road to reality

arahant · #1 05-21-2007, 05:39 PM

ok...this is just a rant. I had to say it.
Is anyone else bothered that this book starts off with arithmetic and moves to fiber bundles and gauge fields and such? I mean, if I didn't already know a lot of math, I don't see how I'm making it to the physics section at all...If you need the early sections, I'm pretty sure you're screwed.

And in what sense is this a 'National Bestseller'? Do people not flip it open before reading it? Because there is no way that most people are getting more than 100 pages in.

Is there some 'bestseller' category like 'physics books with math', or 'distinguished scientist author over 700 pages'?

Metric · #2 05-22-2007, 12:54 AM

My impression is that the math sections are not there to teach you how to do the math -- they simply give you a glimpse of the machinery behind the physics ideas. I also don't think the book is necessarily made to be read in order -- many of the chapters can be read independently. I have the book and like it, but I certainly haven't gone through the whole thing in the way one might read "A brief history of time" or something like that...

The attraction of this book, I think, is that you can actually get a little bit of the real stuff -- access to the full-on ideas of physics and math, without going to a textbook.

Duke · #3 05-22-2007, 01:17 AM

I haven't read it, but I'd imagine that a glimpse of the math behind the concepts would be interesting for the layperson. I would also imagine that the concepts, and not the math, are the main thrust of the book.

arahant · #4 05-22-2007, 02:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't read it, but I'd imagine that a glimpse of the math behind the concepts would be interesting for the layperson. I would also imagine that the concepts, and not the math, are the main thrust of the book.

[/ QUOTE ]

I dunno...I think you'd be wrong [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. But I encourage you to look through it for maybe 30 minutes next time you are in a bookstore.

Don't get me wrong...It was a VERY good book for me, I just can't see how most people can get through it. It seems like a strange hybrid between 'math for 6th graders' and 'physics for PhD's' [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].