Waves in an Impossible Sea

Préface
A Harvard physicist takes us on an awe-inspiring journey from relativity to the Higgs field, showing how the universe creates everything from what seems like nothing at all

Auteur

Matt Strassler

Texte du rabat

"At this very moment, we are moving through space at 130 miles per second, and yet we don't notice at all. Nothing slips and falls off the kitchen table as the Earth spins, and our bodies aren't catapulted against random buildings and trees by the planet orbiting the Sun. We, and everything around us, move at the same rate, so we simply don't notice the force that propels us through space. Nor do we notice the strangest fact of all, that we and everything around us ripple through the universe like whitecaps on the ocean, emerging from the cosmic backdrop and yet moving through it as though the backdrop wasn't even there. Indeed, whether it be through our senses of sight and touch, through our ability to drink soda on an airplane, or through navigation apps on our phones, we are constantly engaging with these peculiar aspects of the cosmos, even though we rarely recognize it. In Waves in an Impossible Sea, theoretical physicist Matthew J. Strassler explains how our lives, every day and every moment, are shaped by the core tenants of physics that make up the universe. Examining big picture concepts, like motion, mass, waves, fields, quanta, the Higgs field, and the quantum world, Strassler relates these theories to our ordinary lives. Ultimately, concludes Strassler, we humans are integrated into the universe - one might well say we are a part of it, an instantiation of the cosmos in action - rather than merely outsiders living inside it. Accessible and profound, Waves in an Impossible Sea offers a crash course in everything from the theory of relativity to the Higgs field, relatable to anyone who has ever rode in a car or laid in bed"--

Résumé

In Waves in an Impossible Sea, physicist Matt Strassler tells a startling tale of elementary particles, human experience, and empty space. He begins with a simple mystery of motion. When we drive at highway speeds with the windows down, the wind beats against our faces. Yet our planet hurtles through the cosmos at 150 miles per second, and we feel nothing of it. How can our voyage be so tranquil when, as Einstein discovered, matter warps space, and space deflects matter?

The answer, Strassler reveals, is that empty space is a sea, albeit a paradoxically strange one. Much like water and air, it ripples in various ways, and we ourselves, made from its ripples, can move through space as effortlessly as waves crossing an ocean. Deftly weaving together daily experience and fundamental physics-the musical universe, the enigmatic quantum, cosmic fields, and the Higgs boson-Strassler shows us how all things, familiar and unfamiliar, emerge from what seems like nothing at all.

Accessible and profound, Waves in an Impossible Sea is the ultimate guide to our place in the universe.