The Ascent of Gravity: The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything by Marcus Chown (PDF)

Description

Why the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to understanding the nature of time and the origin of the universe. Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world yet it is the strongest force in the universe. It was the first force to be recognized and described yet it is the least understood. It is a “force” that keeps your feet on the ground yet no such force actually exists. Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from? Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the “force” of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Delightful. Chown makes his discussion of bizarre phenomena, such as the way rotation actually distorts space intelligible and entertaining.” – Wall Street Journal“Award-winning Chown offers nonscientists an easily digestible guidebook to everything currently known about gravity, while arguing that a better understanding of this ubiquitous force will help penetrate the deepest mysteries of our universe. In prose refreshingly free of formulas and jargon, Chown once again establishes himself as a first- rate popular-science writer.” – Booklist“Gravity’s strength is minuscule, yet it dominates the universe. Science writers have not ignored the subject, but the world-shaking 2015 discovery of gravitational waves is provoking a flurry of updates. Chown is early out of the gate, and readers searching for a lucid popular account would do well to start here. A fine report on the latest piece of the puzzle that may, sooner or later, enable physicists to explain everything.” – Kirkus Reviews“Chown details nature’s most familiar force in this sleek, well-paced account of gravity. Meticulously organized and researched. ” – Publishers Weekly“Chown’s book offers readers and their inner atoms an enjoyable introduction to that history.” – Science [praise for Marcus Chown]“In a series of artfully connected and well-crafted stories, Marcus Chown traces humanity’s 2,500-year quest to understand the nature and origin of matter.” – Dallas Morning News [praise for Marcus Chown]“Reading a well-written popular science book is one of the great pleasures of modern times, and this guided tour through life, the universe and everything affords that pleasure in abundance.” – The Independent (UK) [praise for Marcus Chown]“A pretty wonderful book.” – Richard Dawkins, author of ‘The Magic of Reality’ [praise for Marcus Chown] About the Author Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. He is the author of Solar System, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead, and The Magic Furnace. He lives in England.

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

⭐I was unhappy with the early part of the book. The author clearly knows the subject, but the writing style (with irritating fantasies about what Einstein might have been thinking) troubled me.I was expecting to offer 4*, but upgraded to 5* when quantum theory was covered. This is perhaps the very best popular exposition of quantum theory that I have encountered.I wondered about downgrading to 4* in the final chapter. It starts brilliantly, with a wonderful mind experiment of a physicist locked in an isolated room. However, it advocates string theory a little excessively (IMHO) and shows a little too much fan worship of Arkani-Hamed.Overall, though, despite some flaws, I regard this book as a masterpiece and have no reluctance at all about 5*.

⭐So you can look inside the book for Table of Contents etc. for your review, so I won’t discuss that.A worthy effort by Chown, which offers a readable account of “Gravity,” from “Part One: Newton, “Part Two: Einstein,” and “Part Three: Beyond Einstein.” Chown peppers the text with interesting tidbits of information. A very readable and well done book with extensive Notes and suggested reading at the end of most of the chapters. Buy it and enjoy.I just wanted to add one thing (11/28/17) about Newton’s three laws of motion, which Chown discusses:If you actually what to learn some of Newton’s laws, buy “Instant Physics,” (1995), by Tony Rothman, Ph.D. For example, in 30-Second Newton, his laws of motion are rather lengthly sentences.In “Instant Physics” Rothman presents them in short, single, sentences:1. Law of Inertia: “An object travels at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an outside force,” (“The first law addresses the motion of free bodies …”) (from “Space-Time, Relativity, and Cosmology,” (2006), by Jose Wudka, page 122, which see):2. F=ma: “The force acting on an object is equal to the product of the object’s mass and acceleration,” (“the second law states quantitatively how a motion deviates from free motion”):3. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” (“the third law states the effect experienced by a body when exerting a force on another object.”)

⭐5 ⭐️s!A mind-blowing look at how our understanding of the universe continues to change drastically by leaps and bounds. The last two chapters, where it gets into quantum and string theory, I admit I will have to reread to fully absorb, but that’s a fault on my end, not the author. Chown communicates scientific ideas in a way any layman can understand, even quoting famous rockstars and the great Douglas Adams to help illustrate his points.

⭐To technical but interesting.

⭐An important book, because it can allow to consider by a new point of view the Einstein positions. Particularly the idea of time is seen in relation to Greek sense of term, returning often to the old concept respect the relativity revolution. The Einstein theorem which remains most relevant of the actual condition of physicsis is the correlation between the tensor of Ricci and the curvature of the space. So the gravity can be seen as the change of the situation in a field.

⭐Marcus Chown explained the Warped Space and Time in the way for non-scientists to understand very easy.This is a great book.

⭐starting with some concepts of the consequences of gravity to more esoteric and theoreticals. admittedly some was over my head towards the end but still very enjoyable.

⭐Mind bending. Great during the 2020 shutdown. Helps you realize how much most of us are unaware of.My last review…

⭐What could have been a tour de force of a highly interesting subject, turned out to be a long (90 pages) intro of Newtonian mechanics, a mediocre 60 pages about Einstein’s general relativity, which doesn’t include any originality.For instance the analogy to a rubber trampoline and a bowling ball, so OK we see that the “space” will be warped, but why will anything material be bothered to follow a curved path when there is no gravity now? In the absence of gravity you can place a mass anywhere near the ball and it will stay perfectly still. The author doesn’t bother to explain about minimal energy.When he get’s to the interesting stuff – relatively new research, he doesn’t even bother to mention loop quantum gravity but concentrates on string theory which looks hopeless as the LHC is not finding any SUSY particles even at the new 13 TeV energy currently used.Annoyingly, the last chapter is filled with peoples quotations, mainly Nima Arkani-Hamed, who is a first rate physicist and (as expected) string theory enthusiast, but perhaps Mr Chown should have other sources as well?

⭐Having read other Chown books i was looking forward to this work on gravity. I was disappointed to come across some careless errors. For instance in page 63 the European Space Agency mission to Jupiter called JUICE is referred to as a NASA mission. On page 73 dealing with the work of John Couch Adam and the discovery of Neptune the author states that the Astronomer Royal at the time was George Challis. The Astronomer Royal was George Biddel Airy. The Challis referred to is James Challis who was director of the Cambridge Observatory at the time. On page 120 the author states that the Apollo 15 mission took place in 1972. It was launched in 1971. These are careless, easy to verify errors which should not have got past the editorial stage. I expected better.

⭐I teach Biology and Chemistry in a sixth form college and am neither scientifically illiterate nor particularly thick. This book lost me somewhere within Einstein’s work, the problem being reality and imagination. If you are a very skilled mathematician it is likely the mathematics of multiple dimensions are your reality and can be perceived as such. Alas, no-one can see these multiple dimensions and without the ability to perceive them in the realms of mathematics they make no sense whatsoever and cannot be visualised. The analogies drawn do not come anywhere close to repairing that deficit and you are left clutching an explanation that boils down to ‘it just is’, ie far from understanding and consequently not even interesting. I enjoyed most of the book but am now entirely convinced ‘String theory for beginners’ will never be written.

⭐Others have mentioned, and I agree completely, that the first half of the book is a really good read that describes Newton and Einstein’s work on gravity.The latter half is hard, I’m not a physicist but I am interested enough to keep trying to understand the latest theories. Unfortunately string theories’ 10 dimensions leaves me baffled.I enjoyed the book, but my overwhelming take-home fact (this being read during a certain global pandemic) was that Newton came up with his theory of gravity during lockdown – bubonic plague not COVID this time.Cool.

⭐You don’t need to be a physicist or a mathematician to enjoy reading this book and while it helps to have some understanding of modern physics, it is not essential. Marcus Chown has a lucid writing style and the book is well structured into 3 sections which explain the evolution of our understanding of this mysterious force. The first section deals with Newton’s groundbreaking contributions, the second with Einstein’s general theory of relativity and its explanation of what the gravitational ‘force’ is and the last section puts it all into the modern perspective of quantum theory. I found it easy reading on a fascinating subject. If you are interested in cosmology you should read this book. And if you are not, you should read it!

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