Gravity Kindle Edition

I recently re-read this book, having read it for the first time many years ago. It is a very good summary of Galileo's and Newton's theory of gravitation, along with numerous examples such as the tides and planetary orbits. It also includes a basic introduction to calculus, without which it almost impossible to understand the physics. There is a nice chapter on general relativity, which gives a qualitative overview of the subject. Gamow's trademark humor enlivens the book quite a bit, as well as his illustrations.On the minus side, the first chapter is marred by the kind of pseudo-history of science in the Middle Ages which, apparently, was a compulsion among science writers of the 20th century. He falsely implies that the medievals thought the Earth was flat, when it fact, they knew it was round and had a fair idea of its size. In Dante's Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil travel through Hell down to the center of the Earth, which Dante clearly depicts as the center of gravitation, and then climb upwards until they reach the surface. The rotundity of the earth was known to the ancients, and the knowledge was never lost, although you could always find a few cranks who thought it was flat. There still are some!Gamow is also a bit too confident that Einstein's theory was firmly established at the time he was writing. In the 1950s, the proofs were rather thin - the bending of starlight by the Sun, the perihelion precession of Mercury, and the slight redshift of solar spectral lines. It is only in the last 15 years or so that we have been able to carry out precise, satellite-based measurements which do, indeed, confirm the theory. He mentions in passing a satellite experiment proposed by S F Singer in the early 1950s. That experiment has since been carried out, with positive results. Prof Singer is still around and is a frequently quoted critic of global warming claims.Gamow was perhaps, the best popularizer of science who ever put pen to paper. He was that rarity - a practicing scientist with a real gift for language and illustration. His books are somewhat dated now, but still very worth reading.

George Gamow was a world-class theoretical physicist (nuclear decay, big-bang). Later in life he explored areas outside his primary field, and managed significant contribution to the understanding DNA. In addition to being a world class scientist, he had a special talent for popularizing science ... a talent perhaps equaled only by the late Richard Feynman. He was also something of an artist, with a curious, cartoonish, whimsical style. (Why does the angel on page 23 have three pairs of wings?)His most famous book for the layman is "One, two, three ... infinity." The present book, "Gravity," is in much the same vein, but it struck me as being not quite as good as the former. (Perhaps this is partly because I was in my early teens when I read "Infinity" ... and so was very impressionable.)The book deals with the development of human understanding of gravity. Beginning with the prehistoric notion of up and down, it goes on to describe the revelations of Galileo, Newton and Einstein. The last chapter deals with cosmology ... including some fascinating conjectures of Dirac.The book contains some gaps, and at least one mistake:On page 142 appears the number 1E-12 ("ten to the minus twelve"). Gamow goes on to state that this is "a millionth of a billionth" ... it should read "a millionth of a millionth."On page 65 appears a definite integral accompanied by the words "in the notations of the previous chapter." But the previous chapter does not give even a single example of a definite integral ... demanding quite a leap in understanding. (I know this from personal experience: when I was trying to teach myself calculus in high school, I had a big stumbling block with the notation of definite integrals.)The diagram on page 111 is a little misleading in that it seems to suggest that all the gasses from the exploding nuclear device ("B1") are directed upwards, so as to hit the deflector plate. Of course this cannot be, and most of the gasses go in other directions ... nevertheless a great and informative diagram.A curiosity I learned from this book: Gamow tells us that Newton used a "prime" (`) to indicate taking the anti-derivative (thereby undoing the "dot"). It is curious that in modern notation the prime has come to symbolize differentiation (essentially the same as the dot), and not integration.All in all, another great book from Gamow ... and at a very reasonable price.

Look around, there is an invisible force holding stuff close to this big planet; like a giant magnet that attracts every single atom in the vicinity. Amusingly, this fantastic phenomenon is holding together the whole universe. Damn, Gamow did a great job explaining why Newton even invented Calculus to understand it. Then Einstein joined the talk saying that it can even bend light! If you don't believe it, Gamow does some calculations to entertain you. Have fun.

Lots of better, up to date books on the topic. I had forgotten how bad graphics were in books written prior to the 90s. The bad graphics detract from the story a bit. I think the presentation in modern book helps the reader , but perhaps the mental gymnastics required to understand the old figures led to a better understanding. Who knows?

I first read this book back in 1963 and now with some time on my hands I decided to give it another go. This is an excellent introduction to gravity suitable for middle school to high school students. Gamov in his day put out some superb books for the general reader (remember '123 Infinity'), and this is one of those general reader books. However, much of the book is now dated especially the part on relativity and unsolved issues. Nevertheless for basic gravitational concepts such as orbits etc it is still a gem. To help matters there is a crisp chapter on calculus.Time has dated this classic but I believe that for basic general concepts this book is still worth a read.

I knew little about gravity before reading this book. Now I understand what gravity is and how it works. The writing style is lucid and quite easy to follow. Gamow was a great physicist and an exceptionally good expositor!

Gamow is brilliant. I recommend this book everybody who likes physics.

If you think You'll learn the deepest secrets of gravity or get a firm conceprual grip on general relativity ..You are wrong .This book is meant for the entusiastic precalculus student who barely know Newtonian gravity Mr Tompkins itself has more on the matter

Ich wußte gar nicht, dass Gamow auch "halb populärwissenschaftliche" Bücher verfasst hat. Er stellt die Grundprinzipien und Probleme der Gravitation und ihre Auswirkungen auf unsere Welt kurz, knapp und verständlich dar. Interessant ist sein Ansatz, die Phänomene fast rein über die Mathematik zu erklären - deshalb nur "halb populärwissenschaftlich". Wenn man in der Schule schon mal etwas über Differential- und Integralrechnung gehört hat (und auch die wird von Gamow noch einmal sehr verständlich wiederholt) und sich von Mathe nicht gleich abschrecken lässt, kann man ihm gut durch den Text folgen und viele Sachen jetzt einmal grundsätzlich verstehen. Klasse!I did not know that Gamow had written "semi-popular science" books. He explains basic principles and problems of gravity and their effects on our world - pretty short and understandable. I found it interesting that he explained most of it via the mathematic of gravity - that's why I called it "semi-popular". But if you learned a bit about calculus at school (and even that is repeated and explained by Gamow) and you aren't afraid of a bit of math you can follow him well through his text and you can finally understand a few things that might have puzzled you for a while. Great!

Last two chapters are especially fantastic ! Must read this book. Gamow is known for explaining science in simple words.