Experimental Blog #102

Comments on "Electric Universe" - The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis and "The Constants of Nature - From Alpha to Omega - The Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe" by John D. Barrow

The author, David Bodanis, writes, using no mathematics, in his very narrative style a popular history of the developement and utilization of electricity. He writes about the discovery of the relationship between magnetism and electricity, the movement and flow of electrons, electromagnetic fields and waves, conductors and semiconductors, and computers and the major earlier inventions as well. Even all of life and especially our brains and nervous systems are run by electricity.


The second book is all about mathematics and numbers. Besides Isaac Newton's gravitational constant G, there is Plank's constant, h, which is the "smallest amount by which energy can change", or the quantum; e, the electron charge; and, c, the speed of light. These last 3 constants put together create the "fine structure constant", which is fundamental to the existence of the universe, with the creation of stars, the elements, and the possibility of life.

Especially at the end of the book John Barrow becomes so involved with the infinite possibilities of, and in, the universe that there seems to be little or no difference between genuine science and science fiction.

John Barrow indirectly touches on the subject of chaos and its opposite, determinism; that is, between those things that can be accurately predicted because they are determined, and those things that can not be predicted because they are too chaotic and may not even be determined.