Gravity’s Arc: The Story of Gravity from Aristotle to Einstein and Beyond by David Darling (PDF)

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Advance Praise for Gravity’s Arc””A beautifully written exposition of the still mysterious force that holds our universe together–and the even more mysterious dark twin that may blow it apart.””–Joshua Gilder, coauthor of Heavenly Intrigue””A lucid book as up-to-date as the effect of gravity on the bones of astronauts.””–Denis Brian, author of The Unexpected EinsteinHow did they do it?How did one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived retard the study of gravity for 2,000 years? How did a gluttonous tyrant with a gold nose revolutionize our view of the solar system? How could an eccentric professor shake the foundations of an entire belief system by dropping two objects from a tower? How did a falling apple turn the thoughts of a reclusive genius toward the moon? And how could a simple patent clerk change our entire view of the universe by imagining himself riding on a beam of light?In Gravity’s Arc, you’ll discover how some of the most colorful, eccentric, and brilliant people in history first locked, then unlocked the door to understanding one of nature’s most essential forces. You’ll find out why Aristotle’s misguided conclusions about gravity became an unassailable part of Christian dogma, how Galileo slowed down time to determine how fast objects fall, and why Isaac Newton erased every mention of one man’s name from his magnum opus Principia. You’ll also figure out what Einstein meant when he insisted that space is curved, whether there is really such a thing as antigravity, and why some scientists think that the best way to get to outer space is by taking an elevator.

User’s Reviews

Opiniones editoriales From Publishers Weekly Darling, the author of The Universal Book of Astronomy and a host of other books and articles on space flight, mathematics and physics, provides a strikingly readable explanation for the complex phenomena at the cutting edge of contemporary physics. Beginning with the ancient Greeks’ ruminations on the nature of the physical world and concluding with a forecast for where physics is headed, Darling uses a conversational tone and narrative storytelling to coax readers through the finer points of dark energy and dark matter, string theory, inflationary universes, black holes and wormholes. Unfortunately, the book’s lack of illustrations hobbles the discussion of some topics, though readers with a cursory knowledge of high school physics should be able to navigate the sections on, say, Keplerian planetary orbits or ballistic trajectories. Darling’s done an admirable job of making physics palatable to a general audience, though it seems incomplete without at least a few line drawings.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review * “”…closer than most to explaining the mysteries behind the force.”” (What’s On in London, August 2006) Review “From Aristotle to Einstein and beyond, Gravity’s Arc is a lucid and beautifully written exposition of the still mysterious force that holds our universe together — and the even more mysterious dark twin that may blow it apart.”—Joshua Gilder, author of Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries”A lucid book on gravity, beautifully written. As up to date as the effect of gravity on the bones of astronauts.”—Denis Brian, author of The Unexpected Einstein: The Real Man Behind the Icon and The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science From the Inside Flap Gravity shapes our bones and bodies. It ensures that what goes up comes down. We’ve studied it for millennia. But is what we know about it wrong? The NASA probes Pioneer 10 and 11 are not where they should be, and pendulums have gone haywire during solar eclipses. Nothing in current gravitational theory explains these bizarre behaviors, which begs the larger questions: What exactly is gravity? How has our knowledge about it accumulated? And, what do these anomalies and other recent discoveries mean?In Gravity’s Arc, the celebrated science writer David Darling confronts these questions by tracing the fascinating history of speculation, investigation, and analysis into gravity’s nature by some of the most renowned scientists in history. He starts with Aristotle, who thought all things fell toward their “natural place,” leaps forward to the groundbreaking work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, then shows how Newton and his apple gave the world its first universal theory of gravitation before turning to Einstein and his notion of curved space-time.Darling also introduces readers to the present-day physicists who are wrestling to fit gravity into an all-embracing scheme of nature. This involves some knottier issues: If gravity is a force, where does it come from? How can inert material, however massive, generate this strange attraction? Does gravity travel in waves? If so, can we detect them? What forms might life take on worlds with higher or lower gravity than Earth’s? Is it possible to ride an elevator into space?Darling explores gravity’s mysterious cosmic adversary, a “dark energy” that threatens to stretch the cosmos into infinite oblivion. Could dark energy also hold the key to interstellar space travel, the development of warp drives? Could scientists someday create their own miniature black holes or even embryonic universes? Could we control the very fabric of space and time?Today we stand on the brink of a revolution in gravitational science, one that may also help explain the enigmas of errant probes and pendulums. From the Back Cover Advance Praise for Gravity’s Arc”A beautifully written exposition of the still mysterious force that holds our universe together—and the even more mysterious dark twin that may blow it apart.”—Joshua Gilder, coauthor of Heavenly Intrigue”A lucid book as up-to-date as the effect of gravity on the bones of astronauts.”—Denis Brian, author of The Unexpected EinsteinHow did they do it?How did one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived retard the study of gravity for 2,000 years? How did a gluttonous tyrant with a gold nose revolutionize our view of the solar system? How could an eccentric professor shake the foundations of an entire belief system by dropping two objects from a tower? How did a falling apple turn the thoughts of a reclusive genius toward the moon? And how could a simple patent clerk change our entire view of the universe by imagining himself riding on a beam of light?In Gravity’s Arc, you’ll discover how some of the most colorful, eccentric, and brilliant people in history first locked, then unlocked the door to understanding one of nature’s most essential forces. You’ll find out why Aristotle’s misguided conclusions about gravity became an unassailable part of Christian dogma, how Galileo slowed down time to determine how fast objects fall, and why Isaac Newton erased every mention of one man’s name from his magnum opus Principia. You’ll also figure out what Einstein meant when he insisted that space is curved, whether there is really such a thing as antigravity, and why some scientists think that the best way to get to outer space is by taking an elevator. About the Author David Darling has a Ph.D. in astronomy and has been a full-time freelance science writer for more than twenty years. He is the author of Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, as well as three science encyclopedias: The Universal Book of Mathematics, The Universal Book of Astronomy, and The Complete Book of Spaceflight, all available from Wiley. His other narrative science titles include Deep Time and Equations of Eternity, a New York Times Notable Book. Darling’s articles and reviews have appeared in Astronomy, Omni, Penthouse, New Scientist, the New York Times, and the Guardian, among others. He also hosts a major informational Web site, www.daviddarling.info. Leer más

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐On time and as described.

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⭐If you’re looking for clues as to why gravity “is” then you won’t find them here. If you’re looking for an entertaining read about the history of major scientific thought achievements then its a great read.

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⭐Received it quick in the mail and was how described.

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⭐This was a great history book of gravity. Well written and researched.

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⭐The amazing history of our understanding of gravity, which still remains quite incomplete, cannot help but make one recognize the total absurdity of the flawed mathematical models claiming to understand all-but-unknowable relationships between various complex physical aspects of our planet and, at the same time, predict global temperatures decades away when we have not mastered local temperatures a week away.The notion of gravity as a force is fairly new–it dates back only to Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century. Before that, Aristotle’s view held sway for 2,000 years. Aristotle saw gravity as a property of matter. Newton considered it a somewhat mysterious force.Under Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity is neither of these things. Instead, it sees gravity as a manifestation of curvature in the geometry of space-time. As John Wheeler put it, “Matter tells space how to curve. Space tells matter how to move.”Given the radically evolving understanding of something as basic as gravity, surely it is unscientific in the extreme for believers in a manmade global warming crisis to claim their particular theory is beyond debate.Irreconcilable TheoriesIn many ways, general relativity turns our everyday notion of gravity on its head.Throw a ball straight up in the air and, in Newton’s eyes, a graph of its height versus time shows the ball traveling in a parabola. Einstein’s new vision of gravity, which superseded that of Newton, posited that a massive body–in this case the Earth–curves the coordinate system itself. So instead of following a curved path in a flat (Cartesian) coordinate system, the ball actually follows a minimum-distance path, or geodesic, in a curved coordinate system, returning to the thrower’s hand at a later time because the geodesic leads it there.Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity implicitly included gravity waves. Despite incredible efforts to measure these waves, they have eluded scientists.Additional Theory NeededScientists no longer seriously doubt such waves exist, since Joseph Taylor and his graduate student Russell Hulse first discovered a pair of rotating binary stars and recorded their energy emissions for the next 20 years, showing variations attributable only to waves of gravity. In 1993 they received the Nobel Prize in physics for their work.But a big problem still exists, because as we get closer to a complete picture of the theory of relativity in the universe, we have gotten no closer to fitting into it the quantum theories of how subatomic particles operate in that same universe. It isn’t that they predict different results; instead, they are like different pieces of equipment that cannot be connected.We lack a mathematical interface to solve the problem, and have not a clue how to build one. Hence the search goes on for the holy grail of physics, an all-embracing theory.Lessons of ComplexityWhile scientists studying gravity recognize the current limitations of their knowledge, global warming activists are much less humble. Somehow, pseudo-scientists think they can link together myriad uncertainties in the Earth’s climate system and make assertive predictions that cannot be scientifically supported within even a single order of magnitude.The difficulty of really understanding gravity, which the reader may once have thought to be a relatively simple concept, will bring home the grotesque foolishness of the climate change predictions being bandied about in our daily life in recent years.Princeton ConnectionsOf significant interest near the end of the book is a story of two young radio astronomers at the University of Massachusetts, both now at Princeton, who received the Nobel Prize in 1993 for their 1974 contribution to our still-limited understanding of gravity. These men are now part of an esteemed university department that holds three faculty members on record as expressing their disbelief in the snowballing hype regarding the theory that humans are causing a global warming crisis.I admit to a strong bias for this book, as it is heavy with references to Einstein, a man with whom I had a literal nodding acquaintance at Princeton, as well as worshipful praise of Princeton’s recently deceased emeritus professor of physics John Wheeler, who taught my freshman physics class.Humbling ExperienceThis book will offer you a partial understanding of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy, which today fill the minds of theoretical physicists enamored with the ways of our universe and our solar system within it.Gravity’s Arc is a book only for those with true intellectual curiosity coupled with a complete lack of intellectual ego, as it will cow the most astute of its readers. Great minds operate well above most of us mere mortals.But that is why I recommend it to those who are interested in science and have no fear of a wounded ego.To my mind, approaching the myth of a human-induced global warming crisis indirectly, by learning the complexity of what you may once have thought to be a simple matter, will give you the depth of perspective to do battle with untrained people who cannot grasp the complexity of a problem they see in only the most shallow and incomplete manner.——————————————————————————–Jay Lehr, Ph.D. ([…]) is science director of The Heartland Institute.

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⭐This book is mainly a historical description of our concept of gravity, and can be understood by readers lacking any science background. I personally found the last part of the book (the more modern bits) most interesting, and the coverage is definitely not comprehensive, but there are many interesting sections throughout. I would consider this to be an “introductory” book, and it is definitely (as indicated by the title) limited to gravity.

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⭐Needed a book on the history of gravity and this book did well.In the book Gravity’s Arc, I found the way the relationship between the Catholic Church and the scientific community, during the middle ages, was conveyed as offensive and biased. “As Europe plunged into the Dark Ages, the only body of knowledge that was tolerated was the sterile, unchanging dogma approved by the Church. It’s hard to imagine the utter rigidity of life and thought in those barren times…” (Darling 30). Because the Church had so much responsibility in every aspect of life at the time it had to be very careful about what it deemed right or not. “The Church, sensitive to Protestant charges that the Catholics did not pay proper regard to the Bible, hesitated to permit the suggestion that the literal meaning of scripture–which at times appeared to imply a motionless earth–should be set aside in order to accommodate an unproven scientific theory” (Woods 72). When Galileo began to spread the Copernican theory, this “singular and sterile body of knowledge” told Galileo “that he must cease to teach the Copernican theory as true, though he remained free to treat it as a hypothesis” (Woods 73). St. Albert the Great recognized the value in science, “The sublimest wisdom of which the world could boast flourished in Greece. Even as the Jews knew God by the scriptures, so the pagan philosophers knew Him by the natural wisdom of reason, and were debtors to Him for it by their homage. (Guillen 30).

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⭐This historical and explanatory book covers a difficult topic: gravity, its discovery (a very difficult road to what we consider today an intuitive conclusion), definition and refinement thru the ages. Along the way we get a dose of physics and astronomy, and an appreciation of the work of the true giants of the past. The text itself is non-technical, and David does a very nice job of explaining difficult subjects without resorting to errors of over-simplification often seen in other examples of “pop science”. The book can be casualy read in one sitting, although I frequently found myself distracted by inquiries into topics & subjects that I wanted explained in greater or more technical detail. Those with little background but innate curiosity will find the book fascinating; those with some background will find the historical aspect interesting. David Darling is an experienced writer with previous science subjects, and continues to do well with this volume.

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⭐Bon les passages Einstein sont un peu sec, mais sinon plein de references pendant tout l’histoire connu sur la perception des forces gravitionelles

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