Download or read book Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth written by Joe D. Burchfield and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1990-05-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portrait of Lord Kelvin

Download or read book Brilliant Blunders written by Mario Livio and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Drawing on the lives of five great scientists -- Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein -- scientist/author Mario Livio shows how even the greatest scientists made major mistakes and how science built on these errors to achieve breakthroughs, especially into the evolution of life and the universe"--

Download or read book From Stars To Stalagmites How Everything Connects written by Paul S Braterman and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2012-04-16 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feynman once selected, as the single most important statement in science, that everything is made of atoms. It follows that the properties of everything depend on how these atoms are joined together, giving rise to the vast field we know of today as chemistry. In this unique book specifically written to bridge the gap between chemistry and the layman, Braterman has put together a series of linked essays on chemistry related themes that are particularly engaging.The book begins with the age of the earth, and concludes with the life cycle of stars. In between, there are atoms old and new, the ozone hole mystery and how it was solved, synthetic fertilisers and explosives, reading the climate record, the extraction of metals, the wetness of water, and how the greenhouse effect on climate really works. A chapter in praise of uncertainty leads on to the “fuzziness” and sharing of electrons, and from there to molecular shape, grass-green and blood-red, the wetness of water, and molecular recognition as the basis of life.Organised in such a way as to illustrate and develop underlying principles and approaches, this book will appeal to anyone interested in chemistry, as well as its history and key personalities. Where many other titles have failed, this book succeeds brilliantly in capturing the spirit and essence of chemistry and delivering the science in easily digestible terms.

Download or read book The Age of the Earth written by Arthur Holmes and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Age Of The Earth The A Physicist s Odyssey written by Archibald W Hendry and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book spells out in detail how the age of the Earth has been determined over the centuries. First — the 'biblical' age: how was the date of Creation 4004 BC figured out? A date which is so important even today ... it is the basis of claims made by millions that the Earth is only about 6000 years old. Next — the response of geologists (and Darwin) for a very old Earth. Then, Kelvin's calculation of how long it would take for a hot Earth to cool down to its present state. And finally, today's answer ('billions'), based on the properties of radioactive materials. So, how old is Planet Earth?Related Link(s)

Download or read book The Age of the Earth as an Abode Fitted for Life By the Right Hon Lord Kelvin written by William Thomson baron Kelvin and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Energy and Empire written by Crosbie Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-10-26 with total page 906 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of Lord Kelvin, the most famous mathematical physicist of 19th-century Britain, delivers on a speculation long entertained by historians of science that Victorian physics expressed in its very content the industrial society that produced it.

Download or read book The Age of the Earth written by G. Brent Dalrymple and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A synthesis of all that has been postulated and is known about the age of the Earth

Download or read book History of Heat Transfer written by John H. Lienhard and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Life of William Thomson Baron Kelvin of Largs written by Silvanus Phillips Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth written by Ralph C. Bowden and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Age of the Earth written by Geological Society of London and published by Geological Society of America. This book was released on 2001 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth written by Joe D. Burchfield and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burchfield charts the enormous impact made by Lord Kelvin's application of thermodynamic laws to the question of the earth's age and the heated debate his ideas sparked among British Victorian physicists, astronomers, geologists, and biologists. "Anyone interested in geologic time, and that should include all geologists and a fair smattering of biologists, physicists and chemists, should make Burchfield's commendable and time-tested volume part of their personal library"—Brent Darymple, Quartely Review of Biology

Download or read book The Dating Game written by Cherry Lewis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How old is the Earth? At the end of the 19th century, geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers were all looking for a clock that would provide an answer to this greatest time question of all. Here is the story of one man's vision in developing a geological time scale that would finally lead to an accurate date for the age of the Earth

Download or read book The Age of the Earth written by Joe D. Burchfield and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Degrees Kelvin written by David Lindley and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-02-10 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LORD KELVIN. In 1840, a precocious 16-year-old by the name of William Thomson spent his summer vacation studying an extraordinarily sophisticated mathematical controversy. His brilliant analysis inspired lavish praise and made the boy an instant intellectual celebrity. As a young scholar William dazzled a Victorian society enthralled with the seductive authority and powerful beauty of scientific discovery. At a time when no one really understood heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, Thomson found key connections between them, laying the groundwork for two of the cornerstones of 19th century science-the theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics. Charismatic, confident, and boyishly handsome, Thomson was not a scientist who labored quietly in a lab, plying his trade in monkish isolation. When scores of able tinkerers were flummoxed by their inability to adapt overland telegraphic cables to underwater, intercontinental use, Thomson took to the high seas with new equipment that was to change the face of modern communications. And as the world's navies were transitioning from wooden to iron ships, they looked to Thomson to devise a compass that would hold true even when surrounded by steel. Gaining fame and wealth through his inventive genius, Thomson was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria for his many achievements. He was the first scientist ever to be so honored. Indeed, his name survives in the designation of degrees Kelvin, the temperature scale that begins with absolute zero, the point at which atomic motion ceases and there is a complete absence of heat. Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was Great Britain's unrivaled scientific hero. But as the century drew to a close and Queen Victoria's reign ended, this legendary scientific mind began to weaken. He grudgingly gave way to others with a keener, more modern vision. But the great physicist did not go quietly. With a ready pulpit at his disposal, he publicly proclaimed his doubts over the existence of atoms. He refused to believe that radioactivity involved the transmutation of elements. And believing that the origin of life was a matter beyond the expertise of science and better left to theologians, he vehemently opposed the doctrines of evolution, repeatedly railing against Charles Darwin. Sadly, this pioneer of modern science spent his waning years arguing that the Earth and the Sun could not be more than 100 million years old. And although his early mathematical prowess had transformed our understanding of the forces of nature, he would never truly accept the revolutionary changes he had helped bring about, and it was others who took his ideas to their logical conclusion. In the end Thomson came to stand for all that was old and complacent in the world of 19th century science. Once a scientific force to be reckoned with, a leader to whom others eagerly looked for answers, his peers in the end left him behind-and then meted out the ultimate punishment for not being able to keep step with them. For while they were content to bury him in Westminster Abbey alongside Isaac Newton, they used his death as an opportunity to write him out of the scientific record, effectively denying him his place in history. Kelvin's name soon faded from the headlines, his seminal ideas forgotten, his crucial contributions overshadowed. Destined to become the definitive biography of one of the most important figures in modern science, Degrees Kelvin unravels the mystery of a life composed of equal parts triumph and tragedy, hubris and humility, yielding a surprising and compelling portrait of a complex and enigmatic man.

Download or read book The Mountain Mystery written by Ron Miksha and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.