In easy-to-follow conversational language, this book reveals the mysteries of physics and tells about the physicists who made it possible, from the discovery of the laws of gravity by Isaac Newton and the construction of the first electric battery by Alessandro Volta, to the present century's development of solid-state electronics, nuclear arms and nuclear reactors, lasers, etc. The evolution of physics during four centuries is related in sixteen conversations that actually took place between the author, a professor of physics, and his wife, an intelligent listener not familiar with the...

During a sequence of meals, the author relates the principal features of physics in easy-to-understand conversations with his wife Beth. Beginning with the studies of motion by Galileo and Newton through to the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics in the 20th century, all important aspects of electricity, energy, magnetism, gravity and the structure of matter and atoms are explained and illustrated.The second edition similarly recounts the more recent application of these theories to nanoparticles, Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum entanglement and quantum computers. By...