Physics: An Illustrated History of the Foundations of Science

Ponderables: 100 Discoveries that Changed History, Who Did What When

by Tom Jackson

The fourth addition to the Ponderables series, An Illustrated History of the Foundations Science follows famous scientists and other experts through the ages as they unravel the fabric of the universe to reveal the array of fundamental forces, intangible articles, and indestructible energy that make up one of our core scientific studies. Filled with glorious color photos, imagery and diagrams, this authoritative volume even includes a simple physics guide and timeline that add new context to the fresh mysteries such as Higgs Boson, supersymmetry, and dark energy. Biographies of the great physicists plus 100 chronological articles on the history of physics build on the popular Who did what when? Ponderables trademark. In a world where technology and science have become familiar and exciting subjects, Physics finally lays wide open one of science s more mystifying facets, the knowledge without which everything else from astronomy to zoology would simply be meaningless conjecture.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, History, History Of Science

168 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2013

About the author

"I'm a non-fiction author and project editor (plus I do a bit of journalism). I'm available for project development, writing, project management and I also work as a packager. Click on the links above to see examples of my work.

But first some background: Over the last 20 years, I've written books, magazine and newspaper articles, for online and for television. I get to write about a wide range of subjects, everything from axolotls to zoroastrianism. However, my specialties are natural history, technology and all things scientific. I've worked on projects with Brian May, Patrick Moore, Marcus de Sautoy and Carol Vorderman and for major international publishers, such as Dorling Kindersley, National Geographic, Scholastic, Hachette, Facts on File and BBC Magazines.

I spend my days finding fun ways of communicating all kinds of facts, new and old, to every age group and reading ability. I live in Bristol, England, with my wife and three children. I studied zoology at Bristol University and have had spells working at the zoos in Jersey and Surrey. I used to be something of a conservationist, which included planting trees in Somerset, surveying Vietnamese jungle and rescuing buffaloes from drought-ridden Zimbabwe. Writing jobs have also taken me to the Galápagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest, the coral reefs of Indonesia and the Sahara Desert. Nowadays, I can be found mainly in the attic."
~http://tomjackson.weebly.com/

Reviews

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes a good coffee table book and more

The title is cashing in on a rash of books about by the numbers; 100 objects, 100 pictures, and in this case “Ponderables 100 breakthroughs that changed history, who did what when.”

This book, of course, concentrates on physics from its history to today 2013; Publisher: Shelter Harbor Press; w/ fold-out Time Chart edition (October 28, 2013)

There are only 143 pages so not more than a page can be used for each breakthrough. However, you do not want to miss a page. Each breakthrough is packed with the essential idea(s), the relevant person(s), and enough information to get you started on a particular item or subject.

There are lots of color pictures and essential charts (with a tad of math) so that if you never pick up another book you will have a good idea of the particular imponderable. “And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

A short paragraph imponderable 68 “General Relativity: Space and Time”:
“Einstein was able to explain the force of gravity in terms of warping space-time. All mass blends space-time into a ‘gravity well’ – the bigger the mass, the bigger this well. So, a falling apple plummets into Earth’s huge gravity well.’

An added plus for this book is that it includes a foldout timeline with over 1000 milestone facts. Too bad that it’s double-sided or it would make a nice presentation on the wall.

Even if you do not go through page by page this book is worth it is salt in filling in the few holes that are missing in your concept of physics.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the most complex for me to understand in the Ponderable series, physics is just out of my wheelhouse of understanding- not even coming close, but I attempted to learn just a little, even if it was some vocabulary and make connections to things and people I already knew like the Curies and pendulums. Topics for this book include x-rays and waves, Geiger's counter, dark energy, and atomic theory. Ask me again and I can tell you that while I nodded my head and appreciate the layout of the series to give snippets over history about a big subject, it's not going to fit in this brain of mine.

Still super cool even if I only was entertained for a bit because it's still unimaginably difficult to digest.

[Frederick Gault · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice coffee table book about the development of Physics from the ancient Greeks through alchemy up to stunning developments made by scary smart people that gave us things in our daily life that might as well be magic; photography, flight, trips to the moon, personal computers, electric lights, space telescopes, discovery of other planets outside our solar system, the understanding of the forces that make life possible and the composition of the Universe in which we exist. Also discussed, the things humans don't know, the gaps in our understanding of how things exist the way they do.

[Gremlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an informative read for people interested in, as its titled, the History of Physics. This includes learning about theories of the turtle flat earth and also dark matter. However, sometimes the there is images behind the text that makes it extremely difficult to read and really frustrating. I also found the inclusions of meaningless rumor dribble unnecessary padding, but I understand its probably intended as attention grabbing lingo between the informative topics, it just makes it feel less serious.

[Viewpoints Radio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of physics is a long and extremely interesting one, littered with the names of some of the most famous scientists in the world, like Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, Curie, and others. We talk to Tom Jackson about a few of the highlights throughout the long history of physics and astronomy. Listen here: https://viewpointsradio.wordpress.com...

[Segun Longe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that summarises all of physics to date...right up to String Theory. This is a delightful book that will jog a lot of memories for physic students.

PS- With the list of great physicists at the end of the book the one that struck me the most for the share audacity and brilliance was Al-Biruni calculating the radius of the earth quite accurately!

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly readable and enjoyable popular science book. Some of the most complex and groundbreaking concepts in the history of physics are distilled down into at most, a two page spread. Both a blessing and a curse; sometimes the extreme brevity of the topics covered means there's some level of prior knowledge required to understand the content.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

167 - 2019

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In November, 1887, the physicists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley revolutionized physics by not finding evidence of a mysterious, ghostly substance they called the luminiferous ether, which was thought to serve as a medium for light waves.

Thus, November is a good month to consider reading this wonderfully interesting book by Tom Jackson which presents 100 of the greatest breakthroughs in physics.

Physics provides, in a chronological progression, significant developments in both cosmological and elementary particle physics. That is, this is the story of how we have found out about both the smallest and the largest scales known to us in the universe. As the author states, “Physics in the foundation of all science. Without it all of our other knowledge would crumble and collapse.” [And math is the foundation of physics. But Jackson manages to lay out the magic of physics without requiring readers to decipher equations.]

The author has a daunting task. Whole books have been written on each of the subjects he covers in only one or two pages. But he does an excellent job, and will no doubt inspire readers to continue investigating the subjects on their own.

After he takes us through 100 discoveries, explained with the help of fascinating photos and diagrams, he then goes back to the basics, appending a section on concepts like mass, force, waves and electromagnetism. Next, he includes a short explication of today’s “imponderables”: a review of questions still in need of answers, such as the nature of dark energy.  A short biography of some of the greatest physicists follows. He does a nice job here too, managing to convey the gist of their discoveries with some of their quirks and “fun stuff” about them. (However, some may view this as an unfortunate distraction in the book. I suppose it depends upon the reader. Richard Feynman, who played bongos, inter alia, resented that his eccentricities were used to give, as one publisher said, “a human approach to a presentation of the difficult matter that theoretical physics represents." Feynman wrote to the publisher, quite irritated, as shown in the quote below.)

Dear Sir,

The fact that I beat a drum has nothing to do with the fact that I do theoretical physics. Theoretical physics is a human endeavor, one of the higher developments of human beings, and the perpetual desire to prove that people who do it are human by showing that they do other things that a few other humans do (like playing bongo drums) is insulting to me.
I am human enough to tell you to go to hell.

Yours, 
RPF"

Finally, a large foldout included with the book gives over 1,000 milestone facts. This foldout is outstanding. On one side, it features such useful information as a table of derived units (pascals, joules, watts and so on); a great list of constants, providing their symbols, mathematical values, and relative standard uncertainties; conversion tables; and the periodic table. The other side is a timeline, showing important events that occurred simultaneously in four categories: Physics, Science & Invention, World Events, and Culture. Some of the "Cultural Events" included are rather odd, like: “1801: The Union Jack is adopted as the official British flag.” But the worst, in my opinion, is the 2013 entry. While the entry for Physics is the discovery of the Higgs Boson - a truly monumental event, the entry for Culture is “2013: Michael Jackson’s family accuse the dead musician’s promotors of negligence and sue for $40 billion.” Really? I shudder to think what that means if that is how “culture” is defined for 2013.

Evaluation: Small quibbles aside, this book would make an excellent gift or addition to anyone’s library, either as a coffee table book for intermittent perusal; as a book to excite young readers to look further into some of the many exciting findings; or as an introduction to the most important things we know about what we are, where we came from, and where we might be heading.

[Gerald Kinro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jackson believes that physics is the mother of all sciences and for good reasons that he gives to make his point. This is a well-illustrated 140 page edition that lists 100 breakthroughs in physics that he deems the most important, those that changed mankind. It covers the evolution of the science from classical physics to modern physics. Each topic is given a cursory look and is, at the most, two pages long. I tells the reader when and who made the discovery—moving bodies, buoyancy, force, light, sound, electricity and the wonders of modern physics—nuclear physics, relativity… To aid the reader, there is a short biography of the great physicists Archimedes, Galileo, Bohr, the Curies, Plank, Tesla, and the rest. He includes photos, and a timeline of the great discoveries he writes about.

This is a beautiful book, splendidly illustrated in color, when appropriate.
Besides separating into branches of classical verses modern physics, discussions range from the theories of tides, light, atoms, and the Big Bang to scientific laws related to refraction, gas, and thermodynamics, along with discoveries by Boltzmann, Einstein, Geiger, Hawking, Hooke, Maxwell, Ockham, Plank, and Thales to name a few. It is not a science book. It is best used as a reference. It could also serve as a coffee table book because of its style. I read it continuously but still found it enjoyable. When limiting a listing of greats as Jackson does, there is the inevitable “why was this not included?” I have my opinions on what should have included. This however, does not take away from the quality of the read.

[Mario Streger · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is all the history of physics in this high quality full color book, and also a foldout timeline, all illustrated! At the end of the book there is a section of the physics basic concepts, making this book complete for any student.

[Connor Oswald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew you could take all the content in my major and fit it on ~150 pages?

I like the pictures.

[Tue Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book packed with insights and illustrations. Suitable for beginners. This book should also be in circulation at a school or public library.