In these Messenger Lectures, originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded for television by the BBC, Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance. He maintains at the outset that the importance of a physical law is not how clever we are to have found it out buthow clever nature is to pay attention to it and steers his discussions toward a final exposition of the elegance and simplicity of all scientific laws. Rather than an essay on the most significant achievements in modern science,The Character of Physical Lawis a statement of what is most remarkable in nature. Feynmans enlightened approach, his wit, and his enthusiasm make this a memorable exposition of the scientists craft. The law of gravitation is the authors principal example. Relating the details of its discovery and stressing its mathematical character, he uses it to demonstrate the essential interaction of mathematics and physics. He views mathematics as the key to any system of scientific laws, suggesting that if it were possible to fill out the structure of scientific theory completely, the result would be an integrated set of mathematical axioms. The principles of conservation, symmetry, and time irreversibility are then considered in relation to developments in classical and modern physics, and in his final lecture, Feynman develops his own analysis of the process and future of scientific discovery.
Like any set of oral reflections,The Character of Physical Lawhas special value as a demonstration of the mind in action. The reader is particularly lucky in Richard Feynmanone of the most eminent and imaginative modern physicists.
The New York Times bestseller from the author of The Order of Time and Reality Is Not What It Seems“One of the year’s most entrancing books about science.”—The Wall Street Journal“Clear, elegant...a whirlwind tour of so...
Is our universe dying? Could there be other universes?In Parallel Worlds, world-renowned physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku—an author who “has a knack for bringing the most ethereal ideas down to earth” (Wall Street Journ...
"This is science writing as wonder and as inspiration." —The Wall Street Journal Wall Street JournalFrom one of the most influential scientists of our time, a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws that govern the life cycle of everythin...
A bold and all-embracing exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge from one of today's great thinkers.
Throughout history, mankind has struggled to understand life's mysteries, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous. In this import...
Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku—the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible—gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century base...
“The man who makes physics sexy . . . the scientist they’re calling the next Stephen Hawking.” —The Times MagazineFrom the New York Times–bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of T...
The story of the unlikely friendship between the two physicists who fundamentally recast the notion of time and historyIn 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teach...
*An instant New York Times Bestseller**Publishers Weekly #1 Most Anticipated Science Book of Spring 2016*"You will be enthralled." — Wall Street Journal"A tour de force." — Salon.comAlready internationally acclaimed for his elegant, luci...
You are reading the word “now” right now. But what does that mean? What makes the ephemeral moment “now” so special? Its enigmatic character has bedeviled philosophers, priests, and modern-day physicists from Augustine to Ein...
{"id":"228243","ean":"9781482911459","abr":"Unabridged","title":"The Character of Physical Law","subtitle":"","author":"Richard P. Feynman","rating_average":"0","narrator":"Sean Runnette","ubr_id":"228243","abr_id":"0","ubr_price":"16.95","abr_price":"0.00","ubr_memprice":"11.02","abr_memprice":"0.00","ubr_narrator":"Sean Runnette","abr_narrator":"","ubr_length":"Unabridged: 6 hr","abr_length":"Abridged: "}
