear would only have meaning to me.

The next time Mr. Verma writes a science book I hope he partners with someone who understands and can express the content.

As I said, the outline is excellent. In fact, I am using the book for an adult education seminar. We usually do about five topics per meeting. Because adults tend not to read assignments, I can assign the five (or so,) and they will at most scan the titles before class. Then I can go through in class and do a more proper job of explaining the topics accurately.

Anyone wishing to teach themselves science overview can use the book as an outline but read the topic write-ups in credible sources like encyclopedias or college texts. The book is inexpensive enough that such is not a waste. But be very careful of imbibing the content of the topics, they are almost as untrustworthy as the internet.

[Feroz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good reference book for any science student. It bestows anyone interested in science with knowledge on various scientific laws, theories, etc. It is prepared in a manner which is very easy to read and understand. It is also arranged in ascending form in years. So it covers important scientific hypothesis / laws / theories from Pythagoras' Theorem to the most recent run against a Theory of Everything. The pages include the information such as law / theory / hypothesis name, inventor / discoverer, year and place of discovery etc.

Although it does have a lot of information, it misses a lot of theories / laws. Other than that and a bit of bad proofreading , the book is a fine read for the knowledge thirsty.

[Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't expect to actually learn anything scientific from this book. It consists of one page summaries of scientific discoveries over the past 2000 years.

What it does do is make you aware of the amazing strides man has made in understanding the world. Its beyond imagining the ingenuity these scientists/thinkers had in being able to observe the workings of the universe.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting and informative. It shows many great discoveries. My favorite of these is Nuclear Fission, discovered 1938 in Germany. "...The Uranium nucleus, after absorbing a neutron, had split into two roughly equal pieces, Barium and Krypton..." also, when the atomic number is even, it is a stable element. when the atomic number is odd, is is an unstable, radioactive element.

[Mario Streger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really a finding. With short description of many scientific achievements ordered as a time line this book was a real pleasure to be read. You can read one or two pages every now and then, and at the end you have the big picture of science throughout human history.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it. Good book to reference some general concepts.

[Claudinei Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, although has only a small detail about subjects addressed it can good tip for initial search for great science range.

[Emad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really love this book.