The Restless Universe

Max Born was one of the prime movers in the development of quantum mechanics. He also produced several books for a general audience, and this is one of them. It was written in 1936, with a postscript chapter that tries to bring things a bit more up to date (at least to 1951 when this Dover edition was first published). One of the most interesting features of this book is the inclusion of seven "flip books", which are included in the margins of most pages. By flipping the pages one can see the motion of atoms, operation of a Hertzian oscillator, the scattering of a particles, the motion of electrons in H atoms, and the rotation of orbital planes. The book begins with the kinetic theory of gases and uses this to develop the general concepts of Newtonian mechanics and thermodynamics. This treatment is devoid of mathematics and is a great introduction to physics, written for a general audiences, but with insights that physicists may also find interesting. It is suitable for high school students and non-science major college students. The book then proceeds to two chapters that cover electrons and ions, and waves and particles. These chapters cover the fundamentals of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Again the treatment here is quite general and non-mathematical. These sections are still quite relevant even after 70 years, but after these chapters the book starts to show its age. The final two chapters of the book deal with the structure of the atom and nuclear physics (circa 1936). The structure of the atom chapter gives a very nice overview of the development of the Bohr atom, with the modifications made by Sommerfeld, Pauli and Dirac. It covers the development of quantum numbers, electron orbits, and how this explains the observed atomic spectra. This chapter is probably of more interest to physicists than for a general audience, but it is explained well and is not too complex, so someone without a physics background should not become completely lost. The final chapter covers nuclear physics, primarily isotopes. Nuclear physics has advanced so much since 1951 that this chapter is mostly only of historical interest. After the material covered in the original 1936 book there is a brief postscript chapter trying to bring things up to 1951. This chapter is very general, and while it briefly mentions some advances in quantum electro dynamics, these references are very general and are mostly of historical interest. The rest of this postscript is really just historical, dealing with topics such as the impact of science on WWII (mostly the atomic bomb, but since the author was not actually involved with this work it is extremely general and very superficial). This is a great book for a high school student interested in science. Those interested in the history of science and old science books will also like this book as it is a classic, written by a master.

A classic Dover edition that uses page margins to create flip books of physical phenomena like kinetic theory of gases. After another classic (The Mechanical Universe) that used animations (by James Blinn of NASA), physics is much better understood. But Born did this back in 1936. Good show, Max!