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Scientific American Library Series #3
The Discovery of Subatomic Particles
This commentary on the discovery of the atom's constituents provides an historical account of key events in the physics of the twentieth century that led to the discoveries of the electron, proton and neutron. Steven Weinberg introduces the fundamentals of classical physics that played crucial roles in these discoveries. Connections are shown throughout the book between the historic discoveries of subatomic particles and contemporary research at the frontiers of physics, including the most current discoveries of new elementary particles. Steven Weinberg was Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard before moving to The University of Texas at Austin, where he founded its Theory Group. At Texas he holds the Josey Regental Chair of Science and is a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research has spanned a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology, and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics
206 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
15 people are currently reading
414 people want to read
About the author
Steven Weinberg
80 books596 followersSteven Weinberg (1933-2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.
He held the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research on elementary particles and physical cosmology was honored with numerous prizes and awards, including in 1979 the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1991 the National Medal of Science. In 2004 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, with a citation that said he was "considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today." He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society, as well as to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Weinberg's articles on various subjects occasionally appeared in The New York Review of Books and other periodicals. He served as consultant at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, President of the Philosophical Society of Texas, and member of the Board of Editors of Daedalus magazine, the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress, the JASON group of defense consultants, and many other boards and committees.
He held the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research on elementary particles and physical cosmology was honored with numerous prizes and awards, including in 1979 the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1991 the National Medal of Science. In 2004 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, with a citation that said he was "considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today." He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society, as well as to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Weinberg's articles on various subjects occasionally appeared in The New York Review of Books and other periodicals. He served as consultant at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, President of the Philosophical Society of Texas, and member of the Board of Editors of Daedalus magazine, the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress, the JASON group of defense consultants, and many other boards and committees.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 4, 2022
Atom'un keşfi ve atom içerisinde ki elektron, çekirdek, proton ve nötronun keşif sürecini anlatan bir eser. Kitap içerisinde çok fazla formül bulundurmasından dolayı biraz ağır. Merak için okuyacaklar için sıkıcı ve karmaşık gelebilir. Yazıldığı dönemden kaynaklandığını da düşünüyorum. Günümüzde yazılsa bu kadar formül eklemezlerdi. Atom'un keşfinin sürecini merak edenler için öneririm.
July 30, 2023
Eğer altyapınız yoksa sıkılabilirsiniz. Ben kendi alanım olduğu için ilgiyle okudum. Parçacık tarihi hakkında güzel bilgiler içeren ve fizik derslerinin temeli sayılan konuları matematiksel bir dille ele alan teorik bir kaynak. Elektron, proton, nötron ve çekirdeğin keşfi detaylı bir şekilde anlatılmış. Eğer fizik aşığı değilseniz soluksuz okumak biraz zor olabilir :) Bu konuda popüler kaynakları okumak daha keyifli. Formüllerle anlatımı benim en keyif aldığım kısımdı.
Kafa yorulabilir.
If you have no background, you may get bored. I read it with interest because it is my field. It is a theoretical source that contains good information about particle history and deals with the topics that are considered the basis of physics lessons in a mathematical language. The discovery of the electron, proton, neutron and nucleus is explained in detail. If you are not a physics lover, it may be a bit difficult to read breathlessly :) It is more enjoyable to read popular sources on this subject. The explanation with formulas was the part I enjoyed the most.
Kafa yorulabilir.
If you have no background, you may get bored. I read it with interest because it is my field. It is a theoretical source that contains good information about particle history and deals with the topics that are considered the basis of physics lessons in a mathematical language. The discovery of the electron, proton, neutron and nucleus is explained in detail. If you are not a physics lover, it may be a bit difficult to read breathlessly :) It is more enjoyable to read popular sources on this subject. The explanation with formulas was the part I enjoyed the most.
June 24, 2024
AN INTERESTING HISTORY OF PARTICLE PHYSICS
Steven Weinberg (born 1933) is a Nobel Prize-winner in Physics for his contributions to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. He has also written books such as 'The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe,' 'Cosmology,' 'Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1983 book, “This book grew out of a course that I gave at Harvard in the spring of 1980… The idea of the course, in brief, was to engage students who were not assumed to have any prior training in mathematics or physics in learning about the great achievements of twentieth-century physics… The book covers the discovery of the fundamental particles that make up all ordinary atoms: the electron, the proton, and the neutron. The general outline is historical, but it is history with one significant difference… This book is written for readers who may not be familiar with classical physics, but who are willing to pick up enough to fit as they go along to be able to understand the rich tangle of ideas and experiments that make up the history of twentieth century physics… flashback sections and the background material interspersed in other sections represent my secret motivation in writing this book.” (Pg. x-xi)
He continues, “My hope… is that this book may contribute to a radical revision in the way that science if brought to nonscientists… This book is intended to be comprehensible to readers who have no prior background in science, and no familiarity with mathematics beyond arithmetic… Although this book is written for the nonscientist, it has one aspect that perhaps also my fellow physicists may find interesting. The great scientific achievements described here form a large part of the soil from which our own more recent harvest of discoveries have sprung. Yet I, for one, had only toe foggiest idea of the early history of twentieth-century physics when I started to teach the courses at Harvard and Texas, and I suspect that the same is true of many of my colleagues in physics. I hope that scientists may find some of the history… in the book enlightening.” (Pg. xii)
He explains, “All ordinary matter is composed of atoms, which in turn consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons… The electron is just one member of a family of particles called leptons, of which some half dozen are now known. The proton and the neutron are members of much larger family of particles called hadrons, of which hundreds are known… Electrons are believed to be absolutely stable, and protons and neutrons (when bound in an atomic nucleus) live at least [10 to the 30th power] years. With a few exceptions, all other particles have very short lifetimes, and are therefore very rare in the present universe… The proton, the neutron, and the other hadrons are … composites themselves, made up of … quarks. As far as is known, the electron and the members of the lepton family are truly elementary.” (Pg. 4)
He notes, “Atoms are electrically neutral, but the electrons discovered by Thomson carry a negative electric charge. If atoms contain electrons, then they must also contain some other material that carries a positive charge to cancel the electrons’ negative charge. The great task after the discovery of the electron was to identify this positive material and to describe how it and the electrons are arranged within the atom.” (Pg. 104)
He recounts, “during the exciting period in the 1920s when quantum mechanics was being developed, a colleague asked, ‘How is physics these days, [Ernest] Rutherford?’ and Rutherford replied, ‘…the theorists are on their hind legs and it is up to us to get them down again.’ As a theorist I naturally tend to deplore this sort of antitheoretical feeling. Bu tin fact theorists and experimentalists generally get along pretty well with each other, and could hardly get along at all without each other. Rutherford’s attitude may have been partly due to the face that his greatest work was done during a time when so little was known about the nucleus that elaborate mathematical theorizing would have been out of place, and whatever theory was called for, Rutherford was quite capable of supplying himself.” (Pg. 108-109)
He concludes, “I hope that the reader will not conclude from the account or particle physics I have given here that this branch of physics has degenerated into a kind of butterfly collecting, with the peculiarity that the butterflies we collect do not live long enough to be found in nature and have to be created in the laboratory of the collector. I think that this view is quite wrong. Once the age-old question of the nature of ordinary matter was settled… the question shifted. The real task we address … is not to develop a list of particles and their properties. It is to understand the underlying principles that dictate why nature… is the way it is. All our experience shows that the study of elementary particles is at present the best and perhaps the only way of getting at the fundamental laws of nature.” (Pg. 168)
Weinberg presents an engaging history, rather than just a dry recounting of facts. This book will be of great interest to those studying the history of particle physics.
Steven Weinberg (born 1933) is a Nobel Prize-winner in Physics for his contributions to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. He has also written books such as 'The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe,' 'Cosmology,' 'Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1983 book, “This book grew out of a course that I gave at Harvard in the spring of 1980… The idea of the course, in brief, was to engage students who were not assumed to have any prior training in mathematics or physics in learning about the great achievements of twentieth-century physics… The book covers the discovery of the fundamental particles that make up all ordinary atoms: the electron, the proton, and the neutron. The general outline is historical, but it is history with one significant difference… This book is written for readers who may not be familiar with classical physics, but who are willing to pick up enough to fit as they go along to be able to understand the rich tangle of ideas and experiments that make up the history of twentieth century physics… flashback sections and the background material interspersed in other sections represent my secret motivation in writing this book.” (Pg. x-xi)
He continues, “My hope… is that this book may contribute to a radical revision in the way that science if brought to nonscientists… This book is intended to be comprehensible to readers who have no prior background in science, and no familiarity with mathematics beyond arithmetic… Although this book is written for the nonscientist, it has one aspect that perhaps also my fellow physicists may find interesting. The great scientific achievements described here form a large part of the soil from which our own more recent harvest of discoveries have sprung. Yet I, for one, had only toe foggiest idea of the early history of twentieth-century physics when I started to teach the courses at Harvard and Texas, and I suspect that the same is true of many of my colleagues in physics. I hope that scientists may find some of the history… in the book enlightening.” (Pg. xii)
He explains, “All ordinary matter is composed of atoms, which in turn consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons… The electron is just one member of a family of particles called leptons, of which some half dozen are now known. The proton and the neutron are members of much larger family of particles called hadrons, of which hundreds are known… Electrons are believed to be absolutely stable, and protons and neutrons (when bound in an atomic nucleus) live at least [10 to the 30th power] years. With a few exceptions, all other particles have very short lifetimes, and are therefore very rare in the present universe… The proton, the neutron, and the other hadrons are … composites themselves, made up of … quarks. As far as is known, the electron and the members of the lepton family are truly elementary.” (Pg. 4)
He notes, “Atoms are electrically neutral, but the electrons discovered by Thomson carry a negative electric charge. If atoms contain electrons, then they must also contain some other material that carries a positive charge to cancel the electrons’ negative charge. The great task after the discovery of the electron was to identify this positive material and to describe how it and the electrons are arranged within the atom.” (Pg. 104)
He recounts, “during the exciting period in the 1920s when quantum mechanics was being developed, a colleague asked, ‘How is physics these days, [Ernest] Rutherford?’ and Rutherford replied, ‘…the theorists are on their hind legs and it is up to us to get them down again.’ As a theorist I naturally tend to deplore this sort of antitheoretical feeling. Bu tin fact theorists and experimentalists generally get along pretty well with each other, and could hardly get along at all without each other. Rutherford’s attitude may have been partly due to the face that his greatest work was done during a time when so little was known about the nucleus that elaborate mathematical theorizing would have been out of place, and whatever theory was called for, Rutherford was quite capable of supplying himself.” (Pg. 108-109)
He concludes, “I hope that the reader will not conclude from the account or particle physics I have given here that this branch of physics has degenerated into a kind of butterfly collecting, with the peculiarity that the butterflies we collect do not live long enough to be found in nature and have to be created in the laboratory of the collector. I think that this view is quite wrong. Once the age-old question of the nature of ordinary matter was settled… the question shifted. The real task we address … is not to develop a list of particles and their properties. It is to understand the underlying principles that dictate why nature… is the way it is. All our experience shows that the study of elementary particles is at present the best and perhaps the only way of getting at the fundamental laws of nature.” (Pg. 168)
Weinberg presents an engaging history, rather than just a dry recounting of facts. This book will be of great interest to those studying the history of particle physics.
January 19, 2016
The book offers a chance (that i didn't take in school!) to learn about subatomic particles (electron, proton, neutron, quarks and so on). And the book is not just about that. All the concepts that come near to any experiment that has been made to find these subatomic particles are explained.
January 23, 2022
this is a concise and well explained exposition of particle physics.
August 31, 2023
Önsözünde her ne kadar daha önceden ilgisi olmayan, birikimi olmayanların da anlayabileceği basit bir dille anlatıldığı yazsa da, kitabın içeriği sadece yazara ve Harvard fizik öğrencilerine göre basit bence. Önceden atom, parçacıklar ve kuantum hakkında bir bilgi birikiminiz yoksa kesinlikle okumanızı önermem. Muhtemelen kitabı ilk 20 sayfasından sonra bir şey anlamadığınızı farkedip kitabı kapatırsınız.
Atomaltı parçacıkların ne olduğundan bahsetmekten çok; bilimin atomaltı parçacıkları bulana kadar hangi yollardan geçtiğini anlatan, benim bir bilim tarihi kitabı olarak değerlendirdiğim mükemmel eser. Steven Weinberg'ün Harvard Üniversitesi'ndeki bir dönemlik dersinin kitap haline getirilmesiyle oluşmuş.
Eğer benim gibi hobi olarak bilime bir tutkunuz varsa, biraz da bilgi birikiminiz varsa çok fazla şey öğrenebileceğiniz bir kitap. İlginiz yoksa maalesef size bir şey ifade etmeyeceği için boşuna almayın derim.
Atomaltı parçacıkların ne olduğundan bahsetmekten çok; bilimin atomaltı parçacıkları bulana kadar hangi yollardan geçtiğini anlatan, benim bir bilim tarihi kitabı olarak değerlendirdiğim mükemmel eser. Steven Weinberg'ün Harvard Üniversitesi'ndeki bir dönemlik dersinin kitap haline getirilmesiyle oluşmuş.
Eğer benim gibi hobi olarak bilime bir tutkunuz varsa, biraz da bilgi birikiminiz varsa çok fazla şey öğrenebileceğiniz bir kitap. İlginiz yoksa maalesef size bir şey ifade etmeyeceği için boşuna almayın derim.
November 1, 2024
This 1983 book by the late Nobel Laurette Steven Weinberg marks one of the first from the Scientific American Library book series published from 1983 to 1997. It’s a nice mix of the national and scholarly histories that lay behind the discoveries of subatomic particles (electrons, the nucleus, protons, neutrons, and the modern discoveries of neutrinos, quarks, etc.). The personalities of these discoverers are often remarkable, awe-inspiring, tragic, or twisted. The false starts, dead ends, and triumphs of these people explicate their tenacity for truth in nature that is so rare outside science or science-minded fields. By providing a limited treatment of formulas with numerical solutions, Weinberg provides a deeper understanding of how mathematics plays a role. Proof that nature really is the way science has discovered is made clear by the fact that science works. Devices we build and release to nature, from light bulbs to spacecraft, work just as science designed them to work.
September 28, 2021
I have the first edition. I don't know if that later editions have much more information. I hope so. It's very good on early particle physics prior to about 1960 and has almost nothing on quarks, neutrinos, the standard model or the Higgs etc. The best part of this book is the appendix where there the basic important calculations are all worked out.
April 7, 2021
As an electrical engineer I was really fascinated by Weinberg's talent to tell such deep historic stories with a fluent, vibrant language. And this was the second time, after reading "The first 3 minutes"
January 14, 2022
I was a bit underwhelmed as Weinberg only deals with the early 20th century. This book comes from a course he made for non-physicists. There's a lot of exposition devoted to explaining basic physics. There are still interesting historical facts.
April 17, 2025
Ilgisi ve alt yapisi olmayanlar sıkılabilir. Benim ilgi alanim dahilinde oldugu icin cok keyifle okudum. Kitap gayet basit bir dille anlatilmis ama bazi seyler arastirma yapmayanlar icin kafa karistirici olabilir.
June 4, 2024
Great book by one of the great scientists. Fairly easy to understand. Even the formulas can be understood with some effort by non scientists.
Read
October 5, 2025honestly I lost track of what my guy was saying halfway through and maybe I'll just stick to biology from now on.
March 16, 2013
I know Weinberg is supposed to be a good science writer (and physicist), but I just couldn't get into this book. Maybe it's because I haven't read particle physics in nearly 20 years, maybe my math skills have degraded, or maybe it's because this book just could have been better. I feel that had it been two or three times longer, not only could the math, experimental conditions and theory been better presented, but he could have gone into more interesting detail about the discovery process itself, and all the personalities and institutions that brought us to today's understanding of the field.
Disappointing.
Disappointing.
October 9, 2012
I own this book but haven't read through much of it. Excellent history of particle physics. If one aspires to write books for Physicists and allied scientists one shall follow the ethos behind such book .
November 28, 2017
Weinberg is no doubt an excellent writer but this book is somehow does not match with his standards. I found this book boring.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews