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Ethics --- Philosophy --- Popular works --- popular works --- popular works.
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Mathematics --- Popular works. --- -Math --- Science --- Popular works --- -Popular works --- Mathematics - Popular works.
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When do the hands of a clock coincide? How likely is it that two children in the same class will share a birthday? Should you play Roulette or the Lottery? How do we calculate the volume of a doughnut? Why does the android Data in Star Trek lose at poker? What is Fibonacci's Rabbit Problem? Many things in the world have a mathematical side to them, as revealed by the puzzles and questions in this book. It is written for anyone who is curious about mathematics and would like a simple and entertaining account of what it can do. Peter Higgins provides clear explanations of the more mysterious fea
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How does mathematics enable us to send pictures from space back to Earth? Where does the bell-shaped curve come from? Why do you need only 23 people in a room for a 50/50 chance of two of them sharing the same birthday? In Strange Curves, Counting Rabbits, and Other Mathematical Explorations, Keith Ball highlights how ideas, mostly from pure math, can answer these questions and many more. Drawing on areas of mathematics from probability theory, number theory, and geometry, he explores a wide range of concepts, some more light-hearted, others central to the development of the field and used daily by mathematicians, physicists, and engineers. Each of the book's ten chapters begins by outlining key concepts and goes on to discuss, with the minimum of technical detail, the principles that underlie them. Each includes puzzles and problems of varying difficulty. While the chapters are self-contained, they also reveal the links between seemingly unrelated topics. For example, the problem of how to design codes for satellite communication gives rise to the same idea of uncertainty as the problem of screening blood samples for disease. Accessible to anyone familiar with basic calculus, this book is a treasure trove of ideas that will entertain, amuse, and bemuse students, teachers, and math lovers of all ages.
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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 subjec
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Transport engineering --- Astronautics --- Popular works --- Astronautics - Popular works
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Exercise. --- Health. --- Exertion --- Physical Fitness --- popular works. --- Popular works.
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Sarat and Kearns . . . have edited a truly marvelous work on the impact of the law on daily life and vice versa. . . . the essays are all exemplary, thought- provoking works worthy of a long, contemplative read by scholars, lawyers, and judges alike. --Choice "The subject of law in everyday life is timely in theory and in practice. The essays collected here are stimulating for the very different ways in which they reconfigure the meanings of 'the law' as cultural practice, and 'the everyday' as a cultural domain in which the state expresses a range of interests and engagements. Readers looking for an introduction to this topic will come away from the book with a clear sense of the varied voices and modes of inquiry now involved in sociolegal studies, and what distinguishes them. More experienced readers will appreciate the book's meticulous reconsideration of the instrumentalities, agencies, and constructedness of law." --Carol Greenhouse, Indiana University Contributors include David Engel, Hendrik Hartog, Thomas R. Kearns, David Kennedy, Catharine MacKinnon, George Marcus, Austin Sarat, and Patricia Williams. Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, and Chair of the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, Amherst College. Thomas R. Kearns is William H. Hastie Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, Amherst College.
Law --- Jurisprudence --- Popular works. --- Philosophy.
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"In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions--clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips--and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes, among other things, how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; how the necessary brevity of the telegram influenced Hemingway's writing style; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid's cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. These fascinating and inspiring stories offer new perspectives on our relationships with technologies. Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences--intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors--particularly people of color and women--who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal--whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR." -- "Excerpts from the Preface and Chapter 8: Materials Science, wedged as it is between the two better-known fields of Chemistry and Physics, teaches us that everything in our world is due to the interactions of atoms. If you can find out how they interact to make up the physical world, then you can also change the way that atoms act to make them do new things and, as we develop new materials, we discover that materials and humans are constantly being molded by each other. The Alchemy of Us shows how materials were shaped by inventors, but also how those materials shaped culture. Each chapter is titled with a verb to demonstrate how the meaning of that word was fashioned. Particularly, this book highlights how quartz clocks, steel rails, copper cables, silver photographic films, carbon light bulb filaments, magnetic disks, glass labware, and silicon chips radically altered how we interact, connect, convey, capture, see, share, discover, and think. The Alchemy of Us fills in the gaps of most books about technology by telling the tales of little-known inventors, or by taking a different angle to well-known ones. I chose to look at the gaps, at the silences in history, because they too are instructive about the makings of our culture. I highlight "others" to allow more people to see their reflection. I use storytelling with the hopes of bringing the wonder and fun of science to more people. This is a book about how materials and technology have evolved us as we have evolved them but it is also much, much more. It is a book written to inspire and the last paragraphs of the book sum it up beautifully. "Discussions about technology must be inclusive, because technology is neither just for the few who are learned, nor is it just for men who are of European descent. Everyone makes something, from a sandwich to a solar cell, so examinations of science and technology must reflect this. Every person can create something new, whether it is splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR. As such, stories about science and technology must reflect that innovation is universal." 'When books about technology reflect readers, those readers come away with more than just stories, but a sense that they can create, too. When books display the failings and failures of inventors, readers come away with the feeling they can meet challenges, too. When these readers feel empowered in these ways, they consequently feel emboldened to make decisions for themselves. This is the sensibility at the heart of this book. These pages illustrate not only that everyone has an admission ticket to create, but that everyone must also critically critique their creations. Such a thoughtful analysis of the impact of inventions benefits society not just because it is an entertaining cerebral exercise, but because, when coupled with action and social change, it has the potential to help society transcend its condition and favorably further this alchemy of us'"--
Materials --- Inventions --- Technology --- History --- Social aspects --- Materials - History - Popular works. --- Inventions - History - Popular works. --- Technology - Social aspects - Popular works.
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