Milton Public Library

The universe as it really is, Earth, space, matter, and time, Thomas R. Scott ; with the assistance of James Lawrence Powell

eng

no index present

non fiction

The universe as it really is

electronic resource

dictionaries

Thomas R. Scott ; with the assistance of James Lawrence Powell

Earth, space, matter, and time

The universe that science reveals to us can seem far outside the human mind's comfort zone. Subjects near and far open up dizzying vistas, from the infinitesimal to the colossal. We inhabit a tumultuous universe that extends from our immediate environs to the most distant galaxies and beyond. And humanity, the unlikely product of uncountable coincidences on unimaginable scales, has at its disposal a tool of unparalleled effectiveness to make sense of it all. When the mind balks at the vertiginous complexity of the universe, science unveils the elegance amid the chaos. In this book, Thomas R. Scott ventures into the known and the unknown to explain our universe and the laws that govern it. The Universe as It Really Is begins with physics and the building blocks of the universe: time, gravity, light, and elementary particles and chemistry's ability to explain the interactions among them. Scott tours the earth and atmospheric sciences to explain the forces that shape our planet and then takes off for the stars to describe our place in the cosmos. He gives vivid introductions to our collective scientific inheritance, narrating discoveries such as the shape of the atom and the nature of the nucleus or how we use GPS to measure time and what that has to do with relativity. A clear demonstration of the power of scientific reasoning to bring the incomprehensible within our grasp, The Universe as It Really Is gives an engrossing account of just how much we do understand about the world around us

adult