Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe

· Princeton University Press
E-könyv
488
Oldalak száma
Használható

Információk az e-könyvről

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age.


In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

A szerzőről

Helge Kragh is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oslo. His works include a biography of P.A.M. Dirac.

E-könyv értékelése

Mondd el a véleményedet.

Olvasási információk

Okostelefonok és táblagépek
Telepítsd a Google Play Könyvek alkalmazást Android- vagy iPad/iPhone eszközre. Az alkalmazás automatikusan szinkronizálódik a fiókoddal, így bárhol olvashatsz online és offline állapotban is.
Laptopok és számítógépek
A Google Playen vásárolt hangoskönyveidet a számítógép böngészőjében is meghallgathatod.
E-olvasók és más eszközök
E-tinta alapú eszközökön (például Kobo e-könyv-olvasón) való olvasáshoz le kell tölteni egy fájlt, és átvinni azt a készülékre. A Súgó részletes utasításait követve lehet átvinni a fájlokat a támogatott e-könyv-olvasókra.