Science for Everyone – The Greatest Speed

Posted on December 2, 2011 by damitr

We now come to another one in the Science for Everyone Series. This one is all about c; The Greatest Speed, the speed of light by S. R. Filonovich.

The book opens with a dialogue from Galileo’s book and opens up historical roots of the problem of light travel.

In the preface the author comments

This book covers the history of the determination of the velocity of light during the past three centuries. The problem originated in a seemingly abstract question: is the velocity of light finite or infinite? The answer was found in the 17th century, and the problems of measuring the light velocity has been luring scientists ever since. Step by step, the velocity of light was promoted from a commonplace number in optics to a fundamental constant playing a most important role in physics. Numerous experiments in the history of measuring this constant illustriously support Albert Einstein’s idea: science is not and will never be a completed book be-cause each essential success brings new questions, and with time every development reveals newer and deeper problems.

The reason why the determination of the velocity of light is still intriguing scientists lies in that the velocity of light in vacuum is a constant belonging to many branches of physics. The velocity of light, as it were, ‘unites’ these areas, thus substantiating convincingly the general philosophical concept on the unity of the world around us. However, the interest, in the history of this particular problem can be accounted for by not only the role of this constant in modern science.

The experiments conducted to measure the velocity of light contributed to the development of physics on the whole. Starting from the 17th century, these experiments show the progress of methods and techniques in physical experiments. Quite recently, when the Russian edition of this book has already been out of print (it ran into 150,000 copies), the velocity of light drew the attention of every experimenting physicist again: in late 1983, a basically new decision was adopted to define the metre, one of the most important physical units, and the velocity of light played the main role in the definition.

From the back cover:

The constant denoting the velocity of light in vacuum is encountered in every branch of physics, and this universality brings out the unity of the physical world. Although it is now over three hundred years since the constant was first defined, it yielded to scientific assaults only slowly, revealing as it did unexpectedly new phenomena. Its universality and the surprises that it threw up make any attempt to relate how the velocity of light came to be measured a minor history of physics. This book therefore explains the requisite science against the back-ground of the historical personalities involved. Intended for teachers and school pupils.

The book was translated from the Russian by Michael Burov and was first published by Mir in 1986.

Thanks to Gordon for bringing this book to my notice, thanks to gnv64 for this book.

Update: Jan 2020

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Science for Everyone – Problems in Plane Geometry

Posted on December 1, 2011 by damitr

As told in the last post, we now come to the Problems in Plane Geometry by I. F. Sharygin in the Science for Everyone series.

In the preface Sharygin says:

This volume contains over 600 problems in plane geometry and consists of two parts. The first part contains rather simple problems to be solved in classes and at home. The second part also contains hints and detailed solutions. Over 200 new problems have been added to the 1982 edition, the simpler problems in the first addition having been eliminated, and a number of new sections- (circles and tangents, polygons, combinations of figures, etc.) having been introduced, The general structure of the book has been changed somewhat to
accord with the new, more detailed, classification of the problems. As a result, all the problems in this volume have been rearranged.

From the back cover of the book:

This is a translation from the revised edition of the Russian book which was issued in 1982. It is actually the first in a two-volume work on solving problems in geometry, the second volume “Problems in Solid Geometry” having been published in English first by Mir Publishers in 1986. Both volumes are designed for schoolchildren and
teachers.

This is a unique collection of interesting and elegant problems presenting the subject in a manner comprehensible to a youthful mind making it both interesting and usefulthrough a wide range of practical applications. Although the problems in this collection vary in “age” (some of them can be found in old books and journals, others were offered at mathematical olympiads or published in the journal “Quant” (Moscow, we still hope that some of the problems in the collection will be of interest to experienced geometers.

Almost every problem is non-standard (as compared with routine exercises on solving equations, inequalities, etc.): one has to think of what additional constructions must be made, or which formulas and theorems must be used. Therefore, this collection cannot be regarded as a problem hook in geometry; it is rather a collection of geometrical puzzles aimed at demonstrating the elegance of elementary geometrical techniques of proof and methods of computation (without using vector algebra and with a minimal use of the method of coordinates, geometrical transformations, though a somewhat wider use of trigonometry).

The book was translated from the Russian by Leonid Levant and was first published by Mir in 1988.

You can get the book here and here.

Link updated 01/Feb/2017

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Science for Everyone – Problems in Solid Geometry

Posted on December 1, 2011 by damitr

We are still on the Science for Everyone series. This post is first of two books by I. F. Sharygin. The two books are problem and solution books in geometry. In this post the Problems in Solid Geometry is taken up. The next post would be Problems in Plane Geometry.

From the Preface:

This book contains 340 problems in solid geometry and is a natural continuation of Problems in Plane Geometry, Nauka, Moscow, 1982. It is therefore possible to confine myself here to those points where this book differs from the first. The problems in this collection are grouped into (1) computational problems and (2) problems on proof.

The simplest problems in Section 1 only have answers, others, have brief hints, and the most difficult, have detailed hints and worked solutions. There are two reservations. Firstly, in most cases only the general outline of the solution is given, a number of details being suggested for the reader to consider. Secondly, although the suggested solutions are valid, they are not patterns (models) to be used in examinations. Sections 2-4 contain various geometric facts and theorems, problems on maximum and minimum (some of the problems in this part could have been put in Section 1), and problems on loci. Some questions pertaining to the geometry of tetrahedron, spherical geometry, and so forth are also considered here.

As to the techniques for solving all these problems, I have to state that I prefer analytical computational methods to those associated with plane geometry. Some of the difficult problems in solid geometry will require a high level of concentration from the reader, and an ability to carry out some rather complicated work.

The book was translated from the Russian by Leonid Levant and was first published by Mir in 1986.

All credits to the original uploader.

Update Jan 2020

 

Here and here

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Science for Everyone – Differential Equations in Applications

Posted on November 30, 2011 by damitr

Continuing the Science for Everyone Series we now come to Differential Equations in Applications by V. V. Amel’kin

From the back cover:

This book is an easy-reading introduction to ordinary differential equations and their use in the study of real phenomena and processes. Problems taken from various fields of knowledge illustrate the tools used in setting up differential equations and the methods employed in their qualitative investigation. The book should be useful to  high-school students, teachers of science courses, college students, and specialists of, non-mathematical professions who use mathematics in their work.

The book discusses many interesting problems and has 2 chapters. The first one is dedicated to constructing the differential models and finding their solutions. The second chapter is more interesting, it shows you the way to deal with differential equations qualitatively.

The book was translated from the Russian by Eugene Yankovsky and was first published by Mir in 1990. This I think was one of the last books published by Mir, as after that the USSR came apart and so did all these wonderful state run publishers.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

Update: New link has been posted, earlier link was missing pages 180-181. Thanks Khalid for reporting this.

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Science for Everyone – Physical Paradoxes and Sophisms

Posted on November 30, 2011 by damitr

Now we come to a book in the Science for Everyone series which eluded me for years, only to be found with one of my dear friends. This book is Physical Paradoxes and Sophisms by V. N. Lange. Long before I had read about this book in the advertisements on the back pages of other books, but had never a chance to see it. Many of the problems discussed in this book are revealing and take you to deeper levels of understanding about physics. Two similar books that I have read are Surprises in Theoretical Physics and More Surprises in Theoretical Physics by Rudolf Peierls.

From the Preface

This book was written for senior schoolchildren and presents a series of physical paradoxes and sophisms differing in theme and complexity. Some of them were known long ago, yet most are published for the first time. “Sophism” and “paradox” are Greek words. A sophism is an argument, though apparently perfectly correct in form, actually contains an error that makes the final deduction absurd. A well-known sophism is “That which you did not lose, you possess. You have not lost horns, hence you possess them.”

On the contrary, a paradox is a statement that seemingly contradicts common sense, yet in fact is true. For example, as a popular Russian saying contends, “it is a fact, however incredible” that when combining velocities with the same direction, the resultant velocity is smaller than their arithmetic sum (this is one of the inferences of the special theory of relativity).

A study of sophisms and paradoxes need not be thought of as a waste of time. Indeed, they were esteemed by such eminent scientists as Gottfried Leibniz, Leonhard Euler, and Albert Einstein. Einstein was very fastidious about his books, and yet he had a shelf full of books on mathematical jokes and puzzles. Maybe it was his early love of original problems that developed his striking paradoxes has played an extraordinary role in the development of contemporary physics. We hope that this small collection will help its readers avoid making some mistakes. For example, senior schoolchildren and first—year students are often observed, in trying to solve ballistic pendulum problems and the like, finding the system’s velocity following an elastic collision by applying the law of conservation of mechanical energy only. Such mistakes will hardly be made again after studying the sophism in Problem 1.25 (a “violation” of the law of energy conservation).

The first section of the collection contains the problems, the second section gives short solutions. The latter are useful to check your own solutions and in the cases when a problem is difficult to solve on one’s own. The first two editions of the book were so popular that they quickly sold out. It has been translated into Bulgarian, Roumanian, German (two editions in GDR), Japanese, and the languages of the peoples of the USSR. Its success stimulated me to compose new paradoxes and sophisms, thus resulting in the present edition. In preparing it, I have omitted some problems, revised the text and solution of others, and added new ones.

The book was translated from the Russian by Valerii Ilyushchenko and was first published by Mir in 1987.

Thanks AlKaPRo for providing this book.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

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Science for Everyone – Physics and Geometry of Disorder – Percolation Theory

Posted on November 28, 2011 by damitr

We now come to another gem in the Science For Everyone series, Physics and Geometry of Disorder – Percolation Theory by A. L. Efros.

From the back cover:

This book is  about percolation theory and its various applications, which occur mostly in physics and chemistry. The book is self-sufficient in that it contains chapters on elementary probability theory and Monte Carlo simulation. Most attention is paid to the relationship between the geometrical and physical properties of systems in the vicinity of their percolation thresholds. The theory is applied to examples of impurity semiconductors and doped ferromagnetics, which demonstrate its universality. Although written for students at high schools, the book is very good reading for college students and will satisfy the curiosity of a physicist for whom this will be a first encounter with percolation theory.

The book was translated from the Russian by V. I. Kisin and was first published by Mir in 1986.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

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Science for Everyone – Temperature

Posted on November 28, 2011 by damitr 
This book on temperature was written to explain 
how physical concepts arise, how new methods of 
measuring physical quantities are developed, 
and how the progress in physics makes well-worn 
concepts move into modern fields of physics of 
which our predecessors were understandably 
quite ignorant. - Ya. Smorodinsky

We now come to the next title in the Science for Everyone Series, Temperature written by Ya. A. Smorodinsky.

The books has a lot of historical perspective on how the ideas of thermodynamics developed over the ages. Also the book takes you to many quantum phenomena and discusses in detail about many of them.

From the back cover

This book starts with a historical background on the notion of temperature and the development of the temperature scale. Then Ya. A. Smorodinsky covers the fundamentals of thermodynamics and statistical physics, only using concepts that will be familiar to high-school students. Having built a solid foundation, he exposes the reader to a number of phenomena that are essentially quantum-mechanical, but for which the concept of temperature “works”, and works very well. These include the spins in crystal lattices, inverse population of energy levels, microwave background radiation, black holes, and cooling antiproton beams. Although it has been written for high-school students, the book contains a minimum amount of mathematics. Nevertheless, Ya.A. Smorodinsky compensates for this
severe restriction by the lucid manner in which he discusses complicated effects.

The book was translated from the Russian by V. I. Kisin and was first published by Mir in 1984.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

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Science for Everyone – How We See What We See

Posted on November 24, 2011 by damitr

We now come to another book in the Science for Everyone Series called How We See What We See by V. Demidov.

The title of the book is self-explanatory. The back cover of the book says:

Pattern recognition and freaks of fashions, the perception of color and the structure of the visual tract, optical illusions and shaping of the mental model of the world are some of the topics discussed in this fascinating and enlightening account of the extremely important frontiers of neurophysiology, and psychology, cybernectics and medicine. The author (a journalist and an engineer) visited many laboratories even participated in many experiments – that is why he is so successful in conveying the atmosphere of scientific search and adventure. The book will appeal to the general reader  and non-specialist researcher.

From the foreword

The author of this book is a journalist and an engineer. The book itself is a result of tive years of fruitful cooperation between the author and the investigators of the Vision Physiology Laboratory at the I.P. Pavlov Physiology Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences at Koltushi, near Leningrad. During this time the author has kept a keen eye on the advances of the Laboratory and covered them in the mass media. Demidov presents his case drawing on the holographic hypothesis of the workings of the brain, which in recent years has been developed actively by international authors (it is to be noted, however, that this concept is shared not by all the workers). Prominent among these studies are  contributions of Soviet scientists, notably at the Pavlov Institute. And since holography is a creation of engineers, it is clear why one of them has been able freely and easily to take bearing using the holographic compass in the sea of evidence, which on the face of it seems to be scrappy,but in fact demonstrates the profound unity of the material foundations of the world before us.

Demidov’s book is one of the most successful attempts to expose the tight interplay of results from a wide variety of fields of learning. Furthermore Demidov relates these findings to problems of vital interest for literally every human being. The book is a brilliant combination of the insight of a scientist and the lively, provoking style of a man of letters.

With that said, the book explores also the history of how we came to know about what we know in this matter.

The book was translated in Hindi as दृश्य और दृष्टि, we do not know of any other translations.

The book was translated from the Russian by Alexander Repyev and was first published by Mir in 1986.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

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Science For Everyone – Flying Trains

Posted on November 24, 2011 by damitr 
It is impossible to convince people of a novelty. 
One has to wait for a new generation to accept 
new ideas. - Max Planck

In continuing our run on the Science for Everyone series, we now come to another title in the series Flying Trains by G. Zelkin. The book is about future and transportation, and makes you think  for ‘out of the box’ solutions.


From the back cover

We can hardly imagine how many transportation modes are now in existence. It is life that motivates advent of new vehicles. Our current progress in science and technology provides basis for new forms of transportation.  We may suppose that the immediate decades will see superspeed trains with magnetic and air suspension. Air traffic will be dominated by large jet aircraft, primarily airbuses, and airships will also find numerous applications. For cross water routes hydrofoils. hovercraft. and ground effect machines will be used whose time tables and navigation will be controlled from space.

The book discusses the development of a number of promising vehicles, such as fast wheelless trains, and shows the perspective of their advancement, The material of the book is based on a great deal of facts concerning the latest achievements in the field.

The book is intended for those who are interested in the history of transportation, anew technical ideas, and prospects of transport technology.

The author was the first one to float the idea of a train supported on an air cushion
or magnetic suspension rather than wheels in  1957. At the time almost nothing had been written about such vehicles, while the idea itself aroused skepticism.

Today these vehicles are regarded as a new and promising mode of transportation, they are being developed, and are under construction or being operable in many countries. The author did not just witness the debate that accompanied the development and establishment of this new form of transportation in the Soviet Union, but took an active part in it.

Ideas, like people, are sometimes born easily and sometimes with pain, and their fate too may be different. That of wheelless trains as a practicality has not been all roses.

No wheels means no dynamic loading on the rail. Therefore the monorail can be made of concrete rather than expensive metal. The absence of wheels also removes the speed limitations intrinsic in ordinary trains.

This book becomes especially important now, as many of our cities are running metros. And the author not only discusses the technological side of the story but also the human side.
The book was translated from the Russian by Alexander Repyev and was first published by Mir in 1986.

Update Jan 2020

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Science for Everyone – Electrons and Crystals – Wolkenstein

Posted on November 23, 2011 by damitr 
The mission of a popular science writer is to reawaken in the 
reader his feelings of astonishment and curiosity.

The aim is not so much to supply the reader with knowledge about
 a subject, but to kindle his interest in it. If a reader, having 
read the book, reaches for another book on the same or a similar 
topic, then the popular science writer has fulfilled his task.

In this post we will be seeing another wonderful book in the Science for Everyone series. Electrons and Crystals by Theodore Wolkenstein helped me understand many physical concepts, in solid state physics.

The book is very interesting in many ways, for example, the book doesn’t have a Preface. You would say what’s great in that, but wait, there is a section Instead of  Preface: On the Laws of Popular Science !

Now something about the book:

This book tackles some of the problems of solid-state physics. We are going to discuss the behaviour of electrons in metals, semiconductors,
and dielectrics (insulators), and some of the properties of solids affected by this behaviour. We do not pretend this is an exhaustive review of the latest achievements in solid-state physics, but we hope we have described some of the fundamental concepts in the physics of metals, semiconductors, and dielectrics. The book is a supplement to appropriate parts of a physics course in secondary schools and is intended for someone who is finishing secondary school or who has finished it and remembers his school physics. We do not expect a reader to know anything and remembers his school physics. Moreover, sometimes a topic is tackled somewhat differently than it might be treated in school. The mathematics used in the book does not go beyond elementary algebra and the mathematical analysis that should be familiar to anyone finishing secondary school.

The back cover of the book says:

The increasingly important field of solid-state physics concerns the behavior of electrons in various crystals. Problems of solid-state physics, which include specific differences between metals and dielectrics and the remarkable properties of semiconductors, are particularly topical in todays `electronic’ society.

Electrons and Crystals by Dr. Theodore Wolkenstein covers fundamentals of solid state physics in an engaging way. Written in an easy, readable style, the book is intended as a supplement to textbook in secondary school physics courses, and the approach to certain topics in the volume is, therefore, unique. The material is presented in terms of models and required no special additional knowledge.

Suitable for general reader with a good command of elementary physics and mathematics, this book can also serve as a useful study guide for high-school students.

The book was translated from the Russian by Michael Burov and was edited by R. N. Hainsworth, first published by Mir in 1985.

Thanks Anish.Dot for this book.

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Updated: 15 January 2019

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