Michio Kaku

Einstein's Cosmos

Albert Einstein's theories had a revolutionary effect on physics at the start of the 20th century, but these theories are often hidden in mathematical equations and can be hard to understand. In this book Michio Kaku takes the reader through the simple ideas which lead Einstein to his theories. Thus we heard about Einstein's early struggles culminating in his 'miracle year' of 1905. This was followed by the development of general relativity and Einstein's rise to fame when it was experimentally confirmed. Then, in the last 30 years of his life, Einstein worked away from mainstream physics in his search for a unified theory. It's a well written book, being highly informative as well as having an easy to read style and is to be recommended to anyone wanting to find out about Einstein's work.

In fact maybe the book is a bit too easy to read - I felt that the reader isn't really challenged with the counterintuitive nature of Einstein's ideas. Hence it is probably best as an introduction to Einstein's ideas which the reader can follow up on. (there are notes and a list of further reading at the end but surprisingly no index)

In the last three chapters of the book we find out about Einstein's quest for a unified field theory, where Kaku point out how his ideas were forerunners of today's 'theories of everything'. We also hear about Einstein's his battles with quantum theory where I felt that Kaku could have stood up for Einstein more. I suppose the majority opinion amoung physicists is that Einstein was wrong in these battles, but that's certainly not my opinion.

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Paperback 268 pages
ISBN: 0393327000
Salesrank: 361417
Weight:0.5 lbs

Published: 2005 W. W. Norton & Company

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Paperback 268 pages
ISBN: 0393327000
Salesrank: 1197916
Weight:0.5 lbs

Published: 2005 W. W. Norton & Co.

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Paperback 268 pages
ISBN: 0393327000
Salesrank: 143519
Weight:0.5 lbs

Published: 2005 WW Norton

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Book Description
In paperback for the centenary of the discovery of relativity, "a fresh and highly visual tour through Einstein's astonishing legacy" (Brian Greene). The year 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the paper that launched Einstein's career, made E=mc2 famous, and ushered in a revolution in science—the paper that announced the theory of special relativity. And there's no better short book that explains just what Einstein did than Einstein's Cosmos. Keying Einstein's crucial discoveries to the simple mental images that inspired them, Michio Kaku finds a revealing new way to discuss these ideas, and delivers an appealing and always accessible introduction to Einstein's work.

Book Description

In paperback for the centenary of the discovery of relativity, "a fresh and highly visual tour through Einstein's astonishing legacy" (Brian Greene).

The year 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the paper that launched Einstein's career, made E=mc2 famous, and ushered in a revolution in science—the paper that announced the theory of special relativity. And there's no better short book that explains just what Einstein did than Einstein's Cosmos. Keying Einstein's crucial discoveries to the simple mental images that inspired them, Michio Kaku finds a revealing new way to discuss these ideas, and delivers an appealing and always accessible introduction to Einstein's work.

Pretty Good Read about Einstein ***
Just finished the book Einstein's Cosmos, which is a great look into the life of the genius physicist Albert Einstein. The book has lots of interesting facts about Einstein. Some that i remember: He was born in Germany but he had such a bad experience in his youth, he renounced his citizenship when he was 17 He was always brilliant. There's a myth that he wasn't that smart when he was young. Wrong. He read a Geometry book when he was 12 and LOVED it. Since then he devoured any physics and mathematics he could get his hand on. He hated classes where they wouldn't teach the "interesting topics of the day" and frequently got poor grades. But he was always smart. One little tidbit i loved hearing about is that he was a total ladies man. In High School ALL the girls wanted to talk to him b/c he had such a funny personality. He was a witty guy - always cracking jokes and having fun. Bottom line: Albert was a stud and had his pick of chicks when he was in college. Another little interesting piece of gossip - he got his main college girlfriend pregnant but she had moved away and the baby died when it was 3. He eventually had another child with her and paid alimony with his Nobel Prize money. But, as he because more famous and busier, they drifted apart and he moved to Germany, she stayed in Switzerland - leading to eventual divorce. He then became very close to his cousin Elsa, who he later married. From the book it seems that they were a great couple - He the absent-minded disheveled thinker and she the pretty put-together socialite. His tours around the world would have been impossible without her. The book follows his behavior during the wars, his refusal to support Germany during WWI and his endangerment as a prominent Jew - eventually moving to the states and living at Princeton. The physics is all easy to understand language. All the cosmic questions that stem from relativity - including the puzzling worm-hole questions are all lined up. I found it a great to read before bedtime book due to the mind benders. If you're looking to know more about Albert - this is definitely a quick and interesting book.

Pretty Good Read about Einstein ***

Just finished the book Einstein's Cosmos, which is a great look into the life of the genius physicist Albert Einstein.

The book has lots of interesting facts about Einstein. Some that i remember: He was born in Germany but he had such a bad experience in his youth, he renounced his citizenship when he was 17

He was always brilliant. There's a myth that he wasn't that smart when he was young. Wrong. He read a Geometry book when he was 12 and LOVED it. Since then he devoured any physics and mathematics he could get his hand on. He hated classes where they wouldn't teach the "interesting topics of the day" and frequently got poor grades. But he was always smart.

One little tidbit i loved hearing about is that he was a total ladies man. In High School ALL the girls wanted to talk to him b/c he had such a funny personality. He was a witty guy - always cracking jokes and having fun. Bottom line: Albert was a stud and had his pick of chicks when he was in college.

Another little interesting piece of gossip - he got his main college girlfriend pregnant but she had moved away and the baby died when it was 3. He eventually had another child with her and paid alimony with his Nobel Prize money. But, as he because more famous and busier, they drifted apart and he moved to Germany, she stayed in Switzerland - leading to eventual divorce. He then became very close to his cousin Elsa, who he later married. From the book it seems that they were a great couple - He the absent-minded disheveled thinker and she the pretty put-together socialite. His tours around the world would have been impossible without her.

The book follows his behavior during the wars, his refusal to support Germany during WWI and his endangerment as a prominent Jew - eventually moving to the states and living at Princeton.

The physics is all easy to understand language. All the cosmic questions that stem from relativity - including the puzzling worm-hole questions are all lined up. I found it a great to read before bedtime book due to the mind benders.

If you're looking to know more about Albert - this is definitely a quick and interesting book.

An easy read. *****
The professor, Michio Kaku, has easily become one of my favorite authors. That Einstein was the greatest scientist of the past century there's no doubt. And the author in addition to being a physicist is able to explain, in a warm, and caring way, how Einstein pictured, in his mind, what eventually became his theory of special relativity. But there's more; Prof. Kaku provides us a glimpse of the life, thoughts, frustrations, and accomplishments of Einstein the man as well. An easy, and interesting read for sure.

An easy read. *****

The professor, Michio Kaku, has easily become one of my favorite authors. That Einstein was the greatest scientist of the past century there's no doubt. And the author in addition to being a physicist is able to explain, in a warm, and caring way, how Einstein pictured, in his mind, what eventually became his theory of special relativity. But there's more; Prof. Kaku provides us a glimpse of the life, thoughts, frustrations, and accomplishments of Einstein the man as well. An easy, and interesting read for sure.

Einstein For The Rest of Us *****
Physicists will already be acquainted with nearly everything in this book. For the rest of us, Professor Kaku provides a comfortably woven account of Einstein's personal and professional life. While nearly everyone is familiar with the famous scientist's reputation, few know much about him as a man or his incredible body of work. Einstien's humanity and self-deprecating humor only add to his charm. Surprising to me was his dogged, single-minded pursuit of the solution to relativity. His determination nearly ruined his health and his relationship to his family. This is a wonderful book for the general reader. No special knowledge of science or physics is needed to thoroughly enjoy it. Highly recommended.

Einstein For The Rest of Us *****

Physicists will already be acquainted with nearly everything in this book. For the rest of us, Professor Kaku provides a comfortably woven account of Einstein's personal and professional life. While nearly everyone is familiar with the famous scientist's reputation, few know much about him as a man or his incredible body of work. Einstien's humanity and self-deprecating humor only add to his charm. Surprising to me was his dogged, single-minded pursuit of the solution to relativity. His determination nearly ruined his health and his relationship to his family.

This is a wonderful book for the general reader. No special knowledge of science or physics is needed to thoroughly enjoy it. Highly recommended.

A crystal-clear window into Einstein's world ****
In this small book Prof. Kaku has created a marvelously entertaining and easy-to-read biography of the scientist whose very name has, somewhat illogically, become synonymous with any and all flavors of genius. As a physicist himself, Kaku enriches the narrative with lucid explanations and personal scientific judgments. He consistently shows a sure hand for striking a nice balance between the extremes of expecting too much, or too little, from the general reader. The author describes vividly the many fascinating aspects of Einstein's life, including a brief obsession with religion at 11, an uneasy relationship with conventional education, difficulty finding a job, a stint as a patent examiner combined with startlingly original contributions to physics, escape to America from an increasingly Nazified Germany, the triumph of General Relativity, and finally life as a scientific elder statesman at Princeton, doggedly chasing the elusive unified field theory and insisting to the end that the intrinsically probabilistic quantum theory he helped establish could not represent ultimate reality. Woven into the narrative by Kaku the biographer are many valuable insights from Kaku the physicist. For instance, he counters the popular misconception that relativity brought classical physics crashing down, and that Newton's equations were suddenly revealed as useless or wrong. Relativity did perform the astonishing feat of reducing classical dynamics to a special case, but it is an exceedingly important case which is still used daily by engineers and scientists around the world. In the author's words (p. 65), "...for everyday velocities, Newton's laws are perfectly fine." Kaku contrasts Einstein's accomplishments with today's physics in some interesting ways, including a remark on page 224 proposing that the encyclopedic Standard Model of quantum particle behavior is, despite its predictive success, "...perhaps one of the ugliest theories ever proposed in science." So much for the notion that truth and beauty always go hand in hand. The author provides an edifying resolution of the famous "twin paradox" by emphasizing that although the relative velocity histories of the moving and stationary twins must be symmetrical and indistiguishable, their histories as recorded by separate accelerometers attached to each twin would be very different. The traveling twin encounters the time stretching effect of large velocity changes with respect to inertial space, hence returns younger than her stay-at-home sibling. The key is to recognize that the required accelerations move the problem out of the limited realm of special relativity. The book's story line skillfully blends Einstein's professional life with illuminating vignettes of his nonscientific side. For instance, he was not an unqualified pacifist and supported the use of force when challenged by an enemy, such as the German/Japanese alliance in World War II, which pursued destruction of life as an end in itself. Occasionally Einstein could appear shockingly naive, as when he suggested locating the Jewish state in a country such as Peru to avoid replaying the "promised land" conflicts described so vividly in the Old Testament. Odd as it seems, this proposal was consistent with Einstein's way of looking at things, which supported some aspects of Zionism but simply could not countenance any claim to supernatural land grants. I found only two drawbacks: First, the absence of illustrations was a letdown, especially since Einstein was known for thinking in pictures. Second, lack of an index is frustrating in any non-fiction book, and especially in one as good as this.

A crystal-clear window into Einstein's world ****

In this small book Prof. Kaku has created a marvelously entertaining and easy-to-read biography of the scientist whose very name has, somewhat illogically, become synonymous with any and all flavors of genius. As a physicist himself, Kaku enriches the narrative with lucid explanations and personal scientific judgments. He consistently shows a sure hand for striking a nice balance between the extremes of expecting too much, or too little, from the general reader.

The author describes vividly the many fascinating aspects of Einstein's life, including a brief obsession with religion at 11, an uneasy relationship with conventional education, difficulty finding a job, a stint as a patent examiner combined with startlingly original contributions to physics, escape to America from an increasingly Nazified Germany, the triumph of General Relativity, and finally life as a scientific elder statesman at Princeton, doggedly chasing the elusive unified field theory and insisting to the end that the intrinsically probabilistic quantum theory he helped establish could not represent ultimate reality.

Woven into the narrative by Kaku the biographer are many valuable insights from Kaku the physicist. For instance, he counters the popular misconception that relativity brought classical physics crashing down, and that Newton's equations were suddenly revealed as useless or wrong. Relativity did perform the astonishing feat of reducing classical dynamics to a special case, but it is an exceedingly important case which is still used daily by engineers and scientists around the world. In the author's words (p. 65), "...for everyday velocities, Newton's laws are perfectly fine." Kaku contrasts Einstein's accomplishments with today's physics in some interesting ways, including a remark on page 224 proposing that the encyclopedic Standard Model of quantum particle behavior is, despite its predictive success, "...perhaps one of the ugliest theories ever proposed in science." So much for the notion that truth and beauty always go hand in hand.

The author provides an edifying resolution of the famous "twin paradox" by emphasizing that although the relative velocity histories of the moving and stationary twins must be symmetrical and indistiguishable, their histories as recorded by separate accelerometers attached to each twin would be very different. The traveling twin encounters the time stretching effect of large velocity changes with respect to inertial space, hence returns younger than her stay-at-home sibling. The key is to recognize that the required accelerations move the problem out of the limited realm of special relativity.

The book's story line skillfully blends Einstein's professional life with illuminating vignettes of his nonscientific side. For instance, he was not an unqualified pacifist and supported the use of force when challenged by an enemy, such as the German/Japanese alliance in World War II, which pursued destruction of life as an end in itself. Occasionally Einstein could appear shockingly naive, as when he suggested locating the Jewish state in a country such as Peru to avoid replaying the "promised land" conflicts described so vividly in the Old Testament. Odd as it seems, this proposal was consistent with Einstein's way of looking at things, which supported some aspects of Zionism but simply could not countenance any claim to supernatural land grants.

I found only two drawbacks: First, the absence of illustrations was a letdown, especially since Einstein was known for thinking in pictures. Second, lack of an index is frustrating in any non-fiction book, and especially in one as good as this.

Genius is Simplification - this book does that ****
The author loves Einstien. Good simplification of Einstiens' work. I gave this a 4 star because I understand more about einsteins theories now than before I read it. I have gained even more respect for Einstein. From the book, I am impressed that he seems like a real down to earth decent person. He also suffered from many trials and tribulations (like hating school and almost not passing entrance exams, etc.).

Genius is Simplification - this book does that ****

The author loves Einstien. Good simplification of Einstiens' work. I gave this a 4 star because I understand more about einsteins theories now than before I read it.

I have gained even more respect for Einstein. From the book, I am impressed that he seems like a real down to earth decent person. He also suffered from many trials and tribulations (like hating school and almost not passing entrance exams, etc.).

Einstein's Cosmos ****
The author loves Einstien. Good simplification of Einstiens' work. I gave this a 4 star because I understand more about einsteins theories now than before I read it. I have gained even more respect for Einstein. From the book, I am impressed that he seems like a real down to earth decent person. He also suffered from many trials and tribulations (like hating school and almost not passing entrance exams, etc.).

Einstein's Cosmos ****

Not a smooth read for near-beginners **
Being a Professor of Theoretical Physics in New York no doubt Michio Kaku knows his subject. In comparison to a few books I have read by other authors of equal stature (on the subject of modern physics in general), which leave you with the sense of satisfaction of issues grasped and principles and laws understood, I didn't feel too enriched at the end of this book (maybe a Physics student would, though, or maybe I would if I read it a second time). There is a tremendous factual material in the book but it could have been perhaps so organized that "it flows" better (I found it scattered). "Readability" depends on style. I personally would no doubt look elsewhere for "teachers" (that is a separate talent anyway, not every professor has it necessarily) and other books on Einstein.

Not a smooth read for near-beginners **

Being a Professor of Theoretical Physics in New York no doubt Michio Kaku knows his subject. In comparison to a few books I have read by other authors of equal stature (on the subject of modern physics in general), which leave you with the sense of satisfaction of issues grasped and principles and laws understood, I didn't feel too enriched at the end of this book (maybe a Physics student would, though, or maybe I would if I read it a second time). There is a tremendous factual material in the book but it could have been perhaps so organized that "it flows" better (I found it scattered). "Readability" depends on style. I personally would no doubt look elsewhere for "teachers" (that is a separate talent anyway, not every professor has it necessarily) and other books on Einstein.

A Concise Review of Einstein's Life and Work *****
There are many Einstein biographies out there, and I've read a number of them. In my opinion, this is one of the most concise and readable ones. The writing is clear and engaging, thus making the book difficult to put down. Einstein's theories are clearly explained for anyone to understand, amidst the main highlights of his life and times. I recommend this book to a wide audience, from science buffs to Einstein fans to anyone wanting to understand what is was that made Einstein so famous, and why.

A Concise Review of Einstein's Life and Work *****

There are many Einstein biographies out there, and I've read a number of them. In my opinion, this is one of the most concise and readable ones. The writing is clear and engaging, thus making the book difficult to put down. Einstein's theories are clearly explained for anyone to understand, amidst the main highlights of his life and times. I recommend this book to a wide audience, from science buffs to Einstein fans to anyone wanting to understand what is was that made Einstein so famous, and why.