An Old Man's Toy: Gravity at Work and Play in Einstein's Universe PDF
Preview An Old Man's Toy: Gravity at Work and Play in Einstein's Universe
, ALso BY A~ ZEE Fearful The Search for Beauty in Modem Physics Symmetry.~ ~'v Gravity at Work and Play in Einstein's Universe MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY New York , ! ~ • • Copyright 1989 by Anthony Zee @ Lines from ClBegin the Beguine" (page 120)t words and music by Cole Porter @ 1935 by Warner Bros. Inc. (Renewed). All rights reserved. Used by permission. Lines from and Ice"' by Robert Frost (page 207) copyright 1923 ~tFire by 1951 by Ho1t Rinehart and Winston and renewed Robert Frost. Reprinted t from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem) by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc. AU rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, e1ectronRC or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Macmillan Publishing Company 866 Third Avenue, New NY 10022 York~ CoUier Macmillan Canada. Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zee, A. An old man's gravity at work and in universe toy: p]ay Einstein~s / A. Zee. p. em. Includes index. [SBN 3440-2 ~·92-§.3 1. Gravitation Popular works. 2. Gravity-Popu]ar works. 3. Cosmology Popular works. I. Title. QCI78.Z44 ) 989 531 1 J -f--dc19 88-19013 elP Macmillan books are availabJe at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums. fund·raising) or educational use. For details, contact: Special Sales Director MacmiUan Publishing Company 866 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the Un.ited States of America To Chubber & Droid I • • • • n-· Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Prologue: The Apple and the Moon xv PART I THE RISE OF GRAVITY 1 1. An Old Man's Toy 3 2. Hastening Through Space and Time 18 3. The Mighty Shall Be Weak 32 PART II THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE 47 4. Outward Bound 49 5. Darkness at Night 70 6. From the Big Chill to the Big Bang 8S PART III STRUCTURES OUT OF THE VOID 103 7. The Universe Begets Matter lOS 8. The Rich Get Richer 123 , , .' ~ , , • , Contents , • ',,,,,n LiLli' , "" Ii" , " , 1m , , un La, • 9. From Hair Whorls to the Edge of Creation 134 10. Ghost Riders in the Sky 155 II. Crowned with a Halo 175 IV THE GRAVITY 189 PART MYSTERY OF The Fall and Rise of Gravity 191 12~ 13. The Music of Strings 211 14. The Thinking Man and the Laughing God 231 Notes 245 Index 265 , nnE LLL Ii • • • Vill Of the fundamental we are most Inhm!!l'~f' >mIVUv. In the uttermost rI" .. II',...",,,,, of night, lost in OUT private LUV'U~"."" shut off from the world we still feel incessant we come into existence than we became aware bal~lnC(':d by the buoyancy fluid inside . not know gravity. man In Part 1, we to the quantum on to a glimpse 2, we follow the 3, we how evollutU)TI of the evtll1en!t: at other ix .. , Preface • .. , "" .LL. , , , " , , , "n .,," ,,,,,, '" au, , ' +" tour of the universe, we return in Part 4 to gaze at the innermost secrets of gravity. ThUS,. a book in four movements: gravity, universe, universe 1 and gravity. This book is about gravity and about the universe. My ambition here is to explain the physics of gravity as wen as the physics of phenom .. ena involving gravity, as represented most dramatically by the dynamic universe. Cosmology is certainly of deep interest and shares equal bil1ing with the physics of gravity. Cosmology is also considerably more accessible to the lay readeL Ultimately, however, the passion of the fundamental physicist lies more with the mystery of why we fan than with the life of the universe. I would also like to say a few words in tribute to George Gamow, the 1ate Russian-American physicist who fashioned modem physical cos .. mology out of the genera] notion of the big as I describe in chapter bang~ 6. An ebullient and irreverent jokester, Gamow was notorious for the fun he managed to have while doing physics. Quite a few physicists now fee] that the Nobel Prize committee passed him over unjustly. Perhaps they didn't like the way he treated physics as an amusing hobby rather than as a serious profession. Dh well, in any case his style appeals to me. 1 Gamow also wrote a delightful series of popular physics books. I went into physics partly because of a chance encounter with one of his books during high school I recommend those books. I did not want to write the kind of popular physics book that merely serves up headlines. As a physicist and a professor, I want to explain as much as possible. But in d"iscussing quantum gravity and the superstring theory in Part 4, when the full subtleties of the quantum field theory come into play, I can, alas do no more than give you the flavor 7 of the physics For those who want I can only suggest that , involved~ more~ you embrace a career in theoretical physics, as I did when I read George Gamow's confession in one of his popular physics books that he iust couldn't explain quantum statistics~ On the other hand, 1 also want to report on the excitement of the latest developments. The trick is to avoid the kind of developments that are here today and gone tomorrow. Over the four years or so from the first writing to the publication of this book, the popular press has reported breathlessly on quite a few exciting By and large,. I discuss "discoveries.~' in this book only what I be1ieve will at least in broad outline". endure~ When I do talk about speculative suggestions, I try to make clear that they are just that. x
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