The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science
Books / Hardcover
ISBN: 1400061318 / Publisher: Random House, September 2003
A philosopher and historian creates a thought-provoking odyssey through two millennia of scientific accomplishment, capturing ten key experiments that changed the world forever.
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We see the first measurement of the earth's circumference, accomplished in the third century B. C. by Eratosthenes using sticks, shadows, and simple geometry. We visit Foucault's mesmerizing pendulum, a cannonball suspended from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris that allows us to see the rotation of the earth on its axis. We meet Galileo - the only scientist with two experiments in the top ten - drawing on his musical training to measure the speed of falling bodies. And we travel to the quantum world, in the most beautiful experiment of all.
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