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List Price: £21.99
Our Price: £17.58
Author:
John Robert Christianson
By Cambridge University Press
 The noblest astronomer, 2007-07-04
This is a gripping account of the life and times of the greatest observational astronomer before the invention of the telescope. He established a new kind of observatory, with instruments of exquisite accuracy, and he founded the first research institute (under royal patronage) in Europe. His observational records enabled his protege Johannes Kepler to unlock the secrets of planetary motion. This is by far and away the best modern account of Brahe and his impact. It is a superb biography, and a great read. Enjoy!
List Price: £72.50
Our Price: £65.19
Author:
S. Chandrasekhar
By Clarendon Press
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- Mint Condition
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Newton's Principia, 2009-06-04
Not for the faint-hearted "general reader" (for whom it is said to be written). Even so a seamless exposition of Newton's mathematics in every area presented with clarity. Attractive diagrams too. You will need a very good command of mathematics to make the most of it.
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £3.92
Author:
Jack Repcheck
By JR Books Ltd
Prequal to Galileo, 2010-01-08
2009 was the International Year of Astronomy, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of the telescope to first observe the night skies. In particular, planets were now recognised as being worlds like our own. 2009 is also the 400th anniversary of Johannes Kepler's mathematical explanation of how the planets moved, in elliptical orbits around the sun, not the earth, as previously thought for the past 1500 years. But both of these scientists owed their pursuasions to Nicholas Copernicus who, in 1543, had been the first to suggest a heliocentric planetary system (albeit with the planets moving in circular orbits)...an idea desperately close to heresay in a Catholic world-view that took the next two thirds of a century of increasingly refined observation and calculation to prove right.
Repcheck's book admirably explains Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution began, and how what started as one man's idea blossomed with the support of a handful of Central European natural philosophers in the shadow of an anti-Lutherian backlash. Well written and with copious notes and references for the researcher, this is a highly recommended read.
Kevin J Kilburn FRAS. Secretary, the Society for the History of Astronomy
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £3.10
Author:
Richard P. Feynman
By Vintage
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A typical little gem from Feynman, 2002-06-15
In his usual style, Feynman teaches us not only Newtonian and Keplerian orbital mechanics, but he does it in a new and amusing manner. Most importantly, in the broader view, he reinforces one of his greates tlessons of his teaching career - there's no single "right way" to prove, demonstrate or teach something. We all (nearly all ?) learn orbital mechanics through calculus. It's not a visual nor intuitive way of doing it, and it's a hard slog. Feynman's (actually it's probably Newton's) method does it through simple plane geometry that the ancient Greeks would understand.The authors are to be congratulated on dusting off these lecture notes and presenting them so well packaged. They're well presented, accessible, and given just the right amount of background context. Feynman fans will like this book anyway, but it's also a good taster for Feynman's style that any child studying GCSE applied maths or mechanics could understand.
List Price: £53.99
Our Price: £39.49
By Brooks/Cole
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competition, 2010-07-19
The book is more thorough than it's competitor "Astronomy, A physical perspective" by Marc Kutler.
With thinner paper it is slimmer but has about 100 pages more than its competition. Both look at astronomy from a physical perspective and therefore are not simple popular reading but do pose the physical questions and equations.
The order of topics in both cases is starting from the solar system and ending at the rim of the known universe.
The book, with its b/w illustrations, is a little dated with its 4th edition of 1998 whereas the "physical perspective" first edition dates from 2003 and uses colour in abundance. Both are great books to dive a little deeper into astronomy. The "astrophysics" is a slightly heavier read.
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £24.90
Author:
Christopher Knight, Alan Butler
By Watkins Publishing
Certainly not "loony"..., 2009-10-24
I was first introduced to this mystery when I read William Neil's "How we were Made". Neither Neil nor Knight and Butler posit ET as the architect of the overly providential and serendipitous mechanism of the Earth, Moon Sun system. When you consider all the measurements and unlikely coincidences involved, the truth is blindingly obvious. Why does the moon cover the sun so exactly during a solar eclipse? Why are all of our measuring systems based on the dimensions of the Earth Moon and Sun?
Knight and Butler go further than Neil, stating with the benefit of later research that the Moon is in fact the incubator and regulator of all life on Earth. Knight and Butler are willing to consider the possibility that God was responsible, but then, because many of these numerical synchronicities involve the metric base ten which stems from the use of ten fingers, they suggest that human beings were the creators of the Moon. They quote scripture to back up this thesis; as it is written, "God created man in his own image". Knight and Butler are anxious not to be lumped together with Creationists, but how could man have created the moon 4.6 billion years ago? The answer they give is that at some point in the future, humans will go back billions of years in time to engineer the moon, returning at crucial moments in history to assist in man's evolution and cultural development.
The ET hypothesis is also considered; but Knight and Butler dismiss this idea rather pre- emptorily, suggesting that ufos are mere hallucinations. They reference contemporary physicists who are willing to entertain the idea of time travel citing The New Scientist as a source. 2001 a Space Oddesey is mentioned more than once and the theory that if extra- terrestrials wanted to contact us they would not use slow radio signals but would more likely leave obvious physical traces of visitation. There are a lot of large numbers in this book as one would expect when considering a civilization capable of engineering planetary systems and life on a timescale of billions of years. The engineering extends to the control of the Earth's axis of rotation and tides, all crucial to the development of life. Knight and Butler say that humans are in a kind of time loop and that when, once again man goes back in time to supervise his own creation, then humans will enter a new phase of cosmic development. Altogether an exciting and thought provoking book!
List Price: £41.00
Our Price: £32.64
Author:
Marc L. Kutner
By Cambridge University Press
- New
- Mint Condition
- Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
- Guaranteed packaging
- No quibbles returns
competition, 2010-07-19
The book is less thorough than its competitor "Introductory Astronomy & Astrophysics" by Zeilik & Gregory.
With thicker paper it is more volumeness and has about 100 pages less than its competition. Both look at astronomy from a physical perspective and therefore are not simple popular reading but do pose the physical questions and equations.
The order of topics in both cases is starting from the solar system and ending at the rim of the known universe.
The book, with its colour illustrations, is more recent (2003) than the competiton that is a little dated with its 4th edition of 1998 and is completely in b/w.
Both are great books to dive a little deeper into astronomy. The competitive "introductory astronomy & astrophysics" is a slightly heavier read.
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £0.99
Author:
Lee Smolin
By Phoenix
Science fans, hold on to your hats! Lee Smolin, a professor at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University, is about to take you on the ride of your life. Imagine, if you will, the theory of evolution applied to physics. What if our universe is so ideally adapted to life because it developed that way? What if ours is just one among many thousands of universes, all engaged in a cosmic survival-of-the-fittest struggle? These are just two of the wildly original theories Smolin posits in The Life of the Cosmos, in which Alice in Wonderland meets quantum physics. According to Smolin, the majority of today's physicists still regard physical laws as immutable, mathematical and eternally true--to them, the universe is an intricate mechanism, a cosmic clock. But what if the laws of physics aren't really "laws" at all, but rather an evolving, developing process of natural selection that began even before the Big Bang? From Smolin's initial theory, it's a short step to black holes, alternate universes, string theory, gauge symmetry and knots--all complicated abstractions that Smolin describes and explains in a remarkably comprehen...
 An extremely interesting book, a must for dreamers., 2001-03-18
A well written book for anyone who is interested in the Physics of the universe, but doesn't nessesserily have an acute knowledge of Mathematics. Smolin ventures into dimentions and elementary particles with a highly detailed analysis of the smallest things in the universe but sometimes lacks a wide overview. A great book even for beginners. All you need to be interested in this book is some knowledge of Physics and an active imagination.
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