Through Euclid's Window Leonard Mlodinow brilliantly and delightfully leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. Here is an altogether new, refreshing, alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space -- in the living room or in some other galaxy -- have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology.
Based on Mlodinow's extensive historical research; his studies alongside colleagues such as Richard Feynman and Kip Thorne; and interviews with leading physicists and mathematicians such as Murray Gell-Mann, Edward Witten, and Brian Greene, Euclid's Window is an extraordinary blend of rigorous, authoritative investigation and accessible, good-humored storytelling that makes a stunningly original argument asserting the primacy of geometry. For those who have looked through Euclid's Window, no space, no thing, and no time will ever be quite the same.
Autorentext
Leonard Mlodinow
Inhalt
Contents
Introduction
I THE STORY OF EUCLID
1. The First Revolution
2. The Geometry of Taxation
3. Among the Seven Sages
4. The Secret Society
5. Euclid's Manifesto
6. A Beautiful Woman, a Library, and the End of Civilization
II THE STORY OF DESCARTES
7. The Revolution in Place
8. The Origin of Latitude and Longitude
9. The Legacy of the Rotten Romans
10. The Discreet Charm of the Graph
11. A Soldier's Story
12. Iced by the Snow Queen
III THE STORY OF GAUSS
13. The Curved Space Revolution
14. The Trouble with Ptolemy
15. A Napoleonic Hero
16. The Fall of the Fifth Postulate
17. Lost in Hyperbolic Space
18. Some Insects Called the Human Race
19. A Tale of Two Aliens
20. After 2,000 Years, a Face-lift
IV THE STORY OF EINSTEIN
21. Revolution at the Speed of Light
22. Relativity's Other Albert
23. The Stuff of Space
24. Probationary Technical Expert, Third Class
25. A Relatively Euclidean Approach
26. Einstein's Apple
27. From Inspiration to Perspiration
28. Blue Hair Triumphs
V THE STORY OF WITTEN
29. The Weird Revolution
30. Ten Things I Hate About Your Theory
31. The Necessary Uncertainty of Being
32. Clash of the Titans
33. A Message in a Kaluza-Klein Bottle
34. The Birth of Strings
35. Particles, Schmarticles!
36. The Trouble with Strings
37. The Theory Formerly Known As Strings
Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index