Book Review - Fear of Physics

On a lazy weekend day in Vermont, I sauntered into the local bookstore (instead of browsing the Kindle Store on my iPad), and browsed the science section.  I wanted something on Galaxies and stuff.

I chanced upon this slender book published in the early 90s by Lawrence Krauss titled, "The Fear of Physics'

A very accessible writer.  In his first example he shows how when you say 'cow' to a physicist, the physicist thinks 'sphere.'   Then after explaining why the Physicist sees the world this way, he maintains that stance all through the book, till the very last line.

Along the way he talks about three things - Process, Progress and Principles.  i.e what is the process of discovery that Physicists use, what progress have Physicists made and what are the underlying principles of physics.

I had several aha moments throughout the book.  The equivalence between electricity and magnetism explained in a way through illustrations that struck me as pretty lucid.

Why, to a physicist there is equivalence between the behavior of iron and water (a beautiful explanation of phase transitions)

And the clearest explanation of relativity I have read so far - not that I still get it - but I feel like I know just a little more.  He goes through the famous example of two people on opposing trains.  And for the first time I get what the perspective of each person is.  Also for the first time I get space-time as a concept.  For some reason I was stuck in a cartesian mindset of 3 dimensions of space and then time.  But Krauss' explanation of space-time as one thing was really worth the price of the book.

Finally he talks about the theory of symmetry by the little celebrated German female mathematician Noether and how that under-girds symmetry in the Universe.

Krauss is a physicist worth following, who has taken the time to translate physics in an entertaining way for the masses.

He along with Sean Carroll from CalTech are my two favorite Physicists now and both are available plenty on youTube.