From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves: Classical Physicists and Their Discoveries

by Emilio Segrè

Meet a diverse group of highly original thinkers and learn about their lives and Galileo, a founding father of astronomy and physics; Christiaan Huygens, a seventeenth-century pioneer of wave-particle duality; and Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and physicist who laid the groundwork for a scientific revolution and promoted radical investigation as the means to reveal nature's hidden workings.This chronicle of physics and physicists traces the development of scientific thought from these originators to their successors, among them Faraday, Watts, Helmholtz, Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs. Combining his own engaging style with the physicists' original writings, the author illustrates the evolution of individual physical ideas, as well as their roles in the wider field.A student and colleague of Enrico Fermi, Emilio Segrè (1905–89) made numerous important contributions to nuclear physics, including his participation in the Manhattan Project. A Nobel laureate, Segrè is further renowned for his narrative skills as an historian. Hailed by the Journal of the History of Astronomy as "charming and witty," this book is a companion to the author's From X-Rays to Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries, also available from Dover Publications.

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

595 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Emilio Gino Segrè physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1959) along with Owen Chamberlain for thier discovery of the antiproton.

Reviews

[Darko Doko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. Much much better book about same subject is one from George Gamow "Great physicist from Galileo to Einstein". I only bought it because of Gino Segre (authors nephew himself author of excellent books, I really liked rading) recommendation.
The book is more about biographies of physicist and lists of their work with particularly annoying quotation of their letters, papers etc than about how physics evolved through history

[J C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's cute, but rambles. I didn't really get much out of it...

[Ron Dorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging history of physics from Galileo to Boltzman. Segre does a nice job of combining biography with classical physics concepts that form the basis for our current understanding of our (macro) universe. Nice prequel to his book "From x-rays to Quarks" that surveys 20th century physics encompassing quantum theory and relativity. Highly recommended for those interested in the history of science and discovery.

[Lulu]

History