The Motion ParadoxThe Motion Paradox
At the dawn of science the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno formulated his paradox of motion, and amazingly, it is still on the cutting edge of all investigations into the fabric of reality.
Zeno used logic to argue that motion is impossible, and at the heart of his maddening puzzle is the nature of space and time. Is space-time continuous or broken up like a string of beads? Over the past two millennia, many of our greatest minds?including Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other current theoreticians?have been gripped by the mystery this puzzle represents.
Joseph Mazur, acclaimed author of Euclid in the Rainforest, shows how historic breakthroughs in our understanding of motion shed light on Zeno?s paradox. The orbits of the planets were explained, the laws of motion were revealed, the theory of relativity was discovered?but the basic structure of time and space remained elusive.
In the tradition of Fermat?s Enigma and Zero, The Motion Paradox is a lively history of this apparently simple puzzle whose solution?if indeed it can be solved?will reveal nothing less than the fundamental nature of reality.
Mazur (mathematics, Marlboro College) begins with Zeno, of course, and the reception of his motion paradoxes by other ancient Greeks. But after Archimedes died in 212 BCE, no one thought much about time for the next 14 centuries, so he picks up the story again then with Galileo, then Newton and all; and proceeds to when all the tidy bows came undone with Einstein and quantum theory and so on. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Traces the epic history of ancient Greek philosopher Zeno's yet-unsolved paradox of motion, citing the contributions of such top minds as Aristotle, Newton, and Hawking to furthering the scientific community's understanding of the elusive basic structure of time and space. By the author of Euclid in the Rainforest.
Traces the epic history of Greek philosopher Zeno's yet-unsolved paradox of motion, citing the contributions of top minds to the scientific community's understanding of the elusive basic structure of time and space.
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- New York : Dutton, [2007], ©2007
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