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The Handy Physics Answer Book
P. Erik Gundersen - 1998
What, really, does E=MC2 mean? More fun than a slide rule, Handy Physics tackles the big issues: Gravity. Magnetism. Matter. Sound. Light. And the smaller topics, like why do cats always land on their feet? Why don't birds or squirrels on power lines get electrocuted? Only Handy Physics combines elementary theory with heartwarming tales of small animals. For everyone who ever wondered how a light bulb works, The Handy Physics Answer Book examines more than 825 basic questions about physics and physicists, ranging from everyday life applications to the latest explorations in subatomic physics. The Handy Physics Answer Book disposes with the mathematical explanations and deep coma often associated with physics and instead takes a more conceptual approach – written in everyday English by yet another teacher. Other great stuff includes a list of the Nobel Prize winners in physics and suggestions for further reading. Ideal for students, science readers, theatergoers, and anyone reckoning with the essential questions about the universe we dwell within, Handy Physics is a friendly guide to the most significant scientific theories and discoveries of our time. And, we promise, no chalkboards.
Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth
Adam Frank - 2018
Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to the leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a civilization can only hope to survive climate change if we recognize what science has recently discovered: that we are just one of ten billion trillion planets in the Universe, and it’s highly likely that many of those planets hosted technologically advanced alien civilizations. What’s more, each of those civilizations must have faced the same challenge of civilization-driven climate change.Written with great clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars builds on the inspiring work of pioneering scientists such as Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, whose work at the dawn of the space age began building the new science of astrobiology; Jack James, the Texas-born engineer who drove NASA’s first planetary missions to success; Vladimir Vernadsky, the Russian geochemist who first envisioned the Earth’s biosphere; and James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who invented Gaia theory. Frank recounts the perilous journey NASA undertook across millions of miles of deep space to get its probes to Venus and Mars, yielding our first view of the cosmic laws of planets and climate that changed our understanding of our place in the universe.Thrilling science at the grandest of scales, Light of the Stars explores what may be the largest question of all: What can the likely presence of life on other worlds tell us about our own fate?
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
Alan Stern - 2018
More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond.Nothing like this has occurred in a generation--a raw exploration of new worlds unparalleled since NASA's Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune--and nothing like it is planned to happen ever again. The photos that New Horizons sent back to Earth graced the front pages of newspapers on all 7 continents, and NASA's website for the mission received more than 2 billion hits in the days surrounding the flyby. At a time when so many think our most historic achievements are in the past, the most distant planetary exploration ever attempted not only succeeded but made history and captured the world's imagination.How did this happen? Chasing New Horizons is the story of the men and women behind the mission: of their decades-long commitment; of the political fights within and outside of NASA; of the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission; and of the plans for New Horizons' next encounter, 1 billion miles past Pluto. Told from the insider's perspective of Dr. Alan Stern--the man who led the mission--Chasing New Horizons is a riveting story of scientific discovery, and of how far humanity can go when people focused on a dream work together toward their incredible goal.
Strength of Materials, Part 1 and Part 2
Stephen P. Timoshenko - 1983
1: Elementary Theory and Problems contains the essential material that is usually covered in required courses of strength of materials in our engineering schools. Strength of Materials - Part. 2: Advanced Theory and Problems contains the later developments that are of practical importance in the fields of strength of materials, and theory of elasticity. Complete derivations of problems of practical interest are given in most cases. The books are illustrated with a number of problems to which solutions are presented. In many cases, the problems are chosen so as to widen the field covered by the text and to illustrate the application of the theory in the solution of design problems.
In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969
Francis French - 2007
While describing awe-inspiring technical achievements, the authors go beyond the missions and the competition of the space race to focus on the people who made it all possible. Their book explores the inspirations, ambitions, personalities, and experiences of the select few whose driving ambition was to fly to the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure. From the Gemini flights to the Soyuz space program to the earliest Apollo missions, including the legendary first moon landing, their book draws a richly detailed picture of the space race as an endeavor equally endowed with personal meaning and political significance.
Go, Flight!: The Unsung Heroes of Mission Control, 1965–1992
Rick Houston - 2015
But among the talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30—at what is now Johnson Space Center—would become known by many as “The Cathedral.” These members of the space program were the brightest of their generations, making split-second decisions that determined the success or failure of a mission. The flight controllers, each supported by a staff of specialists, were the most visible part of the operation, running the missions, talking to the heavens, troubleshooting issues on board, and, ultimately, attempting to bring everyone safely back home. None of NASA’s storied accomplishments would have been possible without these people. Interviews with dozens of individuals who worked in the historic third-floor mission control room bring the compelling stories to life. Go, Flight! is a real-world reminder of where we have been and where we could go again given the right political and social climate.
Physics for Scientists and Engineers
Paul Allen Tipler - 1981
Now in its fourth edition, the work has been extensively revised, with entirely new artwork, updated examples and new pedagogical features. An interactive CD-ROM with worked examples is included. Alternatively, the material on from the CD-ROM can be down-loaded from a website (see supplements section). Twentieth-century developments such as quantum mechanics are introduced early on, so that students can appreciate their importance and see how they fit into the bigger picture.
Operational Amplifiers and Linear Integrated Circuits
Robert F. Coughlin - 1982
It provides many detailed, practical design and analysis examples intended to relate theory to the workplace. Chapter topics include first experiences with an op amp; inverting and noninverting amplifiers; comparators and controls; selected applications of op amps; signal generators; op amps with diodes; differential, instrumentation, and bridge amplifiers; DC performance: bias, offsets, and drift; AC performance: bandwidth, slew rate, noise; active filters; modulating, demodulating, and frequency changing with the multiplier; integrated-circuit timers; digital-to-analog converters; analog-to-digital converters; and power supplies. For design engineers rs
How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Space Flight
Julian Guthrie - 2016
He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. There was a chance he would not come back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world’s first commercial astronaut. The spectacle defied reason, the result of an improbable contest dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space – requiring small teams to do what only the world’s largest governments had done before – had been dismissed as fantastical. The tale begins in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Diamandis was the son of hard working Greek immigrants who wanted their science prodigy to do the family proud and become a doctor. Peter was a dutiful son, but from the time he was eight years old, staying up late to watch Apollo 11 land on the moon, he had one goal: getting to space. He started a national student space club while at MIT. He launched a rocket company in Houston while getting a medical degree from Harvard - a degree he pursued to improve his chances of becoming an astronaut. But when he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, Diamandis set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn’t send him to space, he would create a private spaceflight industry and get there himself.In the 1990s, the idea of private space flight was the stuff of science fiction. The undaunted Diamandis found inspiration in an unlikely place: the first golden age of aviation. Reading Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of St. Louis, Diamandis was stunned that the aviator had attempted the first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris to win a $25,000 prize. The historic flight galvanized the commercial airline industry. Why, Diamandis thought, couldn’t a similar contest be held for space flight? In 1996, standing under the arch of St. Louis – the city where Lindbergh found his backers - Diamandis announced the $10 million Xprize. To win, a privately funded team would have to build and fly a manned rocket into space twice – in two weeks. The deadline: December 31, 2004. On a brilliant morning in the Mojave Desert, with little time to spare, a bullet-shaped rocket called SpaceShipOne was launched. The story of SS1, and other scrappy teams in the hunt – all spurred by Diamandis as he struggled to keep the prize afloat – became a testament to the American spirit of ingenuity and oversized dreams. The winning of the Xprize marked the end of the government’s monopoly over space. Julian Guthrie, author of The Billionaire and The Mechanic, an acclaimed bestselling account of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s pursuit of the America’s Cup, thought she knew about obsessive pursuits, but the XPrize race spurred another level of drama, sacrifice, and technical wizardry. With Diamandis’ cooperation, Guthrie had access to all of the players – from Richard Branson and John Carmack to Burt Rutan – and has melded their stories into a spellbinding narrative, a combination of Rocket Boys and The New New Thing. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn’t just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry, including SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and others. Today, SpaceShipOne hangs in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, above the Apollo 11 capsule and next to Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis plane.
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
Kelly Weinersmith - 2017
By weaving together their own research, interviews with pioneering scientists and Zach's trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these innovations are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta
Thomas Lin - 2018
The stories show that, as James Gleick puts it in the foreword, "inspiration strikes willy-nilly." One researcher thinks of quantum chaotic systems at a bus stop; another suddenly realizes a path to proving a theorem of number theory while in a friend's backyard; a statistician has a "bathroom sink epiphany" and discovers the key to solving the Gaussian correlation inequality. Readers of The Prime Number Conspiracy, says Quanta editor-in-chief Thomas Lin, are headed on "breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge."Quanta is the only popular publication that offers in-depth coverage of the latest breakthroughs in understanding our mathematical universe. It communicates mathematics by taking it seriously, wrestling with difficult concepts and clearly explaining them in a way that speaks to our innate curiosity about our world and ourselves. Readers of this volume will learn that prime numbers have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow them (the "conspiracy" of the title); consider whether math is the universal language of nature (allowing for "a unified theory of randomness"); discover surprising solutions (including a pentagon tiling proof that solves a century-old math problem); ponder the limits of computation; measure infinity; and explore the eternal question "Is mathematics good for you?"ContributorsAriel Bleicher, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Kevin Hartnett, Erica Klarreich, Thomas Lin, John Pavlus, Siobhan Roberts, Natalie WolchoverCopublished with Quanta Magazine
Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond
Nancy Conrad - 2005
And the first to dance on it. For Pete Conrad, it was all about the ride. Nicknamed the Comeback Kid, he survived his family's financial hardships, overcame dyslexia, landed a Navy scholarship to Princeton, and became one of the country's elite test pilots. Never the squeaky clean NASA poster boy, he famously bounced himself out of the Mercury Program but came roaring back to fly two Gemini missions, walk on the moon as Commander of Apollo 12, command the first Skylab, and work to develop the first re-usable commercial rocket-logging more time in space than all the original astronauts combined. Based on interviews conducted with Conrad by his wife before his untimely death, Rocketman is the amazing-but-true, surprisingly candid insider's view of the greatest ride in history, America's glorious race to the stars, as seen through the eyes of the real Space Cowboy: Pete Conrad, the Rocketman.
Patrick Moore: The Autobiography
Patrick Moore - 2003
The man behind the much-loved, larger-than-life personality; not only an astronomer but also a self-taught musician and talented composer, and passionate supporter of cricket.
Computational Fluid Dynamics
John D. Anderson Jr. - 1995
It can also serve as a one-semester introductory course at the beginning graduate level, as a useful precursor to a more serious study of CFD in advanced books. It is presented in a very readable, informal, enjoyable style.
Bio Rescue
S.L. Viehl - 2004
However, the entire project faces opposition from a lupine species with a hatred for the Dair's aquatic-like race.