In this post we will see a wonderful little book titled Universal Physical Constants by O. P. Spiridonov.This is a book that deals with history of science in a wonderful way. There are six stories to be told about the constants themselves and the way we found their values. The constants are:
- Gravitational Constant
- Boltzmann Constant and Avagadro’s Number
- Mass and Charge of electron
- Speed of Light
- Planck’s constant
- Masses of neutron, proton and other elementary particles
From the back cover:
The stern academical title of the book is somewhat misguiding tor this is, in fact, a fresh and exciting account of physics, tracing its experimental and conceptual development from the ancient Greeks up to the present day. In thorough studies and heated scientific controversies, it was through the endeavours of many remarkable men that the profound physical significance of the universal physical constants was revealed, sometimes with a complete revision of old views and formation of new physical disciplines. O. P. Spiridonov’s Universal Physical Constants appears to be the first book, both in the USSR and abroad, to be specifically concerned with a systematic discussion of the constants. A “case history” is given for each of them. In telling the story, the author places strong emphasis on logical continuity and the lucidity of his style is never achieved at the expense of scientific strictness.
The book was translated from Russian by Yevgeni Strelchenko and was first published by Mir in 1986.
You can get the book here.
Update: Posted link to Internet Archive 03 December 2015
Update: Posted a cleaned new copy on IA August 30, 2020
Contents
Preface (5)
PROLOGUE
Milestones of Physics (9)
FIRST STORY
Strength and Weakness of a Giant or the Tale of Gravitational Constant (14).
Gravitation (15).
Grandeur of Genius (17).
Gravitational Constant (25).
“There is not a Sufficient Number of Experiments” (28).
SECOND STORY
Lives of Hardship or the Tale of Avogadro’s and Boltzmann’s Constants (35)
Truth Foreseen (35). The Architect of Harmony (44).
How Are Atoms Counted? (56).
THIRD STORY
Guiding Star or the Tale of the Charge and Mass of the Electron (63)
Completed Theory of . . . Unknown (63).
Discovery of the Electron (Analysis and Synthesis) (72).
Nobel Prize to Every Student (78).
The Troublesome Mass (82).
FOURTH STORY
The Puzzle or the Tale of the Speed of Light (89)
Have You Ever Solved Puzzles? (89).
A Victimless Duel (91).
Is the Speed of Light Constant? (104).
Michelson disagrees with Pushkin (113).
The World of Albert Einstein (119).
Space Full of Life (131).
FIFTH STORY
Mysterious Messenger from Real World or the Tale of Planck’s Constant (140)
Ad Hoc Hypothesis (the Emergence of Planck’s Constant) (140).
Einstein’s Light Quanta (148).
“Highest Form of Musicality in the Sphere of Thought” (152).
Waves of Matter (160).
The Measure of Uncertainty (164).
Electron Spin (169).
SIXTH STORY
Jig-saw in Earnest or the Tale of the Masses of the Proton, Neutron and Other Elementary Particles (173)
How to Disassemble an Atomic Nucleus? (173).
“Weighing” Energy (181).
Three Different Similar Discoveries (185).
At the Frontier of Knowledge (196).
EPILOGUE
An Endless Road (201).
Mir Books 
Looks like a nice book.
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Huh, I didn’t post this. Better change my PassWord.
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?
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very intresting to find so many books uploaded together.thank you damitr.
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Dear sir ,
while i downloaded it comes as djvu file. how to get it in pdf.
Celestial mechanics is coming in pdf. pls help
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Get the required djvu reader from http://djvu.org/
D
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Dear Sir,
My sincere Thanks.
I had downloaded using your Djvu reader.
A lot of thanks for uploading these very valuable books.
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You can convert the djvu file to pdf – there are lots of online sites available offering such a service: just google it.
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i like to have the pdf copy because i have lost this book
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Update: Posted Internet Archive Link
https://archive.org/details/UniversalPhysicalConstants
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You are doing good job & Very best for 2016. Could you please refresh the files as they all have vanished – can’t download them….
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Thank you, nice up load of this book.
I get a hard copy, this summer 2017
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Hello, this looks extremely interesting and it is a misfortune the links and the Internet Archive aren’t working. Could you please check them?
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the link is working fine, due to the way pdf was made only preview is missing. you can download the book from the link in the post
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I’m getting this problem https://imgur.com/a/LtUbvBC
I’ve asked a couple of friends and they are not able to download it either.
It looks like the reviewers at archive.org have the same problem.
Could you please re-upload this or something, this book looks very interesting?
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ok will reupload
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Ok will wait eagerly thank you
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I can share the PDF – I have printed and it looks good. Share you Email address/ Mine is joshi@ase-analytics.com
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please upload the file and share the link so that others can benefit too
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Yes Dima – it’s done..
Click to access Universal%20Physical%20Constants%20-%20Spiridonov.pdf
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thanks a ton
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