Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction 1
0 Correlation and Causality 1
1 Models and Reality 4
Matter 7
2 Atoms 9
3 Good Old Science Dude: Dmitri Mendeleev 14
4 The Electron 22
5 The Nucleus of the Atom 25
Light 35
6 Is Light Made of Particles or Waves? 39
7 The Discovery of the Photoelectric Effect 45
8 First Detour: Heat 46
9 Second Detour: Black Bodies 49
10 Einstein in 1905: The First Article 51
11 Why Do They Turn Off Airplane Cabin Lights for Night Landings? 53
12 Why Is the Sky Blue and the Sun Yellow? 58
13 What Is a Rainbow? 61
14 How Many Senses Do Humans Have? 63
15 You Have Never Touched Anything in Your Life 71
Electromagnetism 73
16 Magnetism 73
17 Permanent Magnets 75
18 Electricity?! What Does That Have to Do with Anything? 77
19 Static Electricity 80
20 Electric Fields 82
21 Ampére, Gauss, Faraday, and Others … Right up to Maxwell 84
22 Maxwell's Four Equations 89
The Solar System 94
23 The Sun 94
24 Stellar Nucleosynthesis 96
25 Formation of the Solar System 100
26 Mercury 102
27 Good Old Science Dude: Guillaume Le Gentil-Gentle Willy 105
28 Earth, the Goldilocks of the Solar System 112
29 The Earth Is Round 114
30 Good Old Science Dude: Eratosthenes 115
31 Flow Old Is the Earth? 119
32 Mars 124
33 The Missing Planet 127
34 Pallas, Juno, Vesta, and Everyone Else and Their Mother 129
35 Jupiter 132
36 The Jovian System 134
37 Saturn 137
38 Mimas, Enceladus, and Titan 138
39 Uranus and Neptune 140
40 Pluto, the Fallen Planet 144
41 Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud 147
42 The Dimensions of the Solar System 149
Classical Mechanics 152
43 The Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything 152
44 Aristotle and Impetus 153
45 Archimedes and the First Mechanics 155
46 Eureka, or the Golden Crown of Hiero II, Tyrant of Syracuse 157
47 Good Old Science Dude: Galileo, Part 1 158
48 Giordano Bruno, Punk Genius and Father of Relativity 166
49 Good Old Science Dude: Galileo, Part 2 170
50 Good Old Science Dude: Isaac Newton 179
51 Force, Couple, Torque, and Work 186
52 Momentum and Collisions 190
53 Angular Momentum 194
Life 198
54 You Are Alive 199
55 The Incredible Highways and Byways of the Body 202
56 In a Cell 209
57 The Incredible Things Your Brain Does All by Itself 212
58 Why Is Yawning Contagious? 238
59 Left-Handers 246
60 A Conclusion About Life? 254
Thermodynamics 255
61 So, What Is It? Do Tell 255
62 Is the Cake Pan Hotter Than the Cake? 256
63 The First Steam Engine 257
64 Good Old Science Dude: Francis Bacon 258
65 Sadi Carnot, Father of Thermodynamics 263
66 The Three Laws of Thermodynamics 267
67 And Boltzmann? 270
68 Einstein in 1905: The Second Article 273
Special Relativity 275
69 To Move or Not to Move? That Is the Question 275
70 The Problem with Light 278
71 The Ether 279
72 Michelson's Interferometer 280
73 The Electrostatic Problem 282
74 Lorentz and Poincare 284
75 Einstein in 1905: The Third Article 285
76 A Problem with Clocks 286
77 The Problem with Two Lights 288
78 The Special Theory of Relativity 291
General Relativity 301
79 Newtonian Gravity 301
80 If a Roofer Fell Off a Roof 303
81 Equivalence Principle 304
82 Geometrization of Gravity 305
83 Non-Euclidean Space-Time 308
84 Better Together in 1913: Coauthoring an Article 309
85 Einstein in 1905: The Fourth Article 311
86 And Mercury Proves It 312
87 The General Theory of Relativity 313
88 Testing, Testing, 1-2-3 316
89 The Big Problem with Relativity and the Rest 318
Chronology of Scientists 320
Acknowledgments 325
About the Author 326
