Truth or Beauty - David Orrell

Truth or Beauty

Science and the Quest for Order

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
356 Seiten
2012
Yale University Press (Verlag)
978-0-300-18661-1 (ISBN)
69,40 inkl. MwSt
Questions the promises and pitfalls of associating beauty with truth, showing how ideas of mathematical elegance have inspired - and have sometimes misled - scientists attempting to understand nature. The author also shows how the ancient Greeks constructed a concept of the world based on musical harmony.
In this sweeping book, applied mathematician and popular author David Orrell questions the promises and pitfalls of associating beauty with truth, showing how ideas of mathematical elegance have inspired—and have sometimes misled—scientists attempting to understand nature.

Orrell shows how the ancient Greeks constructed a concept of the world based on musical harmony; later thinkers replaced this model with a program, based on Newton’s “rational mechanics,” to reduce the universe to a few simple equations. He then turns to current physical theories, such as supersymmetric string theory—again influenced by deep aesthetic principles. The book sheds new light on historical investigations and also recent research, including the examinations ongoing at the Large Hadron Collider. Finally, broadening his discussion to other fields of research, including economics, architecture, and health, Orrell questions whether these aesthetic principles reflect an accurate way to explain and understand the structure of our world.

David Orrell is an applied mathematician and popular author. In early 2012, he completed an honorary visiting research fellowship at the Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Zusatzinfo 20 b-w illus.
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 590 g
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Natur / Technik
Mathematik / Informatik Mathematik Geschichte der Mathematik
Naturwissenschaften
ISBN-10 0-300-18661-4 / 0300186614
ISBN-13 978-0-300-18661-1 / 9780300186611
Zustand Neuware
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt?
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
a secret world of intuition and curiosity

von David Bessis

Buch | Hardcover (2024)
Yale University Press (Verlag)
32,70
a global history of Mathematics & its Unsung Trailblazers

von Kate Kitagawa; Timothy Revell

Buch | Softcover (2024)
Penguin Books Ltd (Verlag)
16,20