dancing wu li masters an overview of the new physics

the Everett‐Wheeler‐Graham “Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics,” the use of Erwin Schrddinger's wave equation, the Michelson‐Morley experiment with light and the Lorentz Transformations, Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity, why the orbit of the earth around the sun is the path of least resistance through the space‐time continuum and so forth down to highenergy particle physics and its present branching into S‐Matrix Theory on the one hand, and the search for quarks on the other.Īt least I think I understand (which is all that matters for the time being).

Zukav's presentation of the new physics that enchanted me, as the simple fact of my finally understanding Quantum Mechanics, Max Planck's Constant, Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, what they mean by the half‐life of radioactive substances and why they resort to such a scale, the wave‐particle duality of light, It may not have been so much the drama of Mr. Mathematics’ is the tool of physics, stripped of mathematics, physics becomes pure enchantment.” Physics, in essence, is simple wonder at the way things are and a divine (some call it compulsive) interest in how that is so.

Zukav writes, “The fact is that physics is not mathematics. mostly in the form of pages of mathematical formulas and advice to go back to read Einstein himself.īut one piece of advice that did not accost me - it merely rested on the bookshelf and had the considerateness to be published tomorrow - is Gary Zukav's “The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics,” a book that manages to explain relativity and a lot more without resorting to a single bit of mathematics (except for asking you to grasp the not‐too‐onerous concept that the velocity of light, a constant 186,000 miles‐per‐second, is a product of its frequency and wavelength). As usual too, succor was rushed to me by the good‐hearted, well‐meaning, and mare intelligent than I. A FEW weeks ago, to celebrate the centennial of Albert Einstein's birth, I performed my periodic wrestling match with the theories of relativity, and as usual lost.

Dancing wu li masters an overview of the new physics