Cropper - Great physicists: the life and times of leading physicists from Galileo to Hawking

Great Physicists

The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking

William H. Cropper

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Copyright 2001 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cropper, William H.
Great Physicists: the life and times of leading physicists from Galileo to Hawking /
William H. Cropper.
p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-19-513748-5

1. PhysicistsBiography. I. Title.

QC15. C76 2001 530.0922dc21 [B] 2001021611

987654321
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

This book tells about lives in science, specifically the lives of thirty from the pantheon of physics. Some of the names are familiar (Newton, Einstein, Curie, Heisenberg, Bohr), while others may not be (Clausius, Gibbs, Meitner, Dirac, Chandrasekhar). All were, or are, extraordinary human beings, at least as fascinating as their subjects. The short biographies in the book tell the stories of both the people and their physics.

The chapters are varied in format and length, depending on the (sometimes skimpy) biographical material available. Some chapters are equipped with short sections (entitled Lessons) containing background information on topics in mathematics, physics, and chemistry for the uninformed reader.

Conventional wisdom holds that general readers are frightened of mathematical equations. I have not taken that advice, and have included equations in some of the chapters. Mathematical equations express the language of physics: you cant get the message without learning something about the language. That should be possible if you have a rudimentary (high school) knowledge of algebra, and, if required, you pay attention to the Lessons sections. The glossary and chronology may also prove helpful. For more biographical material, consult the works cited in the Invitation to More Reading section.

No claim is made that this is a comprehensive or scholarly study; it is intended as recreational reading for scientists and students of science (formal or informal). My modest hope is that you will read these chapters casually and for entertainment, and learn the lesson that science is, after all, a human endeavor.

William H. Cropper

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of Kirk Jensen, Helen Mules, and Jane Lincoln Taylor at Oxford University Press, who made an arduous task much more pleasant than it might have been. I Am indebted to my daughters, Hazel and Betsy, for many things, this time for their artistry with computer software and hardware.

I am also grateful for permission to reprint excerpts from the following publications:

Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, by Abraham Pais, copyright 1983 by Abraham Pais. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.; The Quantum Physicists, by William H. Cropper, copyright 1970 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.; Ludwig Boltzmann:The Man Who Trusted Atoms, by Carlo Cercignani, copyright 1998 by Carlo Cercignani. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.; Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics, by Ruth Lewin Sime, copyright 1996 by the Regents of the University of California. Used by permission of the University of California Press; Marie Curie: A Life, by Susan Quinn, copyright 1996, by Susan Quinn. Used by permission of the Perseus Books Group; Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi, by Laura Fermi, copyright 1954 by The University of Chicago. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press; Enrico Fermi, Physicist, by Emilio Segr, copyright 1970 by The University of Chicago. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press; Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics, by George Johnson, copyright 1999 by George Johnson. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Also published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape, and used by permission from the Random House Group, Limited; QED and the Men Who Made It, by Silvan S. Schweber, copyright 1994 by Princeton University Press. Used by permission of Princeton University Press; Surely Youre Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman as told to Ralph Leighton, copyright 1985 by Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton. Used by permission of W.W. Norton Company, Inc. Also published in the United Kingdom by Century, and used by permission from the Random House Group, Limited; What Do You Care What Other People Think?, by Richard Feynman as told to Ralph Leighton, copyright 1988 by Gweneth Feynman and Ralph Leighton. Used by permission of W.W. Norton Company, Inc.; The Feynman Lectures on Physics, by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands, copyright 1988 by Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman. Used by permission of the Perseus Books Group; Chandra: A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar, by Kameshwar Wali, copyright 1991 by The University of Chicago. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press; Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, by Gale E. Christianson, copyright 1995 by Gale E. Christianson. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, L.L.C. Published in the United Kingdom by the Institute of Physics Publishing. Used by permission of the Institute of Physics Publishing; Rudolf Clausius and the Road to Entropy, by William H. Cropper, American Journal of Physics , 1986, pp. 10681074, copyright 1986 by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Used by permission of the American Institute of Physics; Walther Nernst and the Last Law, by William H. Cropper, Journal of Chemical Education , 1987, pp. 3-8, copyright 1987 by the Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society. Used by permission of the Journal of Chemical Education;Carnots Function, Origins of the Thermodynamic Concept of Temperature, by William H. Cropper, American Journal of Physics , 1987, pp. 120-129, copyright 1987 by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Used by permission of the American Institute of Physics; James Joules Work in Electrochemistry and the Emergence of the First Law of Thermodynamics, by William H. Cropper, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences , 1986, pp. 116, copyright 1988 by the Regents of the University of California. Used by permission of the University of California Press.

All of the portrait photographs placed below the chapter headings were supplied by the American Institute of Physics Emilio Segr Visual Archives, and are used by permission of the American Institute of Physics. Further credits are: