Cosmic Numbers by Stein, James D. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

ALSO BY JAMES D. STEIN Title Page Dedication Preface CHAPTER 1 - THE GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT

The Development of the Theory of Gravitation A Question of Velocity Big G and Little g The Cavendish Experiment Why We Need to Know G As Accurately As Possible

CHAPTER 2 - THE SPEED OF LIGHT

The Moons of Jupiter It’s All Done with Mirrors Albert Michelson—The Man Who Measured Light The Michelson-Morley Experiment Faster Than a Speeding Photon

CHAPTER 3 - THE IDEAL GAS CONSTANT

John Dalton The French Balloonists Putting It All Together Statistical Mechanics and the Ideal Gas Law

CHAPTER 4 - ABSOLUTE ZERO

The Nature of Cold The Development of Thermometry and the Experiments of Guillaume Amontons Michael Faraday and the Liquefaction of Gases Bose-Einstein Condensates and the Realm of the Ultimate Cold A Final Twist: Negative Temperature Stranger Than We Can Imagine?

CHAPTER 5 - AVOGADRO’S NUMBER

Better Things for Better Living The Structure of Chemical Compounds Amedeo Avogadro and Stanislao Cannizzaro Dmitri Mendeleyev and the Periodic Table of the Elements Avogadro’s Number How Large Is

CHAPTER 6 - ELECTRICITY AND THE PROPORTIONALITY CONSTANT

Electricity and Magnetism—The Early Years William Gilbert Charge Accounts Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Why Are Electricity and Gravity So Different? Hans Oersted, Michael Faraday, and Electromagnetic Induction The Relative Strength of Electricity and Gravity

CHAPTER 7 - THE BOLTZMANN CONSTANT

The Phlogiston and Caloric Theories of Heat Forces, Work, and Energy The First Law of Thermodynamics The Second Law of Thermodynamics Ludwig Boltzmann Statistical Mechanics Boltzmann’s Constant

CHAPTER 8 - THE PLANCK CONSTANT

Heat and Light The Rayleigh-Jeans Law and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe Enter the Quantum What Is This Thing Called h? The Triumph of the Quantum Theory

CHAPTER 9 - THE SCHWARZSCHILD RADIUS

Carl Sagan and Stellar Taxonomy The Temperature-Luminosity Diagram The Great Technetium Mysteries The Worst Experimentalist in History Cosmic Gall Karl Schwarzschild One Hell of a Party

CHAPTER 10 - THE EFFICIENCY OF HYDROGEN FUSION

Solar Power The Green Twig Fracture Wilhelm Roentgen The Discovery of Radioactivity The Discovery of the Electron . How the Sun Keeps on Shining Thunderball

CHAPTER 11 - THE CHANDRASEKHAR LIMIT

Balancing Act Nucleosynthesis Why Does the Sun Go On Shining? Chandra

CHAPTER 12 - THE HUBBLE CONSTANT

The Period-Luminosity Relationship The Realm of the Nebulae The Doppler Effect Time Out: The Special Theory of Relativity The Special Theory of Relativity and the Doppler Effect The Expanding Universe The Size of the Visible Universe

CHAPTER 13 - OMEGA

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity The Possible Universes The Greatest Debate The Big Bang Continuous Creation And the Winner Is . . . Friedmann’s Solution, the Critical Density, and Omega Dark Matter, Radiation, and the Cosmological Constant A Compelling Argument That Ω = 1 Is Omega the Whole Story? My Favorite Universe

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