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Good books on physics?

Seismosaurus

Philosopher
Seismosaurus
Joined
Mar 15, 2003
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I'm looking for some book physics books. What I need is something fairly broad, coffee table type stuff, think "A Brief History of Time" but more up to date.

Any suggestions, preferably along with at least a one sentance description?
 
There's Hawkings' follow-up - The Universe in a Nutshell. Even though it's more up to date I personally found it quite poor. I much prefer Brian Greene's Books "The Elegant Universe" and his follow-up "The Fabric of the Cosmos". The first one goes into string theory to a reasonable depth in the 2nd half of the book, but the 1st part describes the laws of the universe in an entertaining and novel way (imo of course). The 2nd book is very wide ranging and almost bang up to date with current theories as well as hinting at what might come next (eg brane worlds etc). I really enjoyed it and would recommend them both.
 
James Gleick's Chaos has lots of pictures and is an interesting read. Even comes with a fractal generator and 3-D glasses. I've always been fascinated with the subject matter so I may be biased.
 
Seismosaurus said:
I'm looking for some book physics books. What I need is something fairly broad, coffee table type stuff, think "A Brief History of Time" but more up to date.

Any suggestions, preferably along with at least a one sentance description?
Click to expand...
What topics are you looking for?

The books mentioned are good for Cosmology. For other physics topics; Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman. The physics parts of Ascent of Science by Brian Silver. The Silver book is an outstanding survey of Science in general; from it's philosophical beginnings to individual disciplines. Every beginning scientist and science teacher should be required to read this book. Incidently, I found out about it here on the JREF!
 
Anything by the late great Heinz Pagels (e.g. The Cosmic Code) for a good, entertaining overview of QM.

Anonio Demasio (e.g. Descartes Error) for neurosciences.

Timothy Ferris (e.g. Coming of Age in the Milky Way) for more cosmology.

And a great, great book about the intersection between mathematics and neurology: The Number Sense : How the Mind Creates Mathematics, Stanislas Dehaene
 
I enjoyed reading E=MC2 - "a history of the world's most famous equation".
It's only for lightweight entertainment value really, but is still very interesting.
 
The God Particle is good. Physics from an experimental physics perspective.

Do you want the books to read or look good:D
 
"QED" by Feynman is a great physics book written (or at least dictacted) for the layman.

As for coffee table books, I highly recommend "Orbit", which features pictures of Earth taken from the space shuttle. That may not sound like much, but every visitor I've had who's picked it up agrees it's amazing.
 
Just want to apologize for including non-physics books in my previous post. Soooo embarrassed. :o

Also want to include "Time travel in the Einstein's Universe" by J.Richard Gott, III, a Princeton astrophysicist. Lotta fun, very interesting ideas about time travel via General Relativity. Includes how the universe could have a very small "time-loop" at its beginning obviating the need for a "beginning."
 
For the basics, Isaac Asimov's four-book set on physics is excellent. Each book covers a different aspect of the study, and includes the history of discoveries, movers and shakers, and so forth. All written in a highly accessible and entertaining manner.
 
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