Jennifer Coopersmith – författare

Energy is at the heart of physics and of huge importance to society and yet no book exists specifically to explain it, and in simple terms. In tracking the history of energy, this book is filled with the thrill of the chase, the mystery of smoke and mirrors, and presents a fascinating human-interest story. Moreover, following the history provides a crucial aid to understanding: this book explains the intellectual revolutions required to comprehend energy, revolutions as profound as those stemming from Relativity and Quantum Theory. Texts by Descartes, Leibniz, Bernoulli, d'Alembert, Lagrange, Hamilton, Boltzmann, Clausius, Carnot and others are made accessible, and the engines of Watt and Joule are explained.Many fascinating questions are covered, including:- Why just kinetic and potential energies - is one more fundamental than the other?- What are heat, temperature and action?- What is the Hamiltonian?- What have engines to do with physics?- Why did the steam-engine evolve only in England?- Why S=klogW works and why temperature is IT.Using only a minimum of mathematics, this book explains the emergence of the modern concept of energy, in all its forms: Hamilton's mechanics and how it shaped twentieth-century physics, and the meaning of kinetic energy, potential energy, temperature, action, and entropy. It is as much an explanation of fundamental physics as a history of the fascinating discoveries that lie behind our knowledge today.

This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what `the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

Energy is at the heart of physics (and of huge importance to society) and yet no book exists specifically to explain it, and in simple terms. In tracking the history of energy, this book is filled with the thrill of the chase, the mystery of smoke and mirrors, and presents a fascinating human-interest story. Moreover, following the history provides a crucial aid to understanding: this book explains the intellectual revolutions required to comprehend energy, revolutions as profound as those stemming from Relativity and Quantum Theory. Texts by Descartes, Leibniz, Bernoulli, d'Alembert, Lagrange, Hamilton, Boltzmann, Clausius, Carnot and others are made accessible, and the engines of Watt and Joule are explained.Many fascinating questions are covered, including:- Why just kinetic and potential energies - is one more fundamental than the other?- What are heat, temperature and action?- What is the Hamiltonian?- What have engines to do with physics?- Why did the steam-engine evolve only in England?- Why S=klogW works and why temperature is IT.Using only a minimum of mathematics, this book explains the emergence of the modern concept of energy, in all its forms: Hamilton's mechanics and how it shaped twentieth-century physics, and the meaning of kinetic energy, potential energy, temperature, action, and entropy. It is as much an explanation of fundamental physics as a history of the fascinating discoveries that lie behind our knowledge today.

This book offers insights relevant to modern history and epistemology of physics,mathematics and, indeed, to all the sciences and engineering disciplines emergingof 19th century. This research volume is the first of a set of three Springer books onLazare Nicolas Marguérite Carnot’s (1753–1823) remarkable work: Essay on Machines inGeneral (Essai sur les machines en général [1783] 1786). The other two forthcomingvolumes are: Principes fondamentaux de l’équilibre et du mouvement (1803) andGéométrie de position (1803).Lazare Carnot – l'organisateur de la victoire – in Essai sur le machine en général (1786)assumed that the generalization of machines was a necessity for society and its economicdevelopment. Subsequently, his new coming science applied to machines attractedconsiderable interest for technician, as well, already in the 1780’s. With no lack inrigour, Carnot used geometric and trigonometric rather than algebraic arguments, andusually went on to explain in words what the formulae contained. His main physical–mathematical concepts were the Geometric motion and Moment of activity–concept ofWork . In particular, he found the invariants of the transmission of motion (by statingthe principle of the moment of the quantity of motion) and theorized the condition ofthe maximum efficiency of mechanical machines (i.e., principle of continuity in thetransmission of power).While the core theme remains the theories and historical studies of the text, the bookcontains an extensive Introduction and an accurate critical English Translation –including the parallel text edition and substantive critical/explicative notes – of Essaisur les machines en général (1786). The authors offer much-needed insight into therelation between mechanics, mathematics and engineering from a conceptual, empiricaland methodological, and universalis point of view. As a cutting–edge writing byleading authorities on the history of physics and mathematics, and epistemologicalaspects, it appeals to historians, epistemologist–philosophers and scientists (physicists, mathematicians and applied sciences and technology).