A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime

by Wheeler, John Archibald

• ISBN13: 9780716760344
• ISBN10: 0716760347
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-07
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman

Summary

Gravity is not a force acting at a distance. It is mass gripping spacetime, telling it how to curve, and spacetime gripping mass, telling it how to move. According to preeminent physicist John Archibald Wheeler, gravity makes the closest connection between the world we see around us and the inner-most workings of the universe. In this imaginative volume, Wheeler explores gravity and spacetime by applying Einstein's battle-tested theory to both familiar and exotic phomomena--everything from flying tennis balls, to hurling gravity waves from crashing stars, the motion of the planets, and the collapse of a star into a black hole. It's a provocative, revealing, fully engaging scientific journey led by a frontline participant in the most important work in physics in the last 50 years.

Author Biography

John Archibald Wheeler is Joseph Henry Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and was, until his retirement, Blumberg Professor of Physics and Director, Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. A past president of the American Physical Society, he is a recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award (1968), the National Medal of Science (1971), the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal (1982) and the Wolf Prize (1997).

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Great Men, Great Ideas	1	(16)
From Fall to Float	17	(18)
Interval: Revelation That All of Space Is Ours	35	(20)
Boomeranging Through the Earth	55	(12)
Tides: The Grip of Mass on Spacetime	67	(26)
Momenergy: The Grip of Spacetime on Mass	93	(16)
The Boundary of a Boundary: Where the Action Is	109	(14)
From Potter's Wheel to Space Geometry	123	(26)
Picturing Space and Spacetime Around a Center of Mass	149	(16)
Stones in Flight and Planets in Orbit	165	(20)
Gravity Waves	185	(24)
Black Holes	209	(18)
A Farewell Look at Gravity	227	(18)
Acknowledgments	245	(4)
Sources of Illustrations	249	(2)
Index	251