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A review by jasperburns
Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists by Richard Wolfson
5.0
View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.org.
As the title says, this course is understandable for non-scientists! I found it absolutely fascinating. Whenever I hear physicists talk, they often speak with wonder about understanding the fabric of the universe, and it never quite clicked in my head what that meant until listening to this course.
The first half is on the macro, the cosmos, special and general relativity, and on spacetime. Understanding the "what" and "why" time can be warped intrigued me. I specifically enjoyed the discussion of event horizons around black holes—where if we were to watch someone enter a black hole they would slow to look frozen, but from the perspective of traveling into black hole, you would be essentially time traveling forward to the infinite future of Earth. The metaphor of heavy metal balls bending fabric was useful in my head to understand gravity's relationship to time and space. It is also useful to be able to learn the history of physics throughout the course because you get to understand the thought processes physicists went through up-to and after Einstein.
The latter half of the book talked about the micro—about atoms and quarks. I knew about the Bohr and Rutherford models of the atoms, and I'd heard of quarks, but it was nice to have them fully explained. I new the atom was no longer the smallest known constituent particle, and it was interesting to learn about the +2, -1 charges of upquarks and downquarks, and how they combine into neutrons and protons. It was humorous to hear him talk about them wanting to find the Higgs-Boson, and how it was essentially the last missing particle in the "particle zoo," because this course was from 2000, prior to the major world news of its discovery a few years ago.
I wish I could understand more about all this, and this course has likely inspired me to learn more physics. Highly recommend.
View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.org.
As the title says, this course is understandable for non-scientists! I found it absolutely fascinating. Whenever I hear physicists talk, they often speak with wonder about understanding the fabric of the universe, and it never quite clicked in my head what that meant until listening to this course.
The first half is on the macro, the cosmos, special and general relativity, and on spacetime. Understanding the "what" and "why" time can be warped intrigued me. I specifically enjoyed the discussion of event horizons around black holes—where if we were to watch someone enter a black hole they would slow to look frozen, but from the perspective of traveling into black hole, you would be essentially time traveling forward to the infinite future of Earth. The metaphor of heavy metal balls bending fabric was useful in my head to understand gravity's relationship to time and space. It is also useful to be able to learn the history of physics throughout the course because you get to understand the thought processes physicists went through up-to and after Einstein.
The latter half of the book talked about the micro—about atoms and quarks. I knew about the Bohr and Rutherford models of the atoms, and I'd heard of quarks, but it was nice to have them fully explained. I new the atom was no longer the smallest known constituent particle, and it was interesting to learn about the +2, -1 charges of upquarks and downquarks, and how they combine into neutrons and protons. It was humorous to hear him talk about them wanting to find the Higgs-Boson, and how it was essentially the last missing particle in the "particle zoo," because this course was from 2000, prior to the major world news of its discovery a few years ago.
I wish I could understand more about all this, and this course has likely inspired me to learn more physics. Highly recommend.
View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.org.