Physics discussion

Hello :).

Seems strange to me that there are 191 of us and no discussions. I realize everyone's likely celebrating the holidays, but I joined awhile ago.

I don't know much about physics, but want to learn, and that's why I am here. Always interesting to learn about the world around me.

Theresa

I know it looks silly, but the "Manga Guide" books on science are pretty good. Here's on on physics: http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Phy...

I am also enjoying the book "Death From The Skies", which is a fun, but accurate take on astrophysics: http://www.amazon.com/Death-Skies-Sci...

Sorry. I have been remiss in visiting/participating in this group since joining way back when. However, that being said, I've recently been perusing on a favorite subject of mine... Physics/Cosmology, so I should like to post a little bit about a very interesting book I read recently. It's called The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe by Dr. Julian B. Barbour.

In this book, Dr. Barbour discusses Relativity from the Machian perspective and also his own theory about the existence (non-existence) of Time/Motion in the Universe. I found it quite interesting.

I've also corresponded with the author and he assures me that a new book on this topic is forthcoming with added information and some adjustments to his theory.

Give it a go, if you get the chance. Oh, and a decent knowledge of Geometry, Relativity, and a bit of Quantum Physics will help you to understand his explanations with a bit more ease.

Regards,

~Eric L.

Hi, Ryan...

I actually have Smolin's book on order. I had not heard of Carroll's book, though. I will take a looksee. Thanks.

Oh, and read Barbour's book. It is definitely thought provoking.

I have a few books in line ahead of Smolin's, but I'll get to it. ;)

Dr. Barbour is a friend of Lee Smolin and refers to him often in his book.

Hello? What can we discuss?... It seems to me discussing books is a very good idea. I am absolutely in love with the following books:
“Div Grad Curl and all that” by H.M. Schey
“Introduction to Electrodynamics” by D.J. Griffiths
And
“Classical Mechanics” by J.R. Taylor.
All these books have a similar spirit: easily read and understood. Does anyone know a book on Quantum Mechanics with a similar spirit? How about Thermodynamics?

Likely because typically, one simply does physics rather than discussing it. Nonetheless, you can discuss it. Here's a physics topic that has interested me lately: Hawking radiation. There is a common description of the mechanism by which black holes emit Hawking radiation: the idea is that you have a virtual particle-antiparticle pair created near the event horizon. One particle falls into the black hole while the other escapes to infinity. Is this picture accurate? Have there been any attempts to verify the existence Hawking radiation experimentally?