From the use of expert testimony in the courtroom to the advice we rely on to solve key economic, political, and social problems, expertise is an essential part of our decision-making process. However, the extent to which experts can be trusted is a subject of persistent and contentious debate. The [...]
Includes stories of the ten popular equations as voted for by readers of "Physics World", including the favourite equation of all, Euler's equation. This book explains both why these ten equations are so beautiful and significant, and the human stories behind them.[...]
Time travel, parallel worlds, random behaviour: the language and the imagery of quantum mechanics are ubiquitous, yet the science - and its journey into everyday language - still confounds us. Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber tell how a controversial idea from an obscure branch of optic[...]
Philosopher and science historian Robert P. Crease tells the stories behind ten of the greatest equations in human history. Was Nobel laureate Richard Feynman really joking when he called Maxwell's electromagnetic equations the most significant event of the nineteenth century? How did Newton's law o[...]
While we may be familiar with some of science s greatest equations, we may not know that each and every equation emerged not in Eureka! moments but in years of cultural developments and scientific knowledge. With vignettes full of humor, drama, and eccentricity, philosopher and science historian Rob[...]
In this epic story of the invention of a global network of weights, scales and instruments for measurement, Robert P. Crease traces the evolution of the system, from the use of flutes to measure distance in the dynasties of ancient China and figurines to weigh gold in West Africa, to the creation of[...]
A philosopher and historian creates a thought-provoking odyssey through two millennia of scientific accomplishment, capturing ten key experiments that changed the world forever, from Eratosthenes's first measurement of Earth's circumference, to Foucault's pendulum, to Galileo's study of the speed of[...]