Cosmology And Controversy: The Historical Development Of Two Theories Of The Universe

Kragh, Helge

ISBN 10: 0691026238 / ISBN 13: 9780691026237

Verlag: Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U. S. A., 1996

Beschreibung

The Number Line Indicates A Second Printing Of This Edition. Includes Bibliographical References, Index And Chapter Notes. The Book Is Bound In Dark Blue Cloth Over Boards With Silver Lettering On The Spine. There Is A Bump To The Lower Front Board, Else Fine. The Jacket Has A Tiny Tear At The Same Spot, Else Fine. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 042200

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Cosmology And Controversy: The Historical ...

Verlag: Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U. S. A.

Erscheinungsdatum: 1996

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: Very Good

Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe:

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age. In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaitre showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, any readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories , Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

Helge Kragh is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oslo. His works include a biography of P.A.M. Dirac.