Great Physicists: The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking

512 Pages·2001·6.9 MB·English

by  William H. Cropper

Great Physicists
The Life and Times of Leading Physicists
from Galileo to Hawking
William H. Cropper
1
2001
1
Oxford NewYork
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Copyright(cid:1)2001byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc.
PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc.
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Cropper,WilliamH.
GreatPhysicists:thelifeandtimesofleadingphysicistsfromGalileotoHawking/
WilliamH.Cropper.
p.cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–19–513748–5
1. Physicists—Biography. I. Title.
QC15.C762001 530'.092'2—dc21 [B] 2001021611
987654321
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
I. Mechanics
Historical Synopsis 3
1. How the Heavens Go 5
Galileo Galilei
2. A Man Obsessed 18
Isaac Newton
II. Thermodynamics
Historical Synopsis 41
3. A Tale of Two Revolutions 43
Sadi Carnot
4. On the Dark Side 51
Robert Mayer
5. A Holy Undertaking 59
James Joule
6. Unities and a Unifier 71
Hermann Helmholtz
7. The Scientist as Virtuoso 78
William Thomson
8. The Road to Entropy 93
Rudolf Clausius
9. The Greatest Simplicity 106
Willard Gibbs
10. The Last Law 124
Walther Nernst
III. Electromagnetism
Historical Synopsis 135
11. A Force of Nature 137
Michael Faraday
vi Contents
12. The Scientist as Magician 154
James Clerk Maxwell
IV. Statistical Mechanics
Historical Synopsis 177
13. Molecules and Entropy 179
Ludwig Boltzmann
V. Relativity
Historical Synopsis 201
14. Adventure in Thought 203
Albert Einstein
VI. Quantum Mechanics
Historical Synopsis 229
15. Reluctant Revolutionary 231
Max Planck
16. Science by Conversation 242
Niels Bohr
17. The Scientist as Critic 256
Wolfgang Pauli
18. Matrix Mechanics 263
Werner Heisenberg
19. Wave Mechanics 275
Erwin Schro¨dinger and Louis de Broglie
VII. Nuclear Physics
Historical Synopsis 293
20. Opening Doors 295
Marie Curie
21. On the Crest of a Wave 308
Ernest Rutherford
22. Physics and Friendships 330
Lise Meitner
23. Complete Physicist 344
Enrico Fermi
Contents vii
VIII. Particle Physics
Historical Synopsis 363
24. iγ.(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)m(cid:2) 365
Paul Dirac
25. What Do You Care? 376
Richard Feynman
26. Telling the Tale of the Quarks 403
Murray Gell-Mann
IX. Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
Historical Synopsis 421
27. Beyond the Galaxy 423
Edwin Hubble
28. Ideal Scholar 438
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
29. Affliction, Fame, and Fortune 452
Stephen Hawking
Chronology of the Main Events 464
Glossary 469
Invitation to More Reading 478
Index 485

Preface
This book tells about lives in science, specifically the lives of thirty from the
pantheon of physics. Some of the names are familiar (Newton, Einstein, Curie,
Heisenberg, Bohr), while others may not be (Clausius, Gibbs, Meitner, Dirac,
Chandrasekhar). All were, or are, extraordinary human beings, at least as fasci-
nating as their subjects.The shortbiographiesinthebooktellthestoriesofboth
the people and their physics.
The chapters are varied in format and length, depending on the (sometimes
skimpy) biographical material available. Some chapters are equippedwithshort
sections (entitled “Lessons”) containing background information on topics in
mathematics, physics, and chemistry for the uninformed reader.
Conventional wisdom holds that general readers are frightened of mathemat-
icalequations.Ihavenottakenthatadvice,andhaveincludedequationsinsome
of the chapters. Mathematical equations express the language of physics: you
can’t get the message without learning something about the language. That
shouldbepossibleifyouhavearudimentary(highschool)knowledgeofalgebra,
and, if required, you pay attention to the “Lessons” sections. The glossary and
chronology may also prove helpful. For more biographical material, consult the
works cited in the “Invitation to More Reading” section.
Noclaimismadethatthisisacomprehensiveorscholarlystudy;itisintended
asrecreationalreadingforscientistsandstudentsofscience(formalorinformal).
My modest hope is that you will read these chapters casually and for entertain-
ment, and learn the lesson that science is, after all, a human endeavor.
William H. Cropper

Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of Kirk Jensen, Helen Mules, and Jane
LincolnTayloratOxfordUniversityPress,whomadeanarduoustaskmuchmore
pleasant than it might have been. I Am indebted to my daughters, Hazel and
Betsy, for many things, this time for their artistry with computer software and
hardware.
I am also grateful for permission to reprint excerpts from the following
publications:
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, by Abraham Pais,
copyright (cid:1) 1983 by Abraham Pais. Used by permission of Oxford University
Press, Inc.; The Quantum Physicists, by William H. Cropper, copyright (cid:1) 1970
by Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permissionofOxfordUniversityPress,
Inc.;LudwigBoltzmann:TheManWhoTrustedAtoms,byCarloCercignani,copy-
right(cid:1)1998byCarloCercignani.UsedbypermissionofOxfordUniversityPress,
Inc.; Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics, by Ruth Lewin Sime, copyright (cid:1) 1996 by
theRegentsoftheUniversityofCalifornia.UsedbypermissionoftheUniversity
of California Press; Marie Curie: A Life, by Susan Quinn, copyright (cid:1) 1996, by
Susan Quinn. Used by permission of the Perseus Books Group; Atoms in the
Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi, by Laura Fermi, copyright (cid:1) 1954 by The
University of Chicago. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press;
Enrico Fermi, Physicist, by Emilio Segre`, copyright (cid:1) 1970 by TheUniversityof
Chicago.UsedbypermissionofTheUniversityofChicagoPress;StrangeBeauty:
Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics, by George
Johnson, copyright (cid:1) 1999 by George Johnson. Used by permission of AlfredA.
Knopf, a divisionof RandomHouse,Inc.AlsopublishedintheUnitedKingdom
byJonathanCape,andused bypermissionfromtheRandomHouseGroup,Lim-
ited; QED and the Men Who Made It, by Silvan S. Schweber, copyright (cid:1) 1994
byPrincetonUniversityPress.UsedbypermissionofPrincetonUniversityPress;
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman as told to Ralph Leigh-
ton, copyright (cid:1) 1985 by Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton. Used by per-
mission of W.W. Norton Company, Inc. Also published in the United Kingdom
by Century, and used by permission from the Random House Group, Limited;
What Do You Care What Other People Think?, by Richard Feynman as told to
Ralph Leighton, copyright (cid:1) 1988 by Gweneth Feynman and Ralph Leighton.
Used by permission of W.W. Norton Company, Inc.; The Feynman Lectures on
Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands, copyright
(cid:1) 1988 by Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman. Used by permission of the
PerseusBooksGroup;Chandra:ABiographyofS.Chandrasekhar,byKameshwar
Wali,copyright(cid:1)1991byTheUniversityofChicago.UsedbypermissionofThe
University of Chicago Press; Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, by Gale E.
Christianson, copyright (cid:1) 1995 by Gale E. Christianson. Used by permission of