| Author | : James D. Livingston |
| Publisher | : Harvard University Press |
| Total Pages | : 334 |
| Release | : 1997-04-25 |
| ISBN 10 | : 9780674255371 |
| ISBN 13 | : 0674255372 |
| Language | : EN, FR, DE, ES & NL |
Driving Force unfolds the long and colorful history of magnets: how they guided (or misguided) Columbus; mesmerized eighteenth-century Paris but failed to fool Benjamin Franklin; lifted AC power over its rival, DC, despite all the animals, one human among them, executed along the way; led Einstein to the theory of relativity; helped defeat Hitler’s U-boats; inspired writers from Plato to Dave Barry. In a way that will delight and instruct even the nonmathematical among us, James Livingston shows us how scientists today are creating magnets and superconductors that can levitate high-speed trains, produce images of our internal organs, steer high-energy particles in giant accelerators, and—last but not least—heat our morning coffee. From the “new” science of materials to everyday technology, Driving Force makes the workings of magnets a matter of practical wonder. The book will inform and entertain technical and nontechnical readers alike and will give them a clearer sense of the force behind so much of the working world.
