The Birth of a New Physics

by I. Bernard Cohen

The earth circles the sun every year and rotates on its axis every twenty-four hours. The earth does not stand still. These are notions so basic to our view of life that we take them for granted. But in the seventeenth century they were revolutionary, heretical, even dangerous to the men who formed them. Culture, religion, and science had intertwined over the centuries to create a world view based on a stationary earth. Indeed, if the earth moved, would not birds be blown off the trees and would not an object thrown straight up come down far away?

Then came the Renaissance and with it Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, and Newton: giants who courageously remade the world into an earth which actually moves 100,000 feet a second while revolving 1,000 miles an hour around an object 93,000,000 miles away. And yet birds perch unruffled and an apple will fall straight down.

All of this we think we know. But how well do we know it? In the twenty-five years since its first publication, The Birth of a New Physics has become a classic in the history of science. Here expanded by more than one-third and fully updated, it not only offers us the best account of the greatest scientific revolution but also tells us how we can know we live in a dynamic universe.

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

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Mohammad Sajjad Asghari · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتابِ خوش توضیح و خوش ترجمه‌ای که به خوبی با هدف تبیین تاریخ فیزیک نیوتنی، تاریخ فیزیک را از ارسطو شروع می‌کند، سپس به کوپرنیک، گالیله و کپلر می‌رسد و در نهایت شاهکار علمی نیوتن را به تصویر می‌کشد

[Laura L. Van Dam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente opúsculo sobre historia de la física, con muchos diagramas, y que he recomendado mucho a mis alumnos como material de consulta.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

read it for my class HPS210 Scientific Revolutions, and quite liked the style actually!

[Peddiraju Bhargava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this victorious story of rational mind conquering the obstacles of Cultural irrationality and orthodox blindness.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless you looooove physics, you can skip this. There's some history on these key figures, but it's heavy on math and their contributions to the field of science.

[Alexandre Guay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un très bon livre d'histoire internaliste sur la révolution scientifique. Bernard Cohen montre bien l'évolution des concepts physiques et leur progressive mathématisation au cours du 17e siècle. Malheureusement, les passages sur l'expérimentation et sur la statut de l'expérience en général sont nettement inférieurs au reste. Malgré d'importants ajouts au fil des rééditions, ce livre commence à dater un peu. La place des institutions, comme la Royal Society est à peu près absente, ce qui n'est pardonnable en histoire aujourd'hui. Il reste cependant que les parties consacrées à Copernic et à Galilée sont exemplaires sur bien des aspects. La lecture de la section sur Newton laisse sur sa faim, ce qui m'a surpris compte tenu que Bernard Cohen est l'un des plus grands spécialistes de Newton.

[Scott Somerville · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! If you've read "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," by Thomas Kuhn, you'll immediately see that Cohen has taken Kuhn's concept of "paradigm shifts" and fleshed it out with one example. If you haven't read Kuhn, run don't walk to get your copy of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."

[Laura L. Van Dam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un pequeño gran librito de historia de la ciencia, que me sirvió de bibliografía para un trabajo de la facultad sobre Newton. Y como es de Eudeba, es barato y fácil de conseguir.
Recomendado incluso para aquellos con algún tipo de interés en la ciencia o en la divulgación porque el nivel no es tan avanzado, aunque las ideas están impecablemente explicadas.

[Pablo Pernía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro muy educativo, en el que además de contar como se dieron a cabo muchos descubrimientos de la física, te cuenta un poco de la vida de los físicos mas influyentes de la historia, como galileo, copérnico, etc.

[G0thamite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful story of the Scientific Revolution up to Newton.

[Iceman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro muito interessante que aborda a História da Física. Desde Galileu, até Newton, somos levados por um caminho e pelos pensamentos daqueles que descobriram e desenvolveram a física.