The Force of Symmetry

by Vincent Icke

Book Overview

The Force of Symmetry gives an elementary introduction to the spectacular interplay among the three great themes of contemporary physics: quantum behavior, relativity, and symmetry. In clear, nontechnical language, it explores many fascinating aspects of modern physics, discussing the nature and interaction of force and matter. All these themes are drawn together toward the end of the book to describe the most successful physics theory in history,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052145591X
• ISBN13: 9780521455916
• Release Date: February 1995
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Modern physics as natural philosophy

As I write these words, I stop frequently to consider how they might best be arranged, an activity no different in principle from picking my way along a trail when hiking over tricky terrain. For human beings, walking and language production (at least spoken language) are natural, their potential part of our DNA, their actualization emblematic of a basic level of developmental health and social well being. Mathematics too has been called a language, and indeed certain features of this language (e.g. the ability of neonates to recognize small numbers of things) are innate. But none of us go on in the normal course of development to become fluent in mathematics without a great deal of difficult, sustained effort. It has become axiomatic among people who write popular books on scientific subjects to suppose that physics cannot really be presented without mathematics. And if that axiom is true for classical physics, it is even more true for modern physics, the surreal world of quantum interference, antimatter, black holes and M theory. But now along comes Dutch physicist Vincent Icke, and in his book THE FORCE OF SYMMETRY he has, one might say, renormalized popular accounts of modern physics. He has been able to state the concepts of modern physics in a way which is lucid, coherent and, in all but the very simplest instances, nonmathematical. The novice physicist will not have to unlearn any of the concepts he acquires in Ickes' book after he goes on to master the mathematical intricacies of quantum field theory. The advanced student can use Ickes' text to obtain a detailed topography of the field. There is much to delight in this charming book. The five years I spent studying theoretical physics was a time of painful head banging on questions like, "How do you know this?" Few writers have the grace of Feynman, the ability to say about some arcane point, this is as much we know about it, no deeper than this. Icke, like Feynman, is very careful to signpost his epistemological wanderings. He lets the reader know when it is analogy, intuition, logic, experiment, convention, or metaphysics which is progenitor of some bit of physics knowledge. Because of his careful attention to the grounding of his discourse, Icke does not fall into the deep pit which is, alas, standard in most popular science writing. You know what I mean. There you are, happy reader, blithely meandering along in someone's account of protein synthesis, the inflationary period, mathematical intractability... the subject doesn't matter. You are reading along, and you are beginning to feel the first faint blush of hope. Maybe you will understand it this time! And then you turn the page. And then the trail disappears. No matter how many times you go back and forth over the ground, there is now a chasm in your understanding as big as the Central Rift Valley. I first had this experience years ago reading Bertrand Russell's account of special relativity. All was well, and suddenly, darkn

A fine introduction

First, I feel I must refer back to F.A. Muller's review (also on this page, titled "Erros Abound").Vincent Icke, the writer of "the force of Symmetry", *did* actually study theoretical physics (on the same university that Mr. Muller now resides) so I'm a little surprised to find that he "shouldn't really understand fundamental physics".Actually, Mr. Icke studied under Tini Veltman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics recently (together with Gerard 't Hooft) and is now professor of astrophysics (Leiden university) and cosmology (Amsterdam university). I think "the Force of Symmetry" is an excellent primer on the subject of quantum behavior, relativity and symmetry. Besides (in my humble opinion) understanding, it's written with dry humour and love for the subject, and that's highly catching.It urged me to want to know more on the subject(s), which is exactly what I'm going to do. So beware - it might catch on you too ;-)

Excellent on many different levels

This book deserves a much wider readership. I think a layperson can not only grok most of the modern physics content in Icke but also see the motivation for why modern physics is formulated the way it is. The post-doc in physics should be equally pleased with the book--as far as I can tell Icke stays quite close to the truth and quite creative with language.

The Force of an awsome subject and GREAT writing!

This is such a great book that I've taken the time to prepare an annotated table of contents for this review: CONTENTS (very thorough - shows where all the sub-sections are) PREFACE (Begins with examples of "Quantum Mechanics in action". Here is a quote which I hope illuminates the author's sensitivity towards your desire come away from reading this with a sense of it's friendliness: "Physics is not difficult; it's just weird. Physics, contrary to the opinion of many journalists and parents of scientists, is not particularly hard to explain or to learn. To learn how to use relativity, you do not have to be Einstein; nor do you have to be Heisenberg to do Quantum Mechanics. Physics is weird because your intuition is false. To understand what an electron's world is like, you've got to be an electron, or jolly nearly." Here are a few more points Icke makes before setting out on this wonderful journey of discovery: "Physics is powerful.", "Physics is beautiful.", "Physics is simplification, and so is explanation... This is the real stuff, even though there is a two-semester lecture series of heavy technical material behind every chapter. In fact, it is my intention that you could read this book right alongside a textbook on gauge theory." I believe that, before you've finished this book, you will have happily come to the conclusion that this author has delivered a well-prepared & friendly presentation of his points in the above thesis. INTRODUCTION 1. A MATTER OF FORCE (The speed of light, Relativity and fields, vector, scalar & tensor fields, Feynman diagrams, Fermions & Bosons) 2. STALKING THE WILD RAINBOW 3. LIGHT (Waves of light, Huygen's principle, Interference, Standing waves, Photons, The equation of motion, momentum - kinetic & potential energies and their conservation, and finally `action'.) 4. MAYBE I'M HEISENBERG (De Broglie length, Planck's constant, amplitudes, waves and Uncertainty relations, complementary, conjugate variables/operators, Quanta, dispersion and probability.) 5. CATCH A FALLING QUANTUM (Indeterminacy, linear superposition, interference terms, and "Where does the electron go?") 6. QUANTUM BEANBAGS (One of my favorite chapters. The first part, 6.1 "A muddy wheel", gives a clever analogy which helps you comprehend the concepts of complex numbers & probability amplitudes. The next section, 6.2 "The importance of having phase" looks just like Feynman's "QED - the Strange Theory of Light and Matter" with the same types of illustrations. The very next section is titled "Feynman Paths" and brilliantly elucidates 'Action' and `field density'; the last section, 6.4 "Superposition and quantum sorcery", brings to light principles of second quantization, state vectors, eigenstates & eigenvalues. The chapter finishes with a nice metaphor for Rotation and hints of Dirac's `ket' & `bra' notation.) 7. SYMMETRIES (quantum numbers, Rydberg equation, Groups and rotations, rotation & translation groups, Invariance an

Mathematical Coverage of 20th Century Discovery of Spin

If you can handle the mathemetics, this book is quite moving on the research leading to the discovery of the elusive 20th century phenomena of spin. Though originally, written in Japanese by Tsiri, its translation is actually very good. The coverage of the competitive struggle to capture the elusive "spin-particle" of theoretical physics features Dirac and Pauli as well as other notable personalities. If you truly enjoy 20th century physics and its personalities and only fear the misunderstanding of mathematics get this book.