One Two Three... Infinity

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One Two Three... Infinity
LC Class
Q162.G23

One Two Three... Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science is a popular science book by theoretical physicist George Gamow, first published in 1947, but still (as of 2020) available in print and electronic formats. The book explores a wide range of fundamental concepts in mathematics and science, written at a level understandable by middle school students up through "intelligent layman" adults.[1] The book includes many handmade illustrations by Gamow.

Synopsis

The 340-page book has four parts and eleven chapters. The parts are: 1 Playing with Numbers, 2 Space, time and Einstein, 3 Microcosmos, 4 Macrocosmos. In the preface, the shortness of the last part is attributed to the prior coverage in Gamow's previous books The Birth and Death of the Sun and Biography of the Earth. There are 128 illustrations that Gamow drew, "topologically transformed" from works by "numerous artists and illustrators", thanked by Gamow in the preface. A four-page index is included.

In 1961 a new edition was published. In its preface, Gamow says that by luck the 1947 edition was "written just after a number of important scientific advances", so that "relatively few changes and additions were necessary". For example,

Robley Williams separated tobacco mosaic virus
into lifeless molecules and then recombined them into active virus. A 1965 edition speculated on assembly of a "man-made virus particle" (p. 267).

Playing with Numbers

Part 1 is mainly concerned with expressing large numbers,

Argand diagram is displayed, and multiplication by i rotates the diagram counter-clockwise by a right angle. The study of complex numbers then deviates into treasure hunting
.

Space, Time & Einstein

Part 2 opens with "unusual properties of space" and touches on "transformation of coordinates" and

Moebius strip and Klein bottle
.

Turning to the temporal extension of space, there are

1919 Solar Eclipse Expeditions
. Given that the average curvature of the universe may be positive, negative or zero, the mass distribution may provide a resolution.

Microcosmos

Mendeleev flower-style periodic table

Part 3 is the longest (150 pages) and begins with the "descending staircase" and the classical elements. "Plants take the largest part of the material used in the growth of their bodies ... from the air." Rust is oxidation of iron. The question "How large are the atoms?" calls for an experiment to obtain an oil film just one molecule thick. "1 cu mm of oil can cover 1 sq m of water." The law of definite proportions is stated in plain English (p. 123) as a "fundamental law of chemistry". The molecular structure of matter was uncovered with molecular beams by Otto Stern, and Lawrence Bragg invented "atomic photography" with X-rays.

The section "Dissecting the atom" begins by considering oxygen to be doughnut-shaped, fitting the atoms of hydrogen forming water. Dismissing the notion, Gamow asserts that atoms are "complex mechanisms with a large number of moving parts". Through

quantum of action, which leads to the uncertainty principle. Diffraction phenomena not explicable with geometric optics necessitated the wave mechanics of Louis de Broglie and Erwin Schrödinger
.

In chapter "The Riddle of Life" the

biological tissue is of a different sort. A human is estimated to have more than hundreds of thousands of billions of cells
. To eat, grow, and multiply are posited as life characteristics. Dismissed are crystal accretion in a super-saturated solution, and the molecular reaction

On the other hand,

gastrula
.

Macrocosmos

Aristotle's

Friedrich Bessel measured the parallax of 61 Cygni
, concluding a distance of 10 light years, making him "the first man who with a yardstick stepped into interstellar space". In the solar-pumpkin scale, 61 Cygni is 30,000 miles away.

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, measures 100,000 light years in diameter with 5 to 10 light years thickness, totaling 4 × 1010 stars.

Cephid variables are pulsating stars that have a period-luminosity relation, exploited by Harlow Shapley to estimate distances to globular clusters. The interstellar dust in the direction of the Galactic Center obscures the view except through Baade's Window
.

Sources

Instead of a bibliography as an appendix, Gamow cites a dozen titles in the course of his exposition:

Reception

Science writer Willy Ley praised Gamow's book, describing it as an "admittedly rare ... book which entertains by way of instruction".[2] Kirkus Reviews declared it "a stimulating and provocative book for the science-minded layman".[3] Theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll credited One Two Three... Infinity with setting the trajectory of his professional life.[4] Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker read the book as a child, and has cited it as contributing to his interest in popular science writing.[5] Astrophysicist and science popularizer Neil deGrasse Tyson identified One Two Three... Infinity as one of two books which had the greatest impact on him, the other being Mathematics and the Imagination by Edward Kasner and James R. Newman.[6]

In 1956, Gamow was awarded the Kalinga Prize by UNESCO for his work in popularizing science, including his book One, Two, Three... Infinity, as well as other works.[7]

References

  1. ISBN 9781306350099
    ; other editions and translations
  2. Astounding Science Fiction
    , June 1948, pp.158-61.
  3. ^ "One Two Three...Infinity by George Gamow". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  4. ^ Carroll, Sean M. (April 16, 2008). "Life-changing books: One, Two, Three... Infinity". New Scientist. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  5. ^ "Up Front". The New York Times. May 27, 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Neil deGrasse Tyson: By the Book". The New York Times. December 19, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Kalinga 1956". www.unesco.org. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 2020-05-16.


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