What do you think?
Rate this book
Mass: The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields
Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents.
Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass.
How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass.
Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass.
How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass.
370 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2017
59 people are currently reading
381 people want to read
About the author
Jim Baggott
23 books147 followersJim Baggott completed his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Oxford and his postgraduate research at Stanford University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 29, 2021
Mass: the Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields' by Jim Baggott is over my paygrade, but nonetheless, I thought it a very informative book about the history of physics. Not only is he connecting the math to the meaning of the results in this book, he baldly declares often that mathematicians are as floored and full of disbelief by their results as are the uncomprehending public.
Many physics mathematicians hope for empirical proofs to back their theoretical maths not only to show the validity of maths to describe the physical universe, but also to 'see' what human eyes and minds cannot see or understand very well, such as the quantum forces affecting the particles in a proton, for example. Or what is apparently popping in and out of space itself. Most particularly, to finally 'see' the aggravating dark energy and dark matter which their maths are demonstrating must be out there! And here, since it could be a type(s) of force and a type of matter(s) all around us.
The ancient Greeks used philosophical thought alone to figure out atoms existed! At one time, the 'weight' of atoms was considered mass, but scientists keep drilling down into the parts of atoms (and gravity) so much, mass has apparently become an energy or a behavior rather than a property. The journey to define Mass from the ancient Greeks to Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein to Peter Higgs is extremely fascinating, if somewhat opaque to me due to the math proofs!
Below is a copy of the book blurb:
Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents.
Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass.
How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass.
As far as I can tell, this is an excellent science book. However, despite that I did learn a number of things I did not know, for me the words of the author and the excellent illustrations were too often more like firefly strobe lighting! A lot more of the book was like a black hole not permitting any light into my brain at all...
: D
There are sections for Endnotes, a Glossary, a Bibliography and an Index.
If you have strong math skills, I think the book will light up your mind as if you are being bombarded by the Sun's photons...my own firefly comprehension was not up to the task of mathematical understandings of physics, whether it is classical or quantum!
Many physics mathematicians hope for empirical proofs to back their theoretical maths not only to show the validity of maths to describe the physical universe, but also to 'see' what human eyes and minds cannot see or understand very well, such as the quantum forces affecting the particles in a proton, for example. Or what is apparently popping in and out of space itself. Most particularly, to finally 'see' the aggravating dark energy and dark matter which their maths are demonstrating must be out there! And here, since it could be a type(s) of force and a type of matter(s) all around us.
The ancient Greeks used philosophical thought alone to figure out atoms existed! At one time, the 'weight' of atoms was considered mass, but scientists keep drilling down into the parts of atoms (and gravity) so much, mass has apparently become an energy or a behavior rather than a property. The journey to define Mass from the ancient Greeks to Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein to Peter Higgs is extremely fascinating, if somewhat opaque to me due to the math proofs!
Below is a copy of the book blurb:
Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents.
Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass.
How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass.
As far as I can tell, this is an excellent science book. However, despite that I did learn a number of things I did not know, for me the words of the author and the excellent illustrations were too often more like firefly strobe lighting! A lot more of the book was like a black hole not permitting any light into my brain at all...
: D
There are sections for Endnotes, a Glossary, a Bibliography and an Index.
If you have strong math skills, I think the book will light up your mind as if you are being bombarded by the Sun's photons...my own firefly comprehension was not up to the task of mathematical understandings of physics, whether it is classical or quantum!
June 13, 2017
Jim Baggott is one of the UK's best popular science writers and never disappoints. As the book's name suggests, Mass is about what seems at first sight a straightforward and ordinary aspect of matter. It's just a property that stuff has that makes it behave in a certain way. But the further we get into the book, the less obvious the nature of mass becomes - as a reader, it can feel a little like following Alice down the rabbit hole.
We begin with a run through the history of our growing understanding of what matter is, and the nature of mass. Apart from repeating the myth that Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for supporting a heliocentric cosmology, this is fairly straightforward stuff, but then Baggott makes the interesting step of not just making the transition from a philosophical view to a scientific one, but continuing with the philosophy to include, for example, Kant's 'Ding an sich' or 'thing-in-itself' concept that underlines the way that we can't actually know reality, only our sensory responses and the models we build. There was a time when scientists were on the attack as far as philosophy is concerned (Stephen Hawking infamously declared philosophy to be 'dead' in The Grand Design), but in practice, with a concept like mass, that philosophical consideration is important and useful.
As he continues, Baggott takes us through relativity and its implications for mass to be dependent on frame of reference and quantum theory to underline our growing understanding of what stuff is, before coming to his coup de grace, where we find that mass is not that fundamental aspect of stuff that it appears to be, but is rather a combination of the interaction of quantum fields and an effect produced by energy. It's a neat inversion of our usual way of looking at mass and matter - beautifully well presented. Along the way, Baggott manages his usual trick of going into the physics to a slightly deeper level than is common in popular science coverage - for example, in his description of what is involved in the renormalisation used to get rid of infinities from quantum electrodynamics - while keeping the text mostly approachable.
If I have any criticism, I felt the skip through relativity didn't quite do the subject justice. It was too summary to really get a feel for it, but too detailed to be scene setting, making it one of the less interesting parts of the book, particularly if you've read anything on relativity before. That balance seemed to be handled better with quantum theory. I'd also say that towards the end, where we get into abstruse matters, there isn't quite enough explanation, so the reader is occasionally left thinking 'I don't see how you make that leap.' This seemed particularly true when talking about spontaneous symmetry breaking. There's a diagram showing how ice has lower symmetry than water that confuses rather than helps, and we are told that for spontaneous symmetry breaking to occur when water freezes 'we need to add something (impurities or inhomogeneities, in this case) to encourage it to happen.' A very reasonable reader response is 'If you have to add something, it certainly isn't spontaneous' - a problem that isn't addressed.
Despite a few points like this towards the end, for me the book was interesting throughout (I liked the business book style 'five things we learned' at the end of each chapter) and it encourages the reader to really think about the nature of matter and how something as apparently straightforward as mass is not what it seems. That delight in revealing the unexpected typifies, for me, the joy of physics.
We begin with a run through the history of our growing understanding of what matter is, and the nature of mass. Apart from repeating the myth that Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for supporting a heliocentric cosmology, this is fairly straightforward stuff, but then Baggott makes the interesting step of not just making the transition from a philosophical view to a scientific one, but continuing with the philosophy to include, for example, Kant's 'Ding an sich' or 'thing-in-itself' concept that underlines the way that we can't actually know reality, only our sensory responses and the models we build. There was a time when scientists were on the attack as far as philosophy is concerned (Stephen Hawking infamously declared philosophy to be 'dead' in The Grand Design), but in practice, with a concept like mass, that philosophical consideration is important and useful.
As he continues, Baggott takes us through relativity and its implications for mass to be dependent on frame of reference and quantum theory to underline our growing understanding of what stuff is, before coming to his coup de grace, where we find that mass is not that fundamental aspect of stuff that it appears to be, but is rather a combination of the interaction of quantum fields and an effect produced by energy. It's a neat inversion of our usual way of looking at mass and matter - beautifully well presented. Along the way, Baggott manages his usual trick of going into the physics to a slightly deeper level than is common in popular science coverage - for example, in his description of what is involved in the renormalisation used to get rid of infinities from quantum electrodynamics - while keeping the text mostly approachable.
If I have any criticism, I felt the skip through relativity didn't quite do the subject justice. It was too summary to really get a feel for it, but too detailed to be scene setting, making it one of the less interesting parts of the book, particularly if you've read anything on relativity before. That balance seemed to be handled better with quantum theory. I'd also say that towards the end, where we get into abstruse matters, there isn't quite enough explanation, so the reader is occasionally left thinking 'I don't see how you make that leap.' This seemed particularly true when talking about spontaneous symmetry breaking. There's a diagram showing how ice has lower symmetry than water that confuses rather than helps, and we are told that for spontaneous symmetry breaking to occur when water freezes 'we need to add something (impurities or inhomogeneities, in this case) to encourage it to happen.' A very reasonable reader response is 'If you have to add something, it certainly isn't spontaneous' - a problem that isn't addressed.
Despite a few points like this towards the end, for me the book was interesting throughout (I liked the business book style 'five things we learned' at the end of each chapter) and it encourages the reader to really think about the nature of matter and how something as apparently straightforward as mass is not what it seems. That delight in revealing the unexpected typifies, for me, the joy of physics.
October 31, 2021
It is an okay book, which tries to explain the concepts without dumbing them down too much. Unfortunately it suffers of "hand-waving". I feel that there are interesting questions that can be explained in an interesting and novel way about the structure of the atoms. For example, how did Rutherford understand that most of the mass is in the nucleus of the atom? What was the experiment?
Also, certain things related to the more advanced concepts are probably not satisfactorily explained. At least, I wasn't able to understand them very well from the book. This is of course, is partly a problem with the quantum mechanics itself.
I have no idea if these issues might be at some point explained in at least a partly intuitive way. This book does its best but still, it falls a little bit short of the proposed goal.
Also, certain things related to the more advanced concepts are probably not satisfactorily explained. At least, I wasn't able to understand them very well from the book. This is of course, is partly a problem with the quantum mechanics itself.
I have no idea if these issues might be at some point explained in at least a partly intuitive way. This book does its best but still, it falls a little bit short of the proposed goal.
September 2, 2018
I guess this is 4.5 stars for me, not exactly 5, but who am I to quibble about half a star when we're all not even really made of anything material but rather are just energy and manifestations of disturbances in and between quantum fields and stuff?
Don't take my word for it. Really. I still can't explain it all, but boy did I enjoy reading about it.
If my college freshman Physical Science 100 professor could see me now...
Don't take my word for it. Really. I still can't explain it all, but boy did I enjoy reading about it.
If my college freshman Physical Science 100 professor could see me now...
February 17, 2018
I don't know where to begin just like Mass without Mass. It is hard to say how much I have learnt from this book from a theoretical physics point of view. Being a student of Astrophysics, I was happy and fascinated by just studying the large baryonic matter bodies we have out there in the space but I pushed myself to study something at an infinitesimal level.
My search began, I don't remember how I came across this book but I eventually ordered it after getting an affection full feeling just like the strong nuclear force. Maybe I am getting too cheeky now.
Since the beginning, being passionate about Physics, this book became an addiction, though I could have completed it within a month, I procrastinated and only used to spend my weekends on it but yes the book got me hooked for sure.
Looking at Jim Baggot's previous works, I was pretty sure he is going to pour his entire knowledge about the infinitesimal quantum particles in this book and I wasn't wrong. Some highlights of the book are as follows:
1. Baggot nicely starts of explaining atoms as described by the philosophers, then how progress was made mainly by chemists, names, representation etc. were assigned.
2. Then he talks about relativity and the fabric of space-time.
3. Then comes the 'meat' part of the book, the part III and part IV are all about quantum particles, you get know and learn a lot about the early discovered particles from electron, proton and neutron and then slowly comes a proliferation of particles and you study the quarks, leptons and bosons, of course, I am just being a bit scuff here but really don't want to jot down every quantum particle and then get that feeling like a botanist gets.
Jim Baggot also adds some 2-3 cheeky lines in the book, which suddenly made me smile out of nowhere when reading a book full of bizarre stuff, The mention of "5 things we learned" at the end of every chapter was extremely useful.
Ultimately, I'd say this book is a must-read for any physics enthusiast, if you are not one then you may find it a bit complicated.
One lesson I've learnt from this book is, we ought to be humble.
My search began, I don't remember how I came across this book but I eventually ordered it after getting an affection full feeling just like the strong nuclear force. Maybe I am getting too cheeky now.
Since the beginning, being passionate about Physics, this book became an addiction, though I could have completed it within a month, I procrastinated and only used to spend my weekends on it but yes the book got me hooked for sure.
Looking at Jim Baggot's previous works, I was pretty sure he is going to pour his entire knowledge about the infinitesimal quantum particles in this book and I wasn't wrong. Some highlights of the book are as follows:
1. Baggot nicely starts of explaining atoms as described by the philosophers, then how progress was made mainly by chemists, names, representation etc. were assigned.
2. Then he talks about relativity and the fabric of space-time.
3. Then comes the 'meat' part of the book, the part III and part IV are all about quantum particles, you get know and learn a lot about the early discovered particles from electron, proton and neutron and then slowly comes a proliferation of particles and you study the quarks, leptons and bosons, of course, I am just being a bit scuff here but really don't want to jot down every quantum particle and then get that feeling like a botanist gets.
Jim Baggot also adds some 2-3 cheeky lines in the book, which suddenly made me smile out of nowhere when reading a book full of bizarre stuff, The mention of "5 things we learned" at the end of every chapter was extremely useful.
Ultimately, I'd say this book is a must-read for any physics enthusiast, if you are not one then you may find it a bit complicated.
One lesson I've learnt from this book is, we ought to be humble.
January 24, 2018
A great overview of the important steps forward in physics, using the question 'what is matter' as a focal point. The closer we look, the more complicated matter becomes, until we begin to realise it doesn't exist as a 'thing in itself' at all -- rather being a manifestation of energies acting in fields.
Even though the non-specialist cannot hope for a deep appreciation of the all the details of modern physics - even a 'superficial' understanding is very rewarding. Jim's style is very approachable, straight-forward, lucid, and entertaining.
Even though the non-specialist cannot hope for a deep appreciation of the all the details of modern physics - even a 'superficial' understanding is very rewarding. Jim's style is very approachable, straight-forward, lucid, and entertaining.
April 6, 2023
This is a revisionist science book, with a bit of philosophy in the first quarter, which is great. Scientific process is messy, so putting the necessary building blocks of our understanding of mass in a chronological order makes it a lot simpler to understand.
Jim deliberately only uses equations with 2-4 variables which adds to it's accessibility. He starts in ancient times, briefly describes the science and scientists then gives a good analysis of gaps. Some of the gaps are in how we use language and symbols.
Jim then leaps into the subatomic structure for which you do need some fairly good understanding of the terms and physics. There is a great explanation about how magnetism works. So far, so good.
Philosophical approaches such as considering mass as a wave or a particle clearly show the schism between quantum theory and the conventional physics taught in classroom. It's all to do with scale and the flat, slightly curved nature of spacetime. Fabulous.
Mass turns out to be an expression of inertia or slowed down energy, due to the Higgs field. Jim uses ice formation formed around an imperfection (analogous to breaking symmetry) to show how it works at the atomic level. Hmm, not sure that works. Basically Einsteins equation E =mc^2. All good.
Then Jim dives into the standard model and all the sub subatomic whatchameallits. Sure, the theoritcal physicists seem happy ish, but at this point Jim loses his critical perspective about language, philosophical approach etc.
To the lay person, the assumptions made just highlight the limitations of what we can measure, and to address the gap, more particles are invoked. I wasn't convinced that the strong force exists because of the electromagnetic energy of entrapped gluons or whatever. Physicists are sure they do and Jim seemed excited but it sounded made up.
Even the notation with superscript charges didn't necessarily mean charge at this scale. And what is it with the weird names? To be fair, Jim tries unsuccessfully to untangle this messy incomprehensible stuff as well as the next author.
He summarises the whole thing well by applying the standard model to ice, and the model comes up short. Then he gets into supersymmetry, which isn't well explained. Ice crystals are a hexagon. Does that matter to symmetry? Is water really the best compound/molecule to use in this analogy? And what's with the diagram - random molecules are more symmetrical than crystals?
How is that relevant to mass? And what about the gaps in mass that we can't detect at different scales? And dark energy? There was lots missing and explanations again sounded made up.
My understanding of theoretical science is that you come up with a theory that hopefully can be tested by empirical and thought experiments or maths etc, not the other way around. And what about Popper's philosophy? Why aren't these philosophies outlined?
Jim just got too invested from chapters 12 - 16 and lost that lovely overview and critique he'd been so adeptly providing up until then.
So is mass a particle or a process or a wave or doesn't it matter any more? Not sure, I got lost at the end. A diagram or scalar line with what mass is would help. At tiny scales, the nuclear forces and Higgs Field are important but at larger scales, chemical bonds and magnetism, ie electron forces appear more important.
There are scales at which we don't detect mass, but Jim does not address it. Are these like the quantum lines of orbitals or photos? Or is this where dark energy hangs out or waves cancel each other in the Higgs Field? There are so many obvious questions that aren't raised or answered.
Jim writes well, is entertaining and clear for the most part. The book falls short on a consistent structure and focus, as well as on what is more widely known about mass.
Jim deliberately only uses equations with 2-4 variables which adds to it's accessibility. He starts in ancient times, briefly describes the science and scientists then gives a good analysis of gaps. Some of the gaps are in how we use language and symbols.
Jim then leaps into the subatomic structure for which you do need some fairly good understanding of the terms and physics. There is a great explanation about how magnetism works. So far, so good.
Philosophical approaches such as considering mass as a wave or a particle clearly show the schism between quantum theory and the conventional physics taught in classroom. It's all to do with scale and the flat, slightly curved nature of spacetime. Fabulous.
Mass turns out to be an expression of inertia or slowed down energy, due to the Higgs field. Jim uses ice formation formed around an imperfection (analogous to breaking symmetry) to show how it works at the atomic level. Hmm, not sure that works. Basically Einsteins equation E =mc^2. All good.
Then Jim dives into the standard model and all the sub subatomic whatchameallits. Sure, the theoritcal physicists seem happy ish, but at this point Jim loses his critical perspective about language, philosophical approach etc.
To the lay person, the assumptions made just highlight the limitations of what we can measure, and to address the gap, more particles are invoked. I wasn't convinced that the strong force exists because of the electromagnetic energy of entrapped gluons or whatever. Physicists are sure they do and Jim seemed excited but it sounded made up.
Even the notation with superscript charges didn't necessarily mean charge at this scale. And what is it with the weird names? To be fair, Jim tries unsuccessfully to untangle this messy incomprehensible stuff as well as the next author.
He summarises the whole thing well by applying the standard model to ice, and the model comes up short. Then he gets into supersymmetry, which isn't well explained. Ice crystals are a hexagon. Does that matter to symmetry? Is water really the best compound/molecule to use in this analogy? And what's with the diagram - random molecules are more symmetrical than crystals?
How is that relevant to mass? And what about the gaps in mass that we can't detect at different scales? And dark energy? There was lots missing and explanations again sounded made up.
My understanding of theoretical science is that you come up with a theory that hopefully can be tested by empirical and thought experiments or maths etc, not the other way around. And what about Popper's philosophy? Why aren't these philosophies outlined?
Jim just got too invested from chapters 12 - 16 and lost that lovely overview and critique he'd been so adeptly providing up until then.
So is mass a particle or a process or a wave or doesn't it matter any more? Not sure, I got lost at the end. A diagram or scalar line with what mass is would help. At tiny scales, the nuclear forces and Higgs Field are important but at larger scales, chemical bonds and magnetism, ie electron forces appear more important.
There are scales at which we don't detect mass, but Jim does not address it. Are these like the quantum lines of orbitals or photos? Or is this where dark energy hangs out or waves cancel each other in the Higgs Field? There are so many obvious questions that aren't raised or answered.
Jim writes well, is entertaining and clear for the most part. The book falls short on a consistent structure and focus, as well as on what is more widely known about mass.
October 8, 2020
“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now, All that remains is more and more precise measurement.”
Lord Kelvin
Mass: The Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields by Jim Baggot is an in-depth study of the “stuff” that surrounds us. Baggot is currently a freelance science writer. A graduate of Manchester with a degree in chemistry and a PhD in physical chemistry from Oxford, he was a lecturer at the University of Reading and is the author of several books on quantum physics and reality.
Three years ago I read Baggott’s Farewell to Reality which I found to be very informative and written at a level where the information was understandable and yet not dumbed down. The same formula is followed in Mass. There is a rising level of knowledge needed as this book progresses. Considering the timeline this book covers most of the information can be grasped by those with a moderate science background.
The idea of mass, matter, has evolved over the ages. It is all around us and yet we know so little about what it actually is. It is more than fire, earth, air, and water. The idea that atoms were indivisible has since passed and even the concept they are the smallest particles with it. Even the particles that make up the nucleus of atoms are made up of other particles. All that is solid around us is mostly empty space and empty space we find isn’t really empty.
Baggot starts off with the ancient Greeks and their developing understanding of the world around them. He works to put the reader in the mindset of the historical philosophers and scientists. We have the advantage of technology and a long history of experimentation. The Greeks were innovative and as wrong as they appear today, at the time it was advanced thinking.
Baggot takes the reader through the Newtonian period and into Einstein without much math or formulas. The history of discovery and ensuing problems, from the ancients to the present, is very well done. Determining what exactly mass is a long and developing problem. Science strives to find elegance and simplicity — f=m*a or e=mc^2. Still, Einstien simplified complex problems with thought experiments and Feynman use the diagrams that bear his name. Einstein also initially believed in a static universe and created a cosmological constant to balance his equations. The problem was the universe is not static, but his cosmological constant did help in the search for dark matter and energy which make up most of the universe. The harder we look the more we find. Schrodinger had his cat, but string theory is stuck with complex math and many dimensions. The study of mass has moved from observation to a point where observation interferes with the experiment. The more we discover. The more we have to learn and the more complex the science and math gets.
Mass is an interesting history and science book. It shows that every time we think we understand what makes up the universe we find another hidden layer and a more complex explanation. Baggot does not show us the next layer of physics to be discovered nor does he add to the explanation of the universe. He does do a very good job of explaining how we got to where we are.
Available August 1, 2017
Lord Kelvin
Mass: The Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields by Jim Baggot is an in-depth study of the “stuff” that surrounds us. Baggot is currently a freelance science writer. A graduate of Manchester with a degree in chemistry and a PhD in physical chemistry from Oxford, he was a lecturer at the University of Reading and is the author of several books on quantum physics and reality.
Three years ago I read Baggott’s Farewell to Reality which I found to be very informative and written at a level where the information was understandable and yet not dumbed down. The same formula is followed in Mass. There is a rising level of knowledge needed as this book progresses. Considering the timeline this book covers most of the information can be grasped by those with a moderate science background.
The idea of mass, matter, has evolved over the ages. It is all around us and yet we know so little about what it actually is. It is more than fire, earth, air, and water. The idea that atoms were indivisible has since passed and even the concept they are the smallest particles with it. Even the particles that make up the nucleus of atoms are made up of other particles. All that is solid around us is mostly empty space and empty space we find isn’t really empty.
Baggot starts off with the ancient Greeks and their developing understanding of the world around them. He works to put the reader in the mindset of the historical philosophers and scientists. We have the advantage of technology and a long history of experimentation. The Greeks were innovative and as wrong as they appear today, at the time it was advanced thinking.
Baggot takes the reader through the Newtonian period and into Einstein without much math or formulas. The history of discovery and ensuing problems, from the ancients to the present, is very well done. Determining what exactly mass is a long and developing problem. Science strives to find elegance and simplicity — f=m*a or e=mc^2. Still, Einstien simplified complex problems with thought experiments and Feynman use the diagrams that bear his name. Einstein also initially believed in a static universe and created a cosmological constant to balance his equations. The problem was the universe is not static, but his cosmological constant did help in the search for dark matter and energy which make up most of the universe. The harder we look the more we find. Schrodinger had his cat, but string theory is stuck with complex math and many dimensions. The study of mass has moved from observation to a point where observation interferes with the experiment. The more we discover. The more we have to learn and the more complex the science and math gets.
Mass is an interesting history and science book. It shows that every time we think we understand what makes up the universe we find another hidden layer and a more complex explanation. Baggot does not show us the next layer of physics to be discovered nor does he add to the explanation of the universe. He does do a very good job of explaining how we got to where we are.
Available August 1, 2017
November 5, 2020
Libro carino che parla di come abbiamo cambiato la nostra percezione del concetto di “massa” dal punto di vista fisico nel corso dei secoli.
Inizia parlando di come gli antichi greci avevano ipotizzato l’esistenza dei mattoncini base della materia detti atomi. Poi introduce il concetto di energia e ne spiega la relazione con la massa descrivendo la famosa formula E = m*c^2. Prosegue parlando della dualità onda/particella e dello spazio-tempo, e termina (aimè) con l’introduzione alla fisica quantistica.
Quest’ultima parte l’ho trovata particolarmente noiosa. Si parla del muone, del neutrino, dei mesoni e di tutte le insulse particelle scoperte nel corso degli anni. C’è anche da dire che il tema non è di facile comprensione e le teorie formulate fino ad ora sono complesse e poco eleganti (niente a che fare con la teoria della relatività per intenderci).
Ho trovato utile la sezione “Cinque cose che abbiamo imparato” alla fine di ogni capitolo, dove appunto vengono sintetizzati a elenco puntato, i cinque concetti più importanti.
Il messaggio chiave del libro è essenzialmente il seguente: “ …Anche se il nostro mondo fisico è pieno di oggetti duri e pesanti, è in realtà l’energia dei campi quantistici a regnare sovrana. La massa è semplicemente una manifestazione fisica di quell’energia, non è il contrario.”
Spunti interessanti:
- Metafisica: letteralmente significa «oltre la fisica»
- cinematica: descrizione del moto degli oggetti materiali che possiamo vedere e misurare
- dinamica: spiegazioni per questo moto.
- quantità di moto è data dalla massa moltiplicata per la velocità (m per v, ossia mv).
- Qualunque quantità che assuma valori diversi in diversi punti dello spazio e del tempo si può rappresentare in termini di un campo.
- non serve eliminare c dall’equazione che lega massa ed energia, basta reinterpretarla come limite di velocità universale.
- E = mc2 esprime la gigantesca quantità di energia in qualche modo immagazzinata, come in un enorme serbatoio, all’interno della sostanza materiale. Rappresenta la quantità di energia che si può liberare convertendo la massa in energia.
- La relatività ristretta stabilisce due relazioni fondamentali tra aspetti della realtà fisica che in precedenza consideravamo scollegati e indipendenti l’uno dall’altro. Lo spazio e il tempo si fondono nello spazio-tempo, la massa e l’energia nella massa-energia. Con la relatività generale Einstein dimostra un’ulteriore interdipendenza, quella tra spazio-tempo e massa-energia.
- In verità la teoria delle stringhe non è una teoria, è al più un «ambito», una «cornice», o una serie di ipotesi tra loro collegate. I teorici delle stringhe hanno fatto molti progressi nello stabilire una certa coerenza tra le varie strutture, ma hanno da tempo rinunciato a proporla come una possibile teoria del tutto.
Inizia parlando di come gli antichi greci avevano ipotizzato l’esistenza dei mattoncini base della materia detti atomi. Poi introduce il concetto di energia e ne spiega la relazione con la massa descrivendo la famosa formula E = m*c^2. Prosegue parlando della dualità onda/particella e dello spazio-tempo, e termina (aimè) con l’introduzione alla fisica quantistica.
Quest’ultima parte l’ho trovata particolarmente noiosa. Si parla del muone, del neutrino, dei mesoni e di tutte le insulse particelle scoperte nel corso degli anni. C’è anche da dire che il tema non è di facile comprensione e le teorie formulate fino ad ora sono complesse e poco eleganti (niente a che fare con la teoria della relatività per intenderci).
Ho trovato utile la sezione “Cinque cose che abbiamo imparato” alla fine di ogni capitolo, dove appunto vengono sintetizzati a elenco puntato, i cinque concetti più importanti.
Il messaggio chiave del libro è essenzialmente il seguente: “ …Anche se il nostro mondo fisico è pieno di oggetti duri e pesanti, è in realtà l’energia dei campi quantistici a regnare sovrana. La massa è semplicemente una manifestazione fisica di quell’energia, non è il contrario.”
Spunti interessanti:
- Metafisica: letteralmente significa «oltre la fisica»
- cinematica: descrizione del moto degli oggetti materiali che possiamo vedere e misurare
- dinamica: spiegazioni per questo moto.
- quantità di moto è data dalla massa moltiplicata per la velocità (m per v, ossia mv).
- Qualunque quantità che assuma valori diversi in diversi punti dello spazio e del tempo si può rappresentare in termini di un campo.
- non serve eliminare c dall’equazione che lega massa ed energia, basta reinterpretarla come limite di velocità universale.
- E = mc2 esprime la gigantesca quantità di energia in qualche modo immagazzinata, come in un enorme serbatoio, all’interno della sostanza materiale. Rappresenta la quantità di energia che si può liberare convertendo la massa in energia.
- La relatività ristretta stabilisce due relazioni fondamentali tra aspetti della realtà fisica che in precedenza consideravamo scollegati e indipendenti l’uno dall’altro. Lo spazio e il tempo si fondono nello spazio-tempo, la massa e l’energia nella massa-energia. Con la relatività generale Einstein dimostra un’ulteriore interdipendenza, quella tra spazio-tempo e massa-energia.
- In verità la teoria delle stringhe non è una teoria, è al più un «ambito», una «cornice», o una serie di ipotesi tra loro collegate. I teorici delle stringhe hanno fatto molti progressi nello stabilire una certa coerenza tra le varie strutture, ma hanno da tempo rinunciato a proporla come una possibile teoria del tutto.
Read
September 26, 2022"Naiwnością byłoby sądzić, że ten niezwykły sukces [polegający na tym, że nauka ujawniała niezwykłe bogactwo struktury naszej rzeczywistości] choć trochę przybliżył nas do zrozumienia rzeczywistości takiej, jak jest naprawdę. Jeśli już to bogactwo odkryć naukowych raczej nas od tego zrozumienia odsunęło. Parafrazując filozofa Bernarda d'Espagnata, powiedzielibyśmy, że nasze pojmowanie podstawowej struktury fizycznej rzeczywistości "jest 'ideałem" który pozostaje dla nas bardzo odległy. W istocie porównanie z warunkami, jakie panowały w przeszłości, sugeruje, że jesteśmy teraz znacznie dalej od tego pojmowania, niż wydawało się to naszym poprzednikom sto lat temu" (283).
Wielki brytyjski fizyk lord Kelvin miał powiedzieć, że "w fizyce nie ma już nic nowego do odkrycia. Wszystko, co pozostaje, to dokonywanie coraz to precyzyjniejszych pomiarów" (283).
###
"Prosta prawda jest taka, że współczesna fizyka zachwiała wszystkimi naszymi wygodnymi opiniami na temat fizycznego wszechświata, a zwłaszcza na temat tworzącej go materii" (11).
"Zagubiliśmy rozumienie krzepiąco swojskiego pojęcia masy, tego wszędobylskiego m, występującego we wszystkich równaniach fizyki, chemii i biologii" (11).
Boyle - który wydedukował związek między ciśnieniem gazu a jego objętością przy zachowaniu stałej temperatury - nie wstydził się napisać: "Nawracanie niewiernych na religię chrześcijańską to praca dobroczynna i przejaw życzliwości wobec ludzi" (37).
"Kant twierdził, że nie ma sensu zaprzeczać istnieniu rzeczy samych w sobie, jako że musi istnieć coś, co jest przyczyną zjawisk poddających się percepcji zmysłowej (nie byłoby wrażeń bez czegoś, co je wywołuje) (43).
"Materia widzialna, czyli to, co do niedawna zwykliśmy uważać za 'wszechświat', stanowi zaledwie 4,9 procent" gęstości energii we wszechświecie (141).
Wielki brytyjski fizyk lord Kelvin miał powiedzieć, że "w fizyce nie ma już nic nowego do odkrycia. Wszystko, co pozostaje, to dokonywanie coraz to precyzyjniejszych pomiarów" (283).
###
"Prosta prawda jest taka, że współczesna fizyka zachwiała wszystkimi naszymi wygodnymi opiniami na temat fizycznego wszechświata, a zwłaszcza na temat tworzącej go materii" (11).
"Zagubiliśmy rozumienie krzepiąco swojskiego pojęcia masy, tego wszędobylskiego m, występującego we wszystkich równaniach fizyki, chemii i biologii" (11).
Boyle - który wydedukował związek między ciśnieniem gazu a jego objętością przy zachowaniu stałej temperatury - nie wstydził się napisać: "Nawracanie niewiernych na religię chrześcijańską to praca dobroczynna i przejaw życzliwości wobec ludzi" (37).
"Kant twierdził, że nie ma sensu zaprzeczać istnieniu rzeczy samych w sobie, jako że musi istnieć coś, co jest przyczyną zjawisk poddających się percepcji zmysłowej (nie byłoby wrażeń bez czegoś, co je wywołuje) (43).
"Materia widzialna, czyli to, co do niedawna zwykliśmy uważać za 'wszechświat', stanowi zaledwie 4,9 procent" gęstości energii we wszechświecie (141).
July 15, 2017
Se l'autore è bravo, un buon libro di divulgazione scientifica è spesso più intrigante più un romanzo. La trama è la realtà, la narrazione di quella realtà che è la scienza, che, volenti o nolenti, ci permettere di comprendere il mondo, Sono anche convinta che una buona divulgazione, mettendo alla portata anche dei non addetti ai lavori determinati argomenti, sia indispensabile per impedire la diffusione delle tante mode antiscientifiche a cui si assiste al giorno d'oggi. Mass è uno di questi libri. Brillante, ben scritto, preciso e profondo, accompagna il lettore nel viaggio dalla massa dei greci al bosone di Higgs in maniera semplice ma non semplicistica, in una divertente cavalcata alla scoperta della materia di cui siamo fatti.
Ringrazio Oxford University Press e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
If the author is smart, a good book of scientific dissemination is often more intriguing as a novel. The plot is the reality, the narration of the reality that is the science, which, like it or not, allows us to understand the world, I also believe that a good dissemination, putting within reach of non-experts certain topics, is essential to prevent the spread of the many anti-scientific mode that can be observed nowadays. Mass is one of these books. Bright, well-written, accurate and deep, takes the reader on the journey from Greeks' mass to the Higgs' boson in a simple but not simplistic way, in a fun ride to the discovery of the matter we are made of.
Thank Oxford University Press and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Ringrazio Oxford University Press e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
If the author is smart, a good book of scientific dissemination is often more intriguing as a novel. The plot is the reality, the narration of the reality that is the science, which, like it or not, allows us to understand the world, I also believe that a good dissemination, putting within reach of non-experts certain topics, is essential to prevent the spread of the many anti-scientific mode that can be observed nowadays. Mass is one of these books. Bright, well-written, accurate and deep, takes the reader on the journey from Greeks' mass to the Higgs' boson in a simple but not simplistic way, in a fun ride to the discovery of the matter we are made of.
Thank Oxford University Press and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 1, 2018
Jim Baggott is an excellent disseminator of very difficult information relating to physics and this latest book on Mass and Matter is no different. What frustrates many about modern study of physics and explanations of physics since Newton is the non-intuitive - and in many ways unobservable at least outside of the most powerful laboratories - nature we have discovered underlying much of what was thought to have been explained in much more relatable terms previously. Mass, as a concept, is no different and what everyone thought they knew on the subject was completely turned on its head at the turn of the 20th century and has since been shown to be ever more mysterious. Baggott is a very enjoyable guide through this history and speaks in terminology that most will be able to appreciate, only occasionally going off on a tangent with little bearing on the principal subject of the work. A particular feature of his writing that I enjoy is that he remains witty and engaging while keeping to the important information. It seems like it is fashionable these days in scientific writing to add an absurd amount of flowery metaphors while cramming in every possible literary reference you can think off no matter how tenuous the connection between the material actually is. This information, and field of study as whole, is interesting enough without being bogged down by "poetic" language that actually obscures what it is attempting to discuss. An excellent work that should be widely read.
May 8, 2020
The “five things we learned” feature of this book in itself is deserving of five stars. It is such a wonderful tool to fixate ideas in the reader’s mind before moving on – way too often do I glide over some (difficult or boring or just vaguely familiar) parts of a book without even realizing I am doing it, only to then have problems keeping up with the remainder. This makes you stop, reflect, and make sure you’re on board with what has already been covered before you go on to more complicated fare.
Aside from that, this would be a rather standard overview of the evolution of our concept of mass, from ancient Greece, through medieval times, up to and beyond the quantum/relativity revolutions, if not for the wonderfully clear manner Baggott has of explaining things, coupled with his lack of fear of sprouting a bit of math on the reader. Even for someone already versed in the underlying physics and math, the book offers a few nice conceptual summaries that clarify and order certain ideas in the brain (for me, it did this with renormalization), and it certainly does an excellent job of tracing the trajectory from “amount of stuff” to “what the bleeding hell is this, really” in our understanding of the concept of mass.
Aside from that, this would be a rather standard overview of the evolution of our concept of mass, from ancient Greece, through medieval times, up to and beyond the quantum/relativity revolutions, if not for the wonderfully clear manner Baggott has of explaining things, coupled with his lack of fear of sprouting a bit of math on the reader. Even for someone already versed in the underlying physics and math, the book offers a few nice conceptual summaries that clarify and order certain ideas in the brain (for me, it did this with renormalization), and it certainly does an excellent job of tracing the trajectory from “amount of stuff” to “what the bleeding hell is this, really” in our understanding of the concept of mass.
December 25, 2017
Stranger than you can think
Mass without mass. As strange as the universe of general relativity appears, that strangeness pales in comparison to the strangeness of quantum chromodynamics and Higgs bosons. Baggott does as great a job as I have ever encountered of making this strange new understanding of reality accessible. If you are comfortable with the concept that atoms are made from protons, neutrons, and electrons, then you owe it to yourself to read Mass. You'll gain an understanding of the weird world of quarks, gluons, and colour forces, and how these strange constituents of the subatomic world lie at the foundation of reality, joining together to make protons and neutrons, and holding them together to make an atom. Great stuff and great fun!
Mass without mass. As strange as the universe of general relativity appears, that strangeness pales in comparison to the strangeness of quantum chromodynamics and Higgs bosons. Baggott does as great a job as I have ever encountered of making this strange new understanding of reality accessible. If you are comfortable with the concept that atoms are made from protons, neutrons, and electrons, then you owe it to yourself to read Mass. You'll gain an understanding of the weird world of quarks, gluons, and colour forces, and how these strange constituents of the subatomic world lie at the foundation of reality, joining together to make protons and neutrons, and holding them together to make an atom. Great stuff and great fun!
June 13, 2020
Mass: is a behavior of quantum fields. Mass is what quantum fields do, and thusly nouns essentially are verbs as mass is not a property of material substance. It's not something that matter has: "mass without mass."
The mass of the up and down quarks come from the energy of these particles' interactions with the Higgs field, but the bulk of the proton mass comes from the energy of massless gluons: m = E/c^2. "If the body (mass) is a human body, whose mass overwhelmingly arises from the protons and neutrons it contains, the answer is now clear and decisive: the [mass] of that body, with 95% accuracy, is its energy content."
The mass of the up and down quarks come from the energy of these particles' interactions with the Higgs field, but the bulk of the proton mass comes from the energy of massless gluons: m = E/c^2. "If the body (mass) is a human body, whose mass overwhelmingly arises from the protons and neutrons it contains, the answer is now clear and decisive: the [mass] of that body, with 95% accuracy, is its energy content."
October 19, 2023
It is a very interesting walking-tour through the history of mass with a strong an interesting focus on the modern developments around the conceptual mindset behind quantum mechanics and the evolution of quantum field theories where the Higgs field plays a key role in the explanation of the mass and of course, it closes with the Standard Model. The author explains the specific details without any complications and also without explaining more than is needed, again, focusing in the “mass”. The mind changing concept of mass after quantum mechanics is huge and is very well explained by Jim, that’s what I would recommend to those who love this kind of topics.
October 14, 2019
Great Read!
Author walks you through the major discoveries and theories of mass from the ancient masters to today. It explains it in words and pictures and not all equations. A must read for anyone wanting to get a foundation in quantum theory and mechanics.
Author walks you through the major discoveries and theories of mass from the ancient masters to today. It explains it in words and pictures and not all equations. A must read for anyone wanting to get a foundation in quantum theory and mechanics.
March 27, 2022
Saggio decisamente scritto bene che analizza il concetto di massa nell' sua evoluzione. Molto interessante la conclusione finale per cui in base ai risultati della teoria dei campi quantistici alla fin fine la massa non è una proprietà della materia ma il risultato delle interazioni tra campi.
April 30, 2023
Wonderful Book about evolution if reality
Just a layman in science, but the author explained a lot of the gritty details known that I was never aware of. He is one of my favorite current science writers
Just a layman in science, but the author explained a lot of the gritty details known that I was never aware of. He is one of my favorite current science writers
April 3, 2024
I understand a lot more about physics, and about how we came to understand the things we understand, through reading this work. There is a fair amount of math but Mr. Baggott makes this almost effortless for the reader… I am onto another of his books and I am enjoying it as much as I did “Mass”.
July 19, 2017
Review on its way soon: Science book a day
November 22, 2017
Comprehensive, compelling, and changed my perspective. Does require some previous reading on cosmology to grasp.
July 8, 2018
nice crash course through the history of particle physics
June 13, 2019
Clear and readable up to the last couple of chapters, where things get more complex with the introduction of QED and QCD. In fact up to that stage its a pretty much standard history of physics.
January 7, 2025
A good book, an interesting book, an important book. But it is simply too long. It follows every twist and turn, and thus wastes time out outdated ideas and obsolete controversies.
September 15, 2020
"The conceptual nature of the electron had changed... It was no longer just a 'particle.' It had become a ghost... elementary particles (are) fundamental vibrations or fluctuations of quantum fields."
October 8, 2017
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing some wonderful non-fiction books lately so it was pure happiness to add one of the science genre to that list especially one that flowed so eloquently as this. An added layer of surprise and joy was the field of philosophy woven through his scientific focus showing how the beauty in both act as complements rather than enemies.
During my educational years I loved science but too often the textbooks took the wonderment and breathtaking beauty out of the world so trying to follow along in class or do work at home was a level of tedium that should be easily found along Dante’s circles of Hell.
Baggott is now one of my heroes for creating something that sucks you in to the point that you will find yourself curling up late into the night to soak in the beautifully written journey through history as his words and phrases lend themselves well to the novice just as easily to one well versed in this field.
We start with a history lesson in a science book so we can understand matter, learn some mythos of the minds who have studied it, how their work was viewed at the time, and even get a bit of a philosophical view thanks to Kant. Despite the fact there was a time philosophers and scientists seemed to be on opposite sides of the same field, Baggot shows how philosophy and science actually complement one another using both principles to explain a wide reaching subject.
Next up is relativity and how it affects mass, we get some quantum theory for those who are not faint of heart, and Baggot’s view that mass is (and I’m probably badly paraphrasing here) an interaction of energy’s effects mixed with quantum fields. Baggot’s love for quantum really seems to shine through this book as that is the area which feels like it gets the most attention and detail whereas relativity comes off like it’s the subject he feels forced to get through like a kid choking down the vegetables so he can have the chocolate cake.
We get equations that are explained so you know what ‘F’ and ‘m’ means in F=ma for those that didn’t know or couldn’t remember. Figures to provide a visual explanation which are great for people like me who need to ‘see’ to get it. We get wrap ups of “Five things we learned” at the end of chapters to help summarize and re-instill the previous lessons. It’s important to start at the beginning and read through because he builds upon what he’s trying to impart so you may become lost if you didn’t know what he taught or believed in previous chapters.
My one critiscm of the book is that it feels like he begins to run out of steam a bit towards the conclusion as the explanations start to become a little thin and we aren’t given the same level of details to understand how he made the connection from Point A to Point B. I felt like I could hear my math teacher reminding me to ‘show my work’; rather you have to take a leap of faith that his conclusions are solid.
By the end you should have gained a greater appreciation for the evolution of scientific thought on what constitutes the foundation of our universe.
During my educational years I loved science but too often the textbooks took the wonderment and breathtaking beauty out of the world so trying to follow along in class or do work at home was a level of tedium that should be easily found along Dante’s circles of Hell.
Baggott is now one of my heroes for creating something that sucks you in to the point that you will find yourself curling up late into the night to soak in the beautifully written journey through history as his words and phrases lend themselves well to the novice just as easily to one well versed in this field.
We start with a history lesson in a science book so we can understand matter, learn some mythos of the minds who have studied it, how their work was viewed at the time, and even get a bit of a philosophical view thanks to Kant. Despite the fact there was a time philosophers and scientists seemed to be on opposite sides of the same field, Baggot shows how philosophy and science actually complement one another using both principles to explain a wide reaching subject.
Next up is relativity and how it affects mass, we get some quantum theory for those who are not faint of heart, and Baggot’s view that mass is (and I’m probably badly paraphrasing here) an interaction of energy’s effects mixed with quantum fields. Baggot’s love for quantum really seems to shine through this book as that is the area which feels like it gets the most attention and detail whereas relativity comes off like it’s the subject he feels forced to get through like a kid choking down the vegetables so he can have the chocolate cake.
We get equations that are explained so you know what ‘F’ and ‘m’ means in F=ma for those that didn’t know or couldn’t remember. Figures to provide a visual explanation which are great for people like me who need to ‘see’ to get it. We get wrap ups of “Five things we learned” at the end of chapters to help summarize and re-instill the previous lessons. It’s important to start at the beginning and read through because he builds upon what he’s trying to impart so you may become lost if you didn’t know what he taught or believed in previous chapters.
My one critiscm of the book is that it feels like he begins to run out of steam a bit towards the conclusion as the explanations start to become a little thin and we aren’t given the same level of details to understand how he made the connection from Point A to Point B. I felt like I could hear my math teacher reminding me to ‘show my work’; rather you have to take a leap of faith that his conclusions are solid.
By the end you should have gained a greater appreciation for the evolution of scientific thought on what constitutes the foundation of our universe.
November 25, 2020
Dopo aver letto Helgoland affronto quest'altro saggio sulla Fisica delle particelle.
Rovelli insiste sulla condizione di forte relazione tra le componenti della materia, ponendola come fondamentale, rappresentativa delle interazioni a livello microscopico.
Il taglio all'argomento che dà Baggott è storico e parte dai filosofi atomisti dell'antica Grecia per saltare al XIX secolo quando si inizia a indagare la struttura della materia.
L'esistenza degli atomi, così come li conosciamo, non è accettata subito da tutti e, andando avanti nel tempo, gli scienziati formulano teorie, in genere basate su calcoli matematici, che saranno più o meno provate e quindi accettate dalla comunità scientifica. Ma molte ancora ne rimangono da scoprire, o provare, come la LQG (Gravità Quantistica a Loop) alla quale lo stesso Rovelli sta lavorando.
In estrema sintesi nell'escursus storico proposto è bene ricordare:
-"La massa non è una proprietà intrinseca della sostanza materiale, quanto piuttosto un comportamento"
-"Lo spazio-tempo dice alla materia come muoversi; la materia dice alo spazio-tempo come curvarsi"
Le particelle subatomiche ed elmentari hanno molte differenti caratteristiche:
-possono avere una massa che si manifesta come comportamento probabilistico;
-esprimersi come onda elettromagnetica;
-avere o meno carica elettrica;
-abbinarsi con spin opposto;
-attorniarsi di particelle senza massa;
-essere sottoposte a forze deboli o forti, mediate da altre particelle;
-essere frenate nel loro impeto dal campo di Higgs permettendo loro di esprimere massa.
-...
Tutto ciò creato da campi quantistici in cui le particelle sono semplicemente perturbazioni del campo.
La massa appare per stretta coincidenza di tutti questi fattori di volta in volta necessari, basta una variazione di una delle loro proprietà che l'universo, così come lo vediamo, non esisterebbe.
Il testo non è semplice perché dà per scontate alcune nozioni, propone formule su cui bisognerebbe riflettere. L'autore però aiuta con metafore efficaci e, soprattutto, focalizzando in 5 punti i concetti salienti di ogni capitolo.
Personalmente mi sento soddisfatta da questa prima lettura dato che non sono un'addetta ai lavori.
Se la domanda iniziale era quella di capire le relazioni (o parte di esse) a cui faceva riferimento Rovelli, questo testo è riuscito nel suo intento.
Rovelli insiste sulla condizione di forte relazione tra le componenti della materia, ponendola come fondamentale, rappresentativa delle interazioni a livello microscopico.
Il taglio all'argomento che dà Baggott è storico e parte dai filosofi atomisti dell'antica Grecia per saltare al XIX secolo quando si inizia a indagare la struttura della materia.
L'esistenza degli atomi, così come li conosciamo, non è accettata subito da tutti e, andando avanti nel tempo, gli scienziati formulano teorie, in genere basate su calcoli matematici, che saranno più o meno provate e quindi accettate dalla comunità scientifica. Ma molte ancora ne rimangono da scoprire, o provare, come la LQG (Gravità Quantistica a Loop) alla quale lo stesso Rovelli sta lavorando.
In estrema sintesi nell'escursus storico proposto è bene ricordare:
-"La massa non è una proprietà intrinseca della sostanza materiale, quanto piuttosto un comportamento"
-"Lo spazio-tempo dice alla materia come muoversi; la materia dice alo spazio-tempo come curvarsi"
Le particelle subatomiche ed elmentari hanno molte differenti caratteristiche:
-possono avere una massa che si manifesta come comportamento probabilistico;
-esprimersi come onda elettromagnetica;
-avere o meno carica elettrica;
-abbinarsi con spin opposto;
-attorniarsi di particelle senza massa;
-essere sottoposte a forze deboli o forti, mediate da altre particelle;
-essere frenate nel loro impeto dal campo di Higgs permettendo loro di esprimere massa.
-...
Tutto ciò creato da campi quantistici in cui le particelle sono semplicemente perturbazioni del campo.
La massa appare per stretta coincidenza di tutti questi fattori di volta in volta necessari, basta una variazione di una delle loro proprietà che l'universo, così come lo vediamo, non esisterebbe.
Il testo non è semplice perché dà per scontate alcune nozioni, propone formule su cui bisognerebbe riflettere. L'autore però aiuta con metafore efficaci e, soprattutto, focalizzando in 5 punti i concetti salienti di ogni capitolo.
Personalmente mi sento soddisfatta da questa prima lettura dato che non sono un'addetta ai lavori.
Se la domanda iniziale era quella di capire le relazioni (o parte di esse) a cui faceva riferimento Rovelli, questo testo è riuscito nel suo intento.
December 3, 2018
Bardzo ciekawie przedstawiona historia postrzegania koncepcji masy. Książka w pewnych rozdziałach zbliżona do "Higgsa" tego samego autora. Tu jednak o wiele przejrzysciej są zwizualizowane pojęcia pól kwantowych i działania samego bozonu Higgsa. Do tego bardzo przejrzyście w przypisach przedstawione wyprowadzenia wzorów. Sposób wyprowadzenia równania E=mc2 zajął... zaledwie pół strony! Zdecydowanie polecam
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews