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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN num: 9781591025757
ISBN number: 1591025753
Label: Prometheus Books
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 363
Printing Date: January 31, 2008
Publishing house: Prometheus Books
Sale Popularity Level: 139731
Studio: Prometheus Books
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When scientists peer through a telescope at the distant stars in outer space or use a particle-accelerator to analyze the smallest components of matter, they discover that the same laws of physics govern the whole universe at all times and all places. Physicists call the eternal, ubiquitous constancy of the laws of physics symmetry. Nobel Laureate Leon M. Lederman and physicist Christopher T. Hill explain the supremely elegant concept of symmetry and all its profound ramifications to life on Earth and the universe at large in this eloquent, accessible popular science book. They not only clearly describe concepts normally reserved for physicists and mathematicians, but they also instill an appreciation for the profound beauty of the universe's inherent design. Central to the story of symmetry is an obscure, unpretentious, but extremely gifted German mathematician named Emmy Noether. In some of her earliest work she proved that the law of the conservation of energy was connected to the idea of symmetry and thus laid the mathematical groundwork for what may be the most important concept of modern physics. Lederman and Hill reveal concepts about the universe, based on Noether's work, that are largely unknown to the public and have wide-reaching implications in connection with the Big Bang, Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and many other areas of physics. Through ingenious analogies and illustrations, they bring these astounding notions to life. This book will open your eyes to a universe you never knew existed.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book has too many ambitious goals. On the one hand, it strives to elucidate the pervasiveness of principles of symmetry in the universe from the gravity of the cosmos all the way down to the microscopic length scales of particles. In this regard, it does a decent job (and devotes many more pages to) explaining the scientific revolutions wrought by Copernicus, Galileo & Newton all the way to the 19th century of Maxwell and even the strangeness of Quantum Mechanics in the 20th. However, it utterly fails when describing particle physics, oddly enough since one of the authors (Lederman) won an Nobel Prize for his work on neutrinos. Chapter 12 of the book is a hasty, ill-explained, and rather unsatisfactory introduction to particle physics with an inundation of Feynman diagrams, sub-atomic particles (quarks, leptons, gluons) and their interactions. For a book that adopted a good pace early on taking pains to explain things with clarity, the last chapter does not do it justice. Another aim of the book is to promote the role of women in science, particularly by highlighting the work & life of Emmy Noether, a brief mention of Marie Curie and using the 'she' pronoun throughout. In both regards, it falls short and there are plenty of other books that do it better.
Rated by buyers 
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After having read Leon Lederman's previous book, The God Particle, I found this book largely disappointing, but it did have a few very strong points. One of these was his discusion about Emmy Noether, a mathematician who made huge contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. He shows a great deal of respect, even awe, for this woman's accomplishments and this is where his writing is at its best; when he gets emotional over a subject. He also railed against in the inequality facing women in physics. His writing was so compelling that I would be interested in reading a biography of Noether. Importantly, Lederman also shows that not only is the natural world beautiful, it loses none of its mystique when studied in intricate detail and in the smallest possible detail. Lederman's discusion of quantum mechanics, including the uncertainty principal is the best I've read and he uses plain language and examples to explain it. One thing that Lederman did particularly well was explain why old theories collapse. The major downside of this book was that, except for the examples above, the physics and math were largely incomprehensible to the untrained reader such as myself and this really diminished my enjoyment of the book. Thus I cannot recommend this book to the casual reader, but I still strongly recommend The God Particle.
Rated by buyers -
The authors' essential premise is that the physical world is comprised of abstract forms that correspond to symmetrical principles. Beauty in the natural world is a mathematically precise formula. The sub-atomic world and the planetary bodies are part of the same numerical balancing act, which was recognized by Pythagoras and the Greek geometrists. Although this is hardly an original concept, the theme is well presented and expertly argued.
Rated by buyers -
Somehow in college (66-70) I missed the importance on symetry in physics. I majored in math, and when I learned that a fellow math student (Frank Wilczek) won the Nobel in Physics based on his math work, I started trying to figure out what I had missed. Somehow the importance of group theory (while clear in math) was not being taught in undergraduate physics even at Chicago. I have read quite a bit, and found this book to be very enlightening. They never get around to proving (or ever really explaining) Noether's theorem, but this book is the best of a very large lot.
Rated by buyers 
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Most textbooks describe the conservation laws one at a time. Students learn them as a list of topics: Conservation of this, conservation of that. Pass the test. Forget about it. Yawn. This is why most people say they hate physics.
This book takes an important step in changing the way we think about physics, particularly the conservation laws. The conservation laws are much deeper, as explained by Noether's Theorem. They aren't separate topics at all. They are part of one important concept: symmetry. Now we see that there is a connection between conctrete concepts, such as conservation of momentum, and some of the theories in particle physics. Now we have reason to talk about modern physics in a course on classical mechanics.
Hopefully this book will inspire enough people that these ideas will show up in the classroom more. I will certainly incorporate these ideas in the physics classes I teach. In addition, I found that Emmy Noether's struggles are inspiring to many students, and her story provides an appropriate way to discuss something other than physics in a physics class.
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