The Science of Radio explains the working and charts the development of the ordinary AM radio receiver, which has become an integral part of our lives in the 80 years since its invention. As well as showing the reader the growth of technology in this century, the story of AM radio can provide a unique insight into the basics of electrical engineering, making the primary concepts and applications visual and comprehensible. Taking a "top down" approach to the subject, Nahin starts with a broad overview of radio as a sociological and technological phenomenon, then describes specific advances in...
The Science of Radio explains the working and charts the development of the ordinary AM radio receiver, which has become an integral part of our lives...
"Here's a gem of a book...all peppered with delightful notes from science fiction films, novels, and comics. I can't turn a page without finding a jewel." Clifford Stoll, University of California, Berkeley, author of The Cuckoo's Egg "The research that has gone into this book is impressive." Nature "For professional physicists much of the value lies in the extensive technical appendices and footnotes, and the exhaustive list of references. But if, like me, you are a child at heart, the real fun lies in the zany stories and wild speculations." Physics World Time Machines explores the idea of...
"Here's a gem of a book...all peppered with delightful notes from science fiction films, novels, and comics. I can't turn a page without finding a jew...
What is the best way to photograph a speeding bullet? Why does light move through glass in the least amount of time possible? How can lost hikers find their way out of a forest? What will rainbows look like in the future? Why do soap bubbles have a shape that gives them the least area?
By combining the mathematical history of extrema with contemporary examples, Paul J. Nahin answers these intriguing questions and more in this engaging and witty volume. He shows how life often works at the extremes--with values becoming as small (or as large) as possible--and how mathematicians...
What is the best way to photograph a speeding bullet? Why does light move through glass in the least amount of time possible? How can lost hikers f...
-He was a man who often was incapable of conducting himself properly in the most elementary social interactions. His only continuing contacts with women were limited to his mother, nieces, and housekeepers. He was a man who knew the power of money and desired it, but refused to work for it, preferring to live off the sweat of his family and long-suffering friends, whom he often insulted even as they paid his bills.---from the book
This, then, was Oliver Heaviside, a pioneer of modern electrical theory. Born into a low social class of Victorian England, Heaviside made advances in...
-He was a man who often was incapable of conducting himself properly in the most elementary social interactions. His only continuing contacts with ...
What does quilting have to do with electric circuit theory? The answer is just one of the fascinating ways that best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin illustrates the deep interplay of math and physics in the world around us in his latest book of challenging mathematical puzzles, Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt. With his trademark combination of intriguing mathematical problems and the historical anecdotes surrounding them, Nahin invites readers on an exciting and informative exploration of some of the many ways math and physics combine to create something vastly more powerful,...
What does quilting have to do with electric circuit theory? The answer is just one of the fascinating ways that best-selling popular math writer Pa...
Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more.
In Holy Sci-Fi , popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to...
Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to vis...
This book explores the idea of time travel from the first account in English literature to the latest theories of physicists such as Kip Thorne and Igor Novikov. This very readable work covers a variety of topics including: the history of time travel in fiction; the fundamental scientific concepts of time, spacetime, and the fourth dimension; the speculations of Einstein, Richard Feynman, Kurt Goedel, and others; time travel paradoxes, and much more.
This book explores the idea of time travel from the first account in English literature to the latest theories of physicists such as Kip Thorne and Ig...
In the mid-eighteenth century, Swiss-born mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a formula so innovative and complex that it continues to inspire research, discussion, and even the occasional limerick. Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula shares the fascinating story of this groundbreaking formula--long regarded as the gold standard for mathematical beauty--and shows why it still lies at the heart of complex number theory. In some ways a sequel to Nahin's An Imaginary Tale, this book examines the many applications of complex numbers alongside intriguing stories from the history of...
In the mid-eighteenth century, Swiss-born mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a formula so innovative and complex that it continues to inspire ...
Boolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use--from our computers and cars, to home appliances. How did a system of mathematics established in the Victorian era become the basis for such incredible technological achievements a century later? In The Logician and the Engineer, Paul Nahin combines engaging problems and a colorful historical narrative to tell the remarkable story of how two men in different eras--mathematician and philosopher George Boole and electrical engineer and pioneering information theorist Claude...
Boolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use--from our computers and cars, to home ...