Five Equations That Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics by Michael Guillen

Five Equations That Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics Reviews

• 
  plainzt

  Evrensel Kütleçekimi Yasası, Hidrodinamik Basınç Yasası, Elektromanyetik Indükleme Yasası, Termodinamiğin İkinci Yasası ve Özel Görelilik Teorisi olmak üzere bilim tarihinde ve hayatımızda büyük bir öneme sahip bu beş denklemin ortaya çıkış öyküsü, matematiksel formüllerinin anlamları, denklemleri bulan kişilerin kısa hayat öyküleri ve tarihi arka plan anlatılıyor bu kitapta.
  
  Harvard Üniversitesinde fizik ve matematik dersleri vermiş bir biliminsanı olan yazarın kalemi çok kuvvetli gerçekten. Matematik denklemlerinin bu kadar açık ve anlaşılır anlatıldığını başka bir yerde görmedim. Fizik ve kimya derslerinden ölesiye nefret etmiş ve matematik ile arası limoni olan ben bile anladıysam herkes anlar, öyle diyeyim.
  
  Kitapla ilgili sevmediğim iki husus var. Birincisi; yazar sürekli anlatıya dinsel göndermeler sıkıştırmış. Bilimsel gelişmelerle Tanrı inancının yakından ilgili olduğunun farkındayım ama hafif din propagandası tadı verdi bazı ifadeler. Bu konu bence felsefe kapsamında ele alınmalı. Hoşuma gitmeyen ikinci kısım ise; Einstein'ın çalışmalarıyla ilgili olarak ilk eşi Mileva Maric'in katkıları ve etkisi konusunun geçiştirilmiş olması.
  
  Her şeye rağmen hayatımda okuduğum en iyi bilim kitaplarından biriydi diyebilirim. Yazarın diğer eserlerini de incelemek istiyorum.
• 
  Nərmin

  "Five equations that changed the world" consists of the stories of five scientists and how they came to discover the equations respectively :
  Isaac Newton- The universal law of gravity
  Daniel Bernoulli- The law of Hydrodynamic Pressure
  Michael Faraday- The law of electromagnetic induction
  Rudolf Clausius - The second law of Thermodynamics
  Albert Einstein- The theory of special relativity
  
  The storytelling style was interesting: each story consists of five parts: introduction, VENI ( how the scientist became curious ), VIDI ( what was the problem) , VICI ( how the scientist solved the problem) and epilogue ( how the equation affected the world).
  
  The most interesting thing was the fact that we could see how the great scientists came to existence, how they were some people like us, but with their great curiosity, they invented the most important equations and laws.
  
  The writing style was smooth and poetry-like. But sometimes it also dragged and became boring. But overall, this book is solid non-fiction book that everyone could enjoy. 4 ☆
  
• 
  paper0r0ss0

  Cinque equazioni per cinque svolte (le principali secondo l'autore) del corso della ricerca scientifica. Gran parte del libro e' incentrato sul contesto sociale e storico che ha portato alla formulazione delle suddette formule e alla personalita' degli scienziati. L'ambito piu' prettamente fisico-matematico e' ridotto all'osso, brevi spiegazioni e poche formulazioni. Ne risente il tasso complessivo di fruibilita' degli argomenti di per se' piuttosto ardui. Nota positiva invece per l'esposizione dell'aspetto umano di ricerche che hanno spesso corrisposto a vite intere di sacrifici e privazioni inaspettate.
• 
  Tifnie

  This book took a little while to get into. By that I mean, I had to completely change gears in reading style, topic, and expectations while reading this book. I will admit, however, that I didn't think I would enjoy this book. I was wrong.
  
  Five Equations...is about 5 mathematical scientists; Isaac Newton, Daniel Bernoulli, Michael Faraday, Rudolf Clausius, and Albert Einstein (law of gravity, hydrodynamic pressure, electromagnetic induction, thermodynamics, and theory of relatively - respectively) who basically change the world, as the title suggests. However, instead of the "dry" text that I was expecting, this book talked about each life, their trial and tribulations, and how each man came to not only mathematics but how each discovered their equations.
  
  One of things I enjoyed about this book is that each man was very relatable in the beginning. Not all genius came from means, some were illiterate with less than desirable futures who rose above their station and made a difference.
  
  I also liked the fact that I was reminded about how things began. For example, with todays technology it's easy to forget that at one point, scientist or doctors didn't know how the body worked, or how water flowed, our universe, heat, light, etc... That at one point it all began with curiousity, an experiment, failures, discoveries, and then hopefully success.
  
  
• 
  Ahmet Kaya

  Muazzam bir kitap. Etkileri itibarıyla dünyayı değiştiren beş denklem ve bunları üreten beş bilim insanı (Newton, Bernoulli, Faraday, Clausius, Einstein) titizlikle seçilmiş. Dahası, kitabın ismi ve çerçevesinin belirttiğinin aksine, kitap yalnızca bu beş bilim insanına odaklanmamış, bir çeşit doğa bilimleri tarihini de içeriyor. Yazar her bir bilim insanını anlatırken önce konuyla ilgili o zamana kadarki bilimsel birikimi, daha sonra ilgili bilim insanının katkısını ve son olarak da bu katkının üzerine konulan bilgi ve teknik gelişmeleri aktararak ilgili denklemin/buluşun insanlığa olan katkısını etraflıca anlatıyor. Dolayısıyla esasında Aristo'dan Galileo'ya, Euler'den Oppenheimer'a, Maxwell'den Plank'e kadar birçok bilim insanının çalışmalarından ve insanlığa olan katkılarını öğrenebiliyorsunuz.
  
  Diğer taraftan, yazar bunu yaparken teknik çerçevenin ötesine geçip, denklemleri/katkıları meslekten olmayan okurların da anlayacağı biçimde ifade ediyor. Tamamen farklı bir alanda eğitim gören ve çalışan bir insan olarak ben bile kütle çekim, hidrodinamik, elektromanyetik ve termodinamik kanunlarına iyi kötü aşina olabildim ve enerjinin korunumu yasası veya özel görelilik üzerine üç beş kelam edebilir hale geldiğimi düşünüyorum. Kitabı bilime ve bilim tarihine meraklı herkese tavsiye ediyorum, özellikle de lise/üniversite düzeyinde doğa bilimlerine ilgi duyan genç beyinlere.
• 
  Vicky N.

  A non-fiction account of 5 of the most famous equations which helped humanity to reach the moon, fly and o control electricity.
  
  I was given this book and I was torn between reading it, I have never read something like this and it was surprisingly easy to keep up with. An although non fiction there were parts which I found hard to believe them to be so, the familiarity with each scientists are impossible, but it brings sympathy toward them.
  
  Overall, the book is an easy start toward science and math and the life of each of the scientists, who could have known Newton, Einstein and the others had fears like us? That they were too human beings and they felt lonely or sad?
  
  I recommend it to anyone who struggles/hates math or science so they get a piece of hte story behind.
• 
  Nadine in NY Jones

  Mostly I just want to know what the five equations are, so I got this from the library. First of all, the cover on my library copy is NOT the cool looking cover that Goodreads features! This looks like a comedy book, with the odd smile on this guy's face!! First thing that popped into my head: Bob Ross. Second thing: Richard Simmons. Third? Will Ferrell. That's what this guy looks like.
  
  
  
  Also, the equations are right there on the cover! I didn't need to get this book to learn what the five equations are! I guess he was (or is?) on Good Morning America. I wouldn't know, I don't watch much TV. He doesn't get off to a good start with me in this book, because the first thing he references is The Bible. [eyeroll]. This is the first sentence of the book:
  

  Mathematics is a language whose importance I can best explain by starting with a familiar story from the Bible.

  
  I mean, seriously? Some people have to drag religion into everything, even math. (The story he tells is the one about the Tower of Babel. yadda yadda yadda math is a successful global language blah blah blah.)
  
  Equation #1
  Newton's law of universal gravitation. No, no, not F=ma, the other one. F=G*(m1*m2/r^2). Although he writes it weird in the book, he writes: F=G*M*m/d^2. "d"??? WTF is with this "d"?? In what world is "d" used to stand for RADIUS???? See, now right here, his language is not my language. What happened to the successful global language??? Only a yahoo would write "d" when they mean "r." (I read enough to figure out that he is thinking "distance," so, d for distance.) Also, I'd like to note that Guillen makes sure to talk about God in his chapter on Newton, too. ALSO also, I'd like to note that Guillen goes on (and on and on) about Isaac Newton's father and "King William I" in 1642 - he repeats "William" quite a few times, and each time a helpful previous reader crossed it out and wrote "Charles" in my copy. I looked it up. King William I became King of England in 1066. So this is a pretty big mistake in this book; hopefully it was corrected in later editions. By the end of the chapter, Guillen is still talking about God and the Creator and holy cow!
  
  So far, I'm not really impressed, book! What else have you got?
  
  Equation #2
  Bernoulli's Law and the Bernoulli equation!! P + (rho)*V^2 = constant. (He leaves out the "+rho-g-h" part of this equation. I don't know why.) I'm an engineer and I actually use this equation A LOT. I read on with excitement! Sadly, Guillen starts hammering home the message about God's plan and I kind of can't believe how many times he is managing to bring up God and Bible stories in this book about equations. There's some background information about Bernoulli's family, a shout-out to Archimedes, among others.
  
  Equation #3
  Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction: emf = -N*d(phi)/dt (This involves vectors & vector notation, but I can't write fancy mathematical stuff like that here on Goodreads, so use your imagination. Also, he writes it completely different in the book than what I'm used to, but I can't reproduce those symbols. He writes: (NABLA*)xE=-dB/dt.) This is the equation that tells you how to turn a nail and a wire into a magnet, as well as other, more useful, things. I don't "do" electrical stuff, so that's all I really know about it. I don't think Guillen mentions the nail. Maxwell gets a shout-out, as is proper, because this is actually one of his equations. Yes, God and Jesus Christ are mentioned in this chapter. Proverbs are quoted. I can't even.
  
  Equation #4
  The Second Law of Thermodynamics! delta s > 0 (the entropy of the universe is always increasing) In plain English, this means that nothing will ever be perfectly efficient, there are always losses, and that's why incandescent bulbs got so hot, and why window air conditioners would actually heat up your room if they didn't vent outside, and that sort of thing. That's me talking, that's not from this book. Apparently Rudolf Clausius came up with this law, and I had to take several Thermodynamics classes in my time but I don't recognize that name, so that's a nice tidbit of info for me that I'd forgotten along the way. Yes, the Creator is mentioned in this chapter multiple times. You knew He would be. The text practically gasps when it acknowledges that there were secular geologists. (The nerve!) There are also shout-outs to Aristotle, Carnot, Galileo, Fahrenheit, and Lavoisier, among others.
  
  Equation #5
  The equation in the header is "E=mc^2" but the chapter title is "Einstein and the Theory of Special Relativity." Those two things are definitely linked, but they are not synonymous. No wonder why people get confused about science! Yes, OF COURSE God is mentioned in this chapter. Duh. I don't know if he explains the E=mc^2 part well, or not, I couldn't stand to make a close reading of it.
  
  If you read this book, you'll think women were just busy having babies and men were the scientists.
  
  I'm not certain that Guillen really makes a good case for THESE five equations being the things that changed the world. Why these equations but not others? Does no one care about F=ma? a^2 + b^2 = c^2? the area of a circle=pi*r^2? sqrt(-1)=i? the wave equation? (which I was actually so sure would be one of these five) Navier-Stokes? (which is JUST as useful as Bernoulli when dealing with fluid flow). All of Maxwell's other equations? Statistics, geometry, basic physics, economics ... ?? Guillen states: "I selected five equations from among dozens of serious contenders, solely for the degree to which they ultimately changed our world." Okay.
  
  In sum, if you don't know much about science and you want a chatty type of book to learn a little bit of history and science and history of science, and you enjoy books that never forget to mention God and each scientist's relationship to his Creator, this is a good book for you.
  
  If you want a more secular chatty book about science, I highly recommend Bryson's
  A Short History of Nearly Everything. It doesn't go into as much depth, but it also covers A LOT more. And it's funny. For a history of science that reminds you of how much the Christian church IMPEDED scientific discovery, read Sagan's
  Cosmos.
  
  * Yes, NABLA. (No M.) That's what the upside-down-capital-delta is called. I looked it up. It's vector notation.
• 
  Erdi Özyıldırım

  5 büyük denklemin ve bu denklemlerin geliştiricilerinin yaşadıkları dönemi, öncelikle dönemin özelliklerini anlatan intro sonrasında veni,vidi,vici olarak ayrılmış bölümlerde karakterlerimizin hayatıyla, çevresiyle ilişkileriyle birlikte bu denklemi ortaya çıkartmak için kurmuş oldukları bağlantılarını gözlemliyor ve karakterimizle birlikte bu denklemlerin ortaya çıkış yolculuklarına göz atıyoruz. Sonsöz olarak son halini almış olan bu denklemin günümüzde hangi alanlarda kullanıldıklarına ve bu alanlara nasıl şekil verdiğine, etkisine ve önemine dikkat çekiyor.
• 
  Jim Townsend

  Excellent book about the five different scientists, the best-known of whom are Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, and their equations that shaped the world we live in. Some mathematics but clearly explained.
• 
  Lê Khánh

  Đọc sách mới thấy ngoài vĩ đại ra thì mấy ông nhà khoa học thường ích kỷ không thể tả nổi.
  Chỉ trừ có Faraday là đúng kiểu vĩ đại của vĩ đại, từ tính cách đến trình độ.
• 
  Bob Nichols

  Guillen provides lay-friendly descriptions of five mathematical formulas that describe nature: Newton’s law of gravity, Bernoulli’s law of hydrodynamic pressure, Faraday’s law of electromagnetism, Clausius’s second law of thermodynamics, and Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
  
  The discussion of Clausius’s theory of heat and energy was especially good. Heat moves things (”does work”). Heat is the cosmic motive force (he wrote a paper, titled “On the Motive Power of Heat”). Heat and its work effects are “two variations of a single phenomenon that came to be called energy: “heat and work were fundamentally the same thing, in that a unit of heat could be exchanged for a unit of work, without affecting the total energy of the universe.” This led to the law of energy conservation where energy moves from one form to another but the net change is always zero and the “total energy of the universe is an eternal constant.”
  
  Under Clausius’s law of entropy, heat moves from hot to cold. Everything in the universe in time loses heat (balances out) and this leads to the end of cosmic motion: “the universe would shut down forever when all its natural changes had ceased to exist—that is, when all its naturally irreversible phenomena had spent themselves completely.” In short, Guillen writes of Clausius, his theory “portrayed a universe where mortal violence inevitably gave way to eternal quiescence.” After reading this, the number zero and the idea of cosmic balance seem central. It also prompts the question that lingers even today: whether cosmic movement now is cosmic movement forever.
  
  Guillen helps out on Einstein. "Because of the spatial and temporal relativity in Einstein's universe, science no longer would need to distinguish between A moving with respect to B and B moving with respect to A; now only relative speeds mattered." I understand this to mean, simply, that there is no absolute, fixed point and everything in the cosmos is moving. Guillen also clearly states the special nature of light in the cosmos: "In short, Einstein concluded, electromagnetic-cum-light waves were unique in the whole of the universe because they alone represented waves of pure, massless energy!”
  
  The author states that Plato is the father of astronomical science because he urged that people cast aside their preoccupations with divine gods and devote their attention to the scientific knowledge of heavenly bodies – the moon, sun, stars and planets. But for Plato this is another version of the divine as Guillen quotes Plato's reference (without citation) to "new gods” and comprehension of “godly behavior.” In referring to Plato this way, Guillen is stating that the presumed perfection of heavens reflects God’s creation (God as a causal factor) and that mathematics describes that perfection mathematically. A contrasting view is that the cosmic world operates in a certain way that can be described mathematically. In this view, divinity is not necessary and Plato’s philosophy can no longer be described as a science.*
  
  * The author states that a separation between science-mathematics and religion came after Newton.
  
• 
  Gail W H

  I found this book fascinating. I am not a scientist. I am not even close to being a scientist. Did I understand all the more technical aspects? No. But the method the author used to break each of the equations down into stories made the entire book very readable for me.
• 
  Michael Foley

  Guillen's book is a fascinating overview of the five minds and mathematical equations that have changed the world. Each chapter is dedicated to a scientist and his equation, such as Newton's Universal Law Of Gravity or Clausius' Second Law of Thermodynamics. Guillen uses a Veni, Vidi, Vici approach to explain how the scientist arrived at his subject, how the subject area became enigmatic, and how the scientist overcame the problem.
  
  This work is not bogged down in complex equations and it is not written for the advanced physics student. Instead, it is a popular guide to monumental moments in mathematical history. (That's a lot of M's.) Guillen paints a human picture of his subjects and the world in which they lived. We see them overcome issues not just with mathematical mysteries, but with faith, family, politics, and themselves. When equations are provided, the author is sure to explain them in detail so that the layman can understand the language of the mathematics. Importantly, Guillen leaves the reader with a deeper understanding of his subjects and how these revolutionary paradigm shifts have molded our modern world.
• 
  Daniel Pérez

  Este libro fue mas un proyecto escolar que personal pero me gusto, a pesar de que es un libro que su titulo dice ciencia a mas no poder, no es lo que esperamos no son números ni gráficas ni palabras que nos confundan, dentro de sus paginas podemos encontrar anécdotas incluso de los mismos personajes que nos sirven de contexto para lo que cada uno de sus capítulos o secciones de estos grandes científicos, formularan estas ecuaciones que como dice el titulo del libro cambiaron al mundo literalmente, desde las bases del conocimiento de los fluidos, la gravedad que permitió al hombre llegar a la luna hasta la teoría de la relatividad de Einstein, y mucho de lo que involucraron la vida de estos personajes. Espero no echar a perder esta redacción pero me gusto el libro ademas no es pesado y me pareció muy interesante.
• 
  Angela

  Fascinating, very readable, and intelligent!
  
  11/3/2010-Just finished this book again. A few of my thoughts this go-around...
  
  1. I am so unsmart. :) What am I doing with my brain cells? :)
  
  2. These men gave up a lot personally to make their scientific contributions.
  
  3. For the five men profiled here, how many more brilliant scientists just weren't lucky enough to get quite the right experiment? Or weren't lucky enough to get noticed by the scientific establishment? Or who didn't have the right connections to have the right equipment?
  
  4. After reading some other reviews of this book, I grant that Guillen did assign various characteristics to the scientists, but it's completely worth it to read a readable book on how all this complication/simplicity fits together.
• 
  Jamie Smith

  People who like History of Science books would enjoy this one. It describes not just the equations themselves, but the lives and personalities of their discoverers, and the times in which they lived. Few breakthroughs just pop into existence from nowhere, otherwise calculus might have been invented by the ancient Babylonians. Instead, the ground has to be carefully prepared. There has to be enough progress to make people start examining their existing paradigms, looking for something that addresses the gaps they are encountering. Thomas S. Kuhn’s seminal 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions explained this, and changed the way people think about scientific progress, how one school of thought replaces another. In fact, the phrase “paradigm shift” was coined in Kuhn’s book.
  
  The five equations are:
  Newton’s Laws of Gravity
  Daniel Bernoulli’s Law of Hydrodynamic Pressure
  Faraday’s Law of Electromagnetic Induction
  Clausius’ Second Law of Thermodynamics
  Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity
  
  Why did the author choose these five? There are, after all, many others that could provide equally insightful looks into the nature of scientific progress. I rather suppose the personalities involved played a part. The lives of Faraday and Clausius are inspiring stories of dedication and self-improvement, while Bernoulli and Newton were brilliant men whose lives were touched with just enough madness to make their personalities interesting. Newton was an alchemist who wrote more about religion than math or physics, and is thought to have deliberately re-written parts of the Principia Mathematica to make the Latin even more obscure and difficult to understand than it was originally. Also, as Steven Weinberg discusses in To Explain the World, it took decades before someone extracted the three laws from Newton’s cumbersome prose and put them into the pithy mathematical forms we are familiar with today.
  
  As for Bernoulli, he was part of a multi-generational dysfunctional family that would make a good soap opera. Fathers, sons, and brothers were all brilliant men who made significant contributions to science, and they hated each other. They were so jealous of one another's success that they would stoop to any level of backstabbing and sabotage, and their denunciations of kith and kin reached a hysterical pitch. It is genuinely surprising that they didn’t kill each other.
  
  The book also has interesting stories from the history of science. For example, everyone has heard about how Archimedes discovered the principle of specific gravity while observing water sloshing out of his bath, and then ran naked down the street shouting “Eureka! [I have found it!]”, but most accounts leave out the most interesting part, probably to avoid scaring off readers by introducing science-y stuff. Here, though, in this book Michael Guillen gives a very clear, simple explanation that anyone can follow, and which I paraphrase:
  
  Around 250 B. C. the ruler of Syracuse suspected that his goldsmith had cheated him, stealing some of the gold that was supposed to go into a new crown, and replacing it with an equal weight of silver. Archimedes discovered two things: first, that a floating object always pushes aside an amount of water equal to the object’s weight, and second, that a non-floating object pushes aside an amount of water equal to its volume. With this information he could divide the crown’s weight by the volume of water displaced and come up with its density. Using modern units of measurement, gold has a density of 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter, and silver 10.5. When Archimedes tested the crown its density was less than pure gold but more than pure silver, indicating that it was in fact a mixture of the two metals. History does not record the fate of the goldsmith.
  
  Sometimes Guillen reached so far to find a non-technical, non-mathematical explanation that I found myself thinking, “Hmm, okay, I guess...never thought about it like that, though.” Here is a rather unique description of radioactive decay: “It was like trying to hug a bunch of mattress springs. Inevitably, if the bunch grew to be too large, a few of the springs would escape one’s clutches and go flying away. Those high-speed escapees from the atomic nucleus, scientists concluded, were precisely what constituted radioactivity.” (p. 257)
  
  The author is a science explainer on television, and a Harvard professor in math and physics. He clearly understands his subject, and his ability to take somewhat abstruse concepts and repackage them in non-technical form for general readers is probably a result of his years of teaching experience. Still, there were times when his attempts to humanize his subjects seemed to push into authorial license rather than historical fact. Was Daniel Bernoulli really “raring to flex his intellectual muscles”? Possibly, but a statement like that seems like the author’s inference rather than a clear anecdote from Bernoulli’s life or correspondence.
  
  I liked the fact that each chapter ends with a coda that presents practical applications of the equation just discussed. For example, Bernoulli’s law explains lift in airplanes, and Clausius’ gives insight into the nature of entropy. I enjoyed this book. It is a genial introduction to some of history’s most important advances, and by humanizing the discoverers it makes their discoveries seem even more remarkable. I passed my copy on to a neighbor’s daughter who has expressed an interesting in science, and perhaps it will nudge her in the right direction.
  
• 
  Tuncay Özdemir

  Bugun bindigimiz ucakla, da vinci'nin sureklilik yasasi arasinda dumduz bir cizgi var. O cizgi uzerinde de tarihteki ozel ve "merakli" insanlarin damgalari var. Okurken sik sik durup sunu sorarken buldum kendimi. Onlar bununla ugrasirken biz ne yapiyorduk? Sonucta 1600'lu yillarda yuksek lisans bursu gibi seyler okuyunca dumur olmamak mumkun mu?
• 
  Andrea

  
  Fin da piccolo sono sempre stato attratto dalla natura e dalla realtà che mi circonda, e così, crescendo, non ho potuto fare a meno di incuriosirmi e appassionarmi alla fisica e, sebbene nel mio percorso universitario ne stia trovando parecchia, rimango ugualmente curioso di quel che non arrivo a studiare e approfondire.
  D'altronde credo sia naturale, nel corso della vita, porgere gli occhi al cielo e chiedersi, cosa c’è lassù? Perché c’è qualcosa lassù? Anticipando ora i simpaticoni che diranno “l’azzurro cielo” io rispondo, “l’universo”.
  Ecco cosa mi appassiona e per quanto mi riesca possibile io voglio scoprire, indagare e capire l’universo, voglio leggere dei suoi segreti svelati e di quelli che ancora dovrà svelarci.
  Bramo dal desiderio di poter riuscire a divulgare la Scienza, di poter riuscire a far capire come siamo soli e piccoli in confronto al tempo e lo spazio, io desidero con tutto me stesso che la gente capisca che solo tramite l’aggregazione, solo tramite la fiducia e il rispetto potremo, come umanità, arrivare a raggiungere confini mai neppure immaginati, vorrei provare in questo modo a incuriosirvi, a instillare dentro di voi il seme del dubbio, che adeguatamente nutrito porterà a sviluppare la pianta della conoscenza, che porterà infine a maturazione i suoi bellissimi frutti, fatti di logica e comprensione, vorrei che fuggiste dalla vostra comfort zone tipo “sono cose che non capirò mai quindi per me è inutile leggerle” perché vi farò capire, anzi capiremo insieme, che partendo da solide basi potremo arrivare ad interrogarci sull’universo stesso.
  Fidatevi, provare per credere.
  
  Questo, cominciando finalmente a introdurre il libro, è un testo che avrei dovuto leggere molto molto tempo fa, ma vuoi per pigrizia o per disturbi ossessivi compulsivi del tipo “lo leggo quando farò quell’esame”, alla fine non l'ho più il letto e mi sono ridotto così a sfogliarlo soltanto di recente, quando “quell’esame” era ormai già stato dato da un pezzo e io non potevo più sciorinare la mia conoscenza ad un esame orale davanti ad un estasiato professore.
  Lasciando ora perdere fantastichevoli elucubrazioni, parliamo del libro; questo è un testo chiaro e semplice, con pochi fronzoli e in più l’autore promette al lettore di non utilizzare equazioni o qualsivoglia diavoleria matematica, la userà soltanto per lo stretto necessario, senza complicazioni non necessarie che mal si adattano ad un testo di divulgazione di questa tipologia. La traduzione è anch’essa ottima e la lettura procede spedita, senza che ci siano misunderstanding di sorta, con uno stile affabile e quasi colloquiale. È estremamente apprezzabile.
  In quest'opera Guillen fa molto di più che presentarci 5 equazioni e spiegarcele, tutti, nel proprio campo, ne sarebbero capaci, lui fa di più, non si limita a spiegare la fisica come semplice e reale rapporto causa-effetto, lui spiega cosa c’è dietro, ma a quanto pare non gli basta, perché spiega anche i risvolti sociali, quelli psicologici e cerca di far capire quel che c’era prima di quella determinata equazione, cosa ha portato alla sua formulazione e il futuro che ha creato.
  Ogni capitolo è così dedicato ad uno scienziato e ad una equazione, abbiamo Newton, Bernoulli, Faraday, Clausius ed Einstein; all’inizio di ogni capitolo c’è una breve quanto esaustiva biografia dello scienziato, in modo da far capire in che contesto è vissuto e quali influssi socioculturali ha subìto e poi pian piano, l’autore ti porta con mano all’equazione fondamentale a cui si collega quel nome.
  
  
  
  
  
  Nel corso della lettura l’autore ti porta così dalla realtà tangibile espressa attraverso il più famoso e ed esemplare rapporto causa-effetto esistente, ovvero la seconda legge della dinamica di Newton; alla realtà - per così dire - più evanescente, incorporea e universale, attraverso un diversamente simile rapporto causa-effetto visto però stavolta sotto gli occhi di Clausius, quelli cioè dell’entropia, della temperatura assoluta e del calore e non più attraverso forze e quantità materiali, e cercherà così di dare una risposta alla domanda più antica del cosmo, ovvero qual è il suo stesso destino?
  
  In pratica l’autore fa esattamente ciò che mi prefiggo di fare io portando su questi schermi saggi via via più complessi, curiosi e intriganti, dal generale al particolare e dal particolare all’universale, in modo da allargare i nostri orizzonti mentali e culturali, in modo da far capire e apprezzare e conoscere la complessa bellezza della scienza.
  Perché senza la scienza e il progresso tecnologico che inevitabilmente si porta dietro, che saremmo?
  
  Dovendo infine tirare le somme di quest'opera, a me è piaciuta moltissimo, l’ho trovata intelligente, ben strutturata, ben scritta, ben tradotta e non banale, riesce a inquadrare ogni scienziato nel proprio periodo temporale facendoti addirittura appassionare alla storia del genio e del talento che c'è dietro ognuna delle rivoluzioni scientifiche trattate: numeri e lettere condensati a formare qualcosa di chiaro, elegante ed estremamente significativo.
  F=ma è uguale dappertutto.
  Pensate quante informazioni possa racchiudere una così semplice formula e che incredibile potere unificante abbia.
  
  Questo è stato un saggio che mi ha appassionato e incuriosito, lo consiglio a chiunque voglia insieme a me sondare l'ignoto con un pizzico di contestualizzazione; l'autore poi è piacevolissimo alla lettura e offre moltissimi spunti di riflessione e di pensiero.
  Non è però un libro per chi crede di avere ogni verità in tasca, per chi non ha e non crede di non avere dubbi, anzi, nel progresso avere dubbi è fondamentale, è il progresso stesso ad andare avanti a forza di domande e quelle stesse domande daranno poi risposte che porteranno ad altre e più complicate e formidabili domande in una catena di cui noi forse non vedremo mai giungere la fine…
  
  “La fisica è come il sesso: certo, può dare alcuni risultati pratici, ma non è per questo che la facciamo”.
  Robyn Williams
  
• 
  Dilek

  Harika bir kitap. Bilimi ve formülleri bu kadar okuması keyifli hâle getirmek gerçekten çok mantıklı. Yazar teorik fizik bilgini, Harward'da dersler veren bir bilim aşığı. Denklemleri anlatırken "Veni, Vidi, Vici" yani "Geldim, Gördüm, Yendim" şeklinde bölümlere ayırmış ve nihai sonuca giden yolda bebek adımlarından o devasa buluşlara giden denklemlere bir kronoloji izlemiş. İçerisinde 5 denklem var ve hepsi gerçekten günümüzü değiştiren denklemler. Bunlar: ●Newton Evrensel Kütle Çekim Yasası, ●Bernoulli Hidrodinamik Basınç Yasası, ●Faraday Elektromanyetik İndüksiyon Yasası, ●Clausius Termodinamiğin 2.Yasası, ●Einstein Görelilik Teorisi.
• 
  Bá Hoàng

  Sách rất hay nhé các bạn. 5 phương trình rất gần với cuộc sống thường ngày của mỗi chúng ta. Quyển sách như một sử thi kể về những tiến bộ của loài người thông qua con đường nghiên cứu khoa học, sức mạnh của tri thức đã đưa loài người từ thuở sơ khai ăn lông ở lỗ đến ngày bay vào vũ trụ bao la. " tri thức là sức mạnh" được minh chứng rõ qua quyển sách này nhé các bạn!
• 
  Vu Phong

  4-
• 
  Giovanna Lubrano Lavadera

  Ebbene si non leggo solo libri fantasy, urban, strappa lacrime e romanticamente rosa, ma anche saggistica e questo libro mi è stato "involontariamente" consigliato da un professore il giorno dell'esame.
  Per spiegarvi meglio stavo per convalidare il voto, quando praticamente ci accorgiamo che nessuna luce è accesa, e ovviamente non funzionavano, allora il professore commentando questa mancanza di illuminazione se n'é uscito dicendo "Bhè ragazzi le più grandi scoperte del passato sono state fatte a lume di candela pensandoci, anzi se volete leggere un bel libro comprate Le cinque equazioni che hanno cambiato il mondo. "
  Al che io che sono un segugio dei libri ho tormentato il mio amico per farmi prestare l'iphone e cercare autore e casa editrice di questo libro e appena convalidato l'esame (eheh mica me lo dimenticavo) sono andata di filata a comprare questo libro sperando che non fosse un libro "noioso" solo con una serie di formule piazzate lì senza nessuna narrativa di contorno.
  E devo dire che non mi ha affatto delusa, anzi è stata una lettura molto piacevole e per niente pesante, perché la parte discorsiva era decisamente ben scritta, fluida e raccontava a parole non troppo complesse la situazione politica, culturale e religiosa dell'epoca.
  La struttura di ogni capitolo era poi molto simpatica, (ovviamente i capitoli erano cinque) infatti sfruttando una celebre frase di Giulio Cesare l'autore ha pensato di strutturare la narrazione secondo il detto Veni Vidi Vici, nella prima sezione veniva introdotta la situazione storico - culturale dell'epoca con riferimento agli anni che videro nascere pian piano il genio o comunque l'interesse scientifico nel personaggio di turno, nella seconda parte - Vidi - invece vengono riportate tutte le scoperte fatte in relazione all'ambito dell'equazione fondamentale - chiamiamola così - che poi avrebbe cambiato il mondo, in questa parte ovviamente la scrittura richiede un minimo di nomenclatura, anche per elencare tutte le varie definizioni e i vari teoremi, ma che non rendono affatto pesante la lettura anzi sono perfettamente integrati e sanno spiegare a fondo le varie teorie sorte nel corso dei secoli; infine nell'ultima sezione Vici vengono narrate le "gesta" dei nostri pionieri della scienza che hanno portato alla loro inconfutabile vittoria.
  Leggere questo libro mi ha fatto pensare molto a ciò che questi incredibili geni del mondo culturale hanno vissuto ai loro tempi evidenziando un percorso difficile e tortuoso che forse non avremo immaginato, considerandoli quasi delle divinità onnipotenti in ogni campo dello scibile umano. La lettura ha evidenziato come questi personaggi fossero si dotati di un acume e di un'arguzia particolare ma di come l'unico comune denominatore (per restare in tema scientifico :) ) non fosse altro che l'impegno e la tenacia, e di come lo studio alla fine portasse ad ottimi risultati (Newton all'inizio non era quello studente modello ma solo un ragazzo che con molto impegno è riuscito nella scoperta di un equazione che ha cambiato il mondo, appunto). Lo trovo un libro molto propositivo che riesce a far guardare a quei Sacri Graal della nostra cultura con occhi nuovi diversi, più "umani" e che spinge verso sentimenti di tenacia, caparbietà e impegno e sostiene una visione molto meritocratica (fatta eccezione della faccenda Bernouilli, se volete saperne di più comprate il libro ;) ) . E' un libro che fa bene, perchè ci ricorda che quei grandi uomini non erano altro che ragazzi prima, adulti poi, con una grande passione per l'osservazione degli eventi naturali e che solo con la loro determinazione hanno cambiato il mondo.
  Cinque stelle sono strameritate ad un libro veramente interessante!
  
• 
  Juan Represa

  Cuando empecé a leer este libro buscaba salirme de los libros de ficción para centrarme en unas historias reales, unas historias que me narraran los vericuetos de la historia para llevarnos desde un mundo medieval de los siglos XV y XVI a un mundo industrial y tecnológico del siglo XXI.
  
  Buscaba encontrar la narración de cómo la mente humana en su búsqueda por la verdad no paraba de cuestionarse todos y cada uno de los hechos que nos rodeaban.
  
  Buscaba la explicación de cómo aquel hombre medieval pasaba a controlar los sólidos, los líquidos. Buscaba entender los orígenes de la electricidad y su hermana, el magnetismo. Buscaba entender la termodinámica y las teorías de la Einstein.
  
  También quería entender cómo nos influeron en los viajes a la Luna, en los aviones, en el dominio de la electricidad o en las teorías modernas de la energía y la masa.
  
  Buscaba también bucear en la vida de aquellos hombres que nos abrieron los ojos a un trocito del saber y que nos han dejado ese regusto a lo desconocido. Adentrarnos en sus luchas, sus debilidades, sus familias y, en fin, su existencia.
  
  Simplemente lo encontré y me quedé con esta idea: "Cuando parece que lo sabemos todo, simplemente se abre un abismo delante nuestra que nos deja mudos de asombro"
  
  Podeis escucharme en el Podcast "Un mar de Libros". Lo he reseñado en el episodio #4
• 
  John Orman

  Fascinating book for those technically inclined. Five of the laws that seem to order the universe are:
  
  Universal Law of Gravity
  Bernoulli's Law of Hydrodynamic Pressure
  Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction
  Clausius' Second Law of Thermodynamics
  Einstein's equivalence of energy and mass, E = m*c^2
  
  The significance of each governing equation is described in terms of phenomena we can observe.
  
  
• 
  Lisa

  This is one of my favorite books of all times. It made me really understand the poetry of mathematics, and understand the world! I've read it twice and recommend it to everyone! It is so well-written, and the prose is captivating. For example, when it explains the law of energy conservation (there is nothing new in the universe--it's all recycled) it uses the sun, who makes a carrot grow. We eat it and it gives us energy to create something fabulous! I was delighted!