Puzzles to Unravel the Universe

by Cumrun Vafa

Beneath all of the complex and formidable mathematical structures that formulate physical laws rest simple but deep nuggets of truth. It is these simple truths, and not the complicated technical details, that scientists strive for when uncovering the laws of nature. Fortunately, these core ideas can often be illustrated with simple mathematical puzzles. These puzzles are so simplified that one can tackle them and appreciate their meaning without using any complicated math. This book aims to take the reader on a journey to unravel the laws of the universe through fun puzzles. This book includes over a hundred puzzles and their solutions, along with discussion about how they relate to deep ideas in physics and math. Examples are drawn from classical physics, such as Newton's laws and Einstein's theory of relativity, as well as from modern physics, including black holes and string theory. This book is designed for the general public, and it does not require extensive background in mathematics or physics--just a sense of curiosity!
About the Cumrun Vafa is the Hollis Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy in the Physics Department at Harvard University, where he has been teaching and researching theoretical physics since 1985. Professor Vafa is world-renowned for his groundbreaking work in string theory. He is one of the founders of the duality revolution in string theory, which has reshaped our understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe. Professor Vafa has received numerous prizes and recognitions for his work on theoretical physics, including the 2017 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the 2008 Dirac Medal from the ICTP.
For more information about the author see his .

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction

333 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[کافه ادبیات · Rating 4 out of 5]

ما انسان‌ها تمایلی ذاتی داریم که بدانیم جهان پیرامون‌مان چطور کار می‌کند. امید داریم که در اطرافمان الگوهایی را مشاهده کنیم که ما را در انتظارمان از آنچه در آینده رخ می‌دهند، یاری رساند. کمّی کردن این الگوها فرایندی است که به‌مرور انسان را به ابداع ریاضیات هدایت کرد. در واقع ریاضیات ستون فقرات فیزیک است که هدف‌اش توصیف نحوه‌ی کارکرد جهان در بنیادی‌ترین لایه‌های آن است. هرچه قوانین طبیعت را عمیق‌تر بفهمیم، به موضوعات پیشرفته‌تری در ریاضیات احتیاج خواهیم داشت، به‌حدی که فیزیک امروزه به‌خاطر پیچیدگی ریاضیاتی‌اش، به "غیر قابل فهم بودن" توسط غیرمتخصصان شهرت یافته است.

کامران وفا، فیزیکدان برجسته ایرانی، از برندگان مدال دیراک در سال ۲۰۰۸ و استاد کرسیِ هولیس در ریاضیات و فلسفه طبیعی در دانشگاه هاروارد با بهره‌گیری از معماهایی ساده و قابل‌فهم در کتاب «معماهایی برای رازگشایی از عالم»، اصول فیزیک را برای خواننده‌ی غیرمتخصص تبیین می‌کند. او با نگاهی ریاضیاتی به این اصول، به داد و ستد بین فیزیک و ریاضی که به‌شدت درهم‌تنیده‌ اما عمیقاً با هم متفاوت‌اند، می‌پردازد.

[Superconformal Hassaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may seem like another one of those popular science books, trying to explain the physics of standard model and string theory, but actually, this book is so much different than any other books that you might have come across before. First of all, the author (Dr. Cumrun Vafa) is known to have a fascination with puzzles. I being a student of theoretical physics myself was told by some of his colleagues at ICTP (where Vafa is a fellow) that he does love puzzles a lot. What Dr. Vafa has done in this book is exactly what the title says. He has provided us with puzzles such that solving these puzzles will invoke a similar kind of thinking that one will invoke in order to answer some of the deepest mysteries in modern theoretical physics. Being a student of theoretical physics myself, I want to say that it is not easy to come up with such puzzles that will require a certain kind of thinking for their solution, and thus, I greatly admire this effort by Dr. Vafa.
It might seem that this book is just a list of puzzles. Well, that is not true. This book is more like a discussion and the puzzles just pop up during the discussions to support the points that he wants to make.
In my personal opinion, the puzzle that connected duality with the ants puzzle was one of the best puzzles in the book (probably because when I first read the book in 2020, I was writing my masters thesis on Seiberg Witten duality and I was fascinated by dualities at that time :) ). Anyone who likes his/her brain to go for exercise will love this book for sure. I highly recommend it.

[K Zamanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and easy to read book that explains various concepts about the universe and physics using fun puzzles. My favorite puzzle is why the night sky is dark despite so many bright stars! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about how everything works in our universe.

[Nader Navazeshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

در بخشی از مباحث بسیار دشوار...

[Mehrab · Rating 2 out of 5]

برخلاف ادعای نویسنده به نظرم چندان نمیتوان بدون داشتن پایه قوی در ریاضیات از کتاب بهره‌مند شد. خیلی خوش خوان نیست هرچند باز هم به نظرم این به ترجمه برمی‌گردد.

[Hossein Nikfarjaam · Rating 4 out of 5]

متاسفانه بدون دانش آکادمیک از فیزیک و ب خصوص ریاضی نمیشه از مباحث کتاب درک درستی داشت؛
اگه علاقه مند ب این دسته کتاب ها هستید ولی همونظور ک گفتم اطلاعات بالایی از ریاضی و فیزیک ندارید پیشنهاد من ب شما کتاب "واقعیت ناپیدا از کارلو روولی" هست ک حتما نسخه نشر نو رو تهیه کنید

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some great puzzles, but the physics and maths was a little beyond me.

[Vahid Behmaram shahab · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's an interesting book..but why isn't one chapter (chapter 10) translated in Iran?

[Freido · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite obtuse but I know i'll re-read it.