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Right at the beginning of Six Easy Pieces we learn how all physics is rooted in the notion of law—the existence of an ordered universe that can be understood by the application of rational reasoning. However, the laws of physics are not transparent to us in our direct observations of nature.
Robert B. Leighton • Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
David Deutsch • The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
This is the process by which modern weather forecasts are made. These small changes, introduced intentionally in order to represent the inherent uncertainty in the quality of the observational data, turn the deterministic forecast into a probabilistic one. For instance, if your local weatherman tells you that there’s a 40 percent chance of rain tom
... See moreNate Silver • The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't
Faraday’s experiments, simple and elegant, were carefully recorded in lab books that he bound himself, remembering the profession he had so happily left. In modern language, we would say he was a great chemist and a great physicist; Faraday described himself as a natural philosopher. With an uncanny gift for recognizing the salient points of an exp
... See moreGino Segre • A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals about the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and U niverse
The physicist Richard Feynman once said, “Learn by trying to understand simple things in terms of other ideas—always honestly and directly.”