The Illustrated on the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy

Rating:
Summary: LOVELY PICTURES
Review: As the historical development of gravitational theory is of interest to me, I bought this book impulsively from Barnes & Noble, while getting a cup of coffee. "Illustrated" it is, and beautifully so, and the concept is interesting. For five brilliant scientists each of whom has contributed to our understanding of celestial dynamics, Hawking provides a brief introduction before presenting translations of representative portions of their work. Although many of the illustrations are works of art, some are not very informative, chosen perhaps for visual appeal rather than pedagogical utility. Specific comments are as follows. Copernicus: excellent short bio and explanation of his contributions. Galileo, ditto. Kepler, ditto. Newton, ditto. Einstein: strangely, the biographical sketch here is thin, many of the figures seem irrelevant, and the technical translation is marred by typographical errors. This is strange, because much effort went into the production of this book, so it would seem appropriate to have had someone with scientific knowledge look over the proofs and mark obvious errors. It is also irritating that many different type styles are used for the equations, giving the impression that the production editor sloppily copied directly from the original papers.

Although I enjoyed reading this book and learned from it, the publishers should clean it up for a second printing.

Alwyn Scott
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