Going Underground

The Science and History of Falling through the Earth

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Physics, Astrophysics & Space Science, General Physics, Nature
Cover of the book Going Underground by Martin Beech, World Scientific Publishing Company
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Author: Martin Beech ISBN: 9789813279056
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company Publication: March 7, 2019
Imprint: WSPC Language: English
Author: Martin Beech
ISBN: 9789813279056
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Publication: March 7, 2019
Imprint: WSPC
Language: English

This book follows the historical trail by which humanity has determined the shape and internal structure of the Earth. It is a story that bears on aspects of the history of science, the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. At the heart of the narrative is the important philosophical practice of performing thought experiments — that is, the art of considering an idealized experiment in the mind. This powerful technique has been used by all the great historical practitioners of science and mathematics, and this book looks specifically at the long history of considering what would happen if an object could be dropped into a tunnel that cuts all the way through the Earth's interior. Indeed, the story begins with a historical whodunit, tracing back through the historical literature the origins of what is now a classic, textbook problem in simple harmonic motion.

Contents:

  • Introduction
  • A Long Distraction
  • Wishing Well
  • Cymro's Problem
  • The Heat of Ages
  • Terricola's Questions
  • Flamsteed's Well
  • Airy Underground
  • A Mind's Eye View
  • Tik-Tok's Tumble
  • Eratosthenes's Well
  • Aristotle's Stop and the Merton Calculators
  • Galileo's Constant Cannonball
  • Hooke's Bullet and Newton's Cannon
  • Newton's Canals
  • Halley's Hollow Earth
  • Dr Akakia's Diatribe and Euler's Miracle
  • Collignon's Slant
  • Fastest Descent
  • The Kola Pin-Prick and the Iron Blob
  • A Black Hole Falling
  • The Elephant in the Room
  • First and Last Thoughts
  • Appendix: Mathematical Details
  • Notes and Selected References
  • Index

Readership: Science enthusiasts as well as people who are interested in history of science.
Key Features:

  • This book has been specifically written to be accessible to the non-specialists. Additionally, detailed historical development of the scientific background is presented, which may be of interest to the more specialist reader
  • Inclusion of an appendix which develops the solutions relating to both historical and modern-day problems associated with tunneling through the Earth, which may be of use to teachers who provide classes in introductory calculus, introductory dynamics, and astronomy
  • Inclusion of many literary anecdotes, and a detailed discussion of how the exploration of Earth's interior has been used as a literary back-drop in numerous science fiction and adventure stories, as well as by many film writers
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This book follows the historical trail by which humanity has determined the shape and internal structure of the Earth. It is a story that bears on aspects of the history of science, the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. At the heart of the narrative is the important philosophical practice of performing thought experiments — that is, the art of considering an idealized experiment in the mind. This powerful technique has been used by all the great historical practitioners of science and mathematics, and this book looks specifically at the long history of considering what would happen if an object could be dropped into a tunnel that cuts all the way through the Earth's interior. Indeed, the story begins with a historical whodunit, tracing back through the historical literature the origins of what is now a classic, textbook problem in simple harmonic motion.

Contents:

Readership: Science enthusiasts as well as people who are interested in history of science.
Key Features:

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