Thirty years that shook physics
by George Gamow · first published 1966
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Why HN recommends it
Readable popular history of how quantum theory developed, told through the key discoveries and people; suggested for curious non-specialists wanting historical context on modern physics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…correctly all the really important and interesting stuff had been accomplished. Alfred Nobel, inventor of the first stable high explosive (stabilized nitroglycerin known as dynamite). Pick a selection from Thirty Years That Shook Physics (quantum physics), and go back some, at least to Newton and Leibniz. And, oh, Euclid. Claude Shannon is best known as the father of information theory, but before that he wrote one of the most consequential…
on “Ask HN: Who are the 100 people who most changed the world?” ↗Yes, echoing the others Feynman was too late for the foundational, completely change your view of the universe stuff. Gamow's Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-that-Shook-Physics/dp/048... is the standard non-specialist account of this, it starts with Plank right after the turn of the century and…
on “Paul Dirac's handwritten notes for his PhD, the first ever on quantum mechanics” ↗…wrote the “fever chill” poem. They attribute this to the impact of quantum mechanics at the beginning of the century, when “the entire worldview of physics changed” There's a highly recommended books, Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-that-Shook-Physics/dp/048...) that in part explains what's happened in the last century and a quarter or so. That amazing 30 years of…
on “Why Nobel-Winning Scientists Are Getting Older” ↗I perhaps quibble with the dates, but I think it's hard to underestimate how revolutionary and groundbreaking the preceding "30 Years That Shook Physics" were (http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-that-Shook-Physics/dp/048...). Perhaps 35, from Plank's late 1900 "there's quanta out there" to Yukawa's 1935 explication of the strong nuclear force, and don't forget Einstein's General Theory of Relativity in-between,…
on “Confirmed: The Last Great Prediction Of The Big Bang” ↗…Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science (1947) https://www.amazon.com/One-Two-Three-Infinity-Speculations/d... PDF: https://archive.org/details/OneTwoThreeInfinity_158 .......................... >Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (1966) https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-that-Shook-Physics/dp/04... PDF: https://archive.org/details/ThirtyYearsThatShookPhysics-TheB...
on “In 1870, Lord Rayleigh used oil and water to calculate the size of molecules” ↗…gravity's role in quantum state reduction etc which sound pretty deep and complex for a recreational learner. Beyond that, you can also read books such as The Evolution of Physics by Einstein himself, Thirty Years that Shook Physics by George Gamow to get a historical perspective on the development of advanced physics. For a midway academic treatment, you can read Feynman's lecture on Physics volumes. For discrete maths, books like…
on “Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?” ↗"Thirty Years that Shook Physics", by George Gamow, fits the bill pretty well.
on “The Golden Age of Quantum Physics” ↗My personal favorite: - Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory Other great books: - The Theory Of Everything - The Quark and the Jaguar - Six Easy Pieces
on “Particle mystery: physicists confirm the muon is more magnetic than predicted” ↗…physicist, as is partly outlined in this piece, his decision was clearly right, for the previous golden age of physics was well over by late '50s, and progress since then has been minimal compared to the Thirty Years that Shook Physics (quantum theory: https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-that-Shook-Physics/dp/04...), General Relatively (still our best theory of gravity), and the revelations of the secrets of the nucleus. Maybe also…
on “E.W. Dijkstra Archive: The Humble Programmer” ↗