The New World of Mr Tompkins: George Gamow’s Classic Mr Tompkins in Paperback
The New World of Mr Tompkins: George Gamow’s Classic Mr Tompkins in Paperback
Mr. Tompkins is back! The mild-mannered bank clerk with the short attention span and vivid imagination has inspired, charmed, and informed young and old alike since the publication of the hugely successful Mr Tompkins in Paperback (by George Gamow) in 1965. Now, this highly affable character returns to embark on a set of adventures that explore the extreme edges of the universe–the smallest, the largest, the fastest, and the farthest. Just by following the experiences and dreams of Mr. Tompkins, readers discover and come to know the merry dance of cosmic mysteries, including: Einstein’s theory of relativity, bizarre effects near light-speed, the birth and death of the universe, black holes, quarks, space warps and antimatter, the fuzzy w
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The Maiden’s Bequest (MacDonalds / Phillips Series)
MacDonald’s genius as a storyteller is seen once again in this moving, inspiring story of Alec Forbes and his friend Annie.Orphaned as a child, Annie’s special friendship with Alec is a source of strength and security which sees them both through many difficulties in their nineteenth-century Scotland.Alec and Annie eventually are separated by circumstances when he leaves to study medicine at the university. There he meets beautiful Kate and falls helplessly in love. But she rejects him in favor of an arrogant upperclassman. Alec bitterly blames himself for Kate’s eventual despair. How will he come to recognize that peace and tranquility, hallmarks of Annie’s life, come from within?True Romance At Its Best!”ALEC FORBES [original title of The
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Wish I had read the original instead,
I wish I had read the original book instead of this one, or at least read it first. The original had a charm, in both words and illustrations, that this revised version lacks. You can view excerpts from both the original and the revised versions on this website to see what I mean. They begin to show up as soon as the first page.
This revised version changes or adds some things to reflect discoveries and technologies since the original book was written. But it also changes the caliber of the story-telling that gave the orignal charm and clarity. The reviser has written 4 new chapters, three of which become the final chapters of the new book. In thsoe chapters Stannard has almost ignored the style and objectives of Gamow’s original. Gamow attempted to present complex physics ideas to the interested reader in ways that might be called “spoon feeding”. There was an effort to inject analogies and examples that help the reader understand the concepts. In the newly written chapters it seems like Stannard decided he didn’t have time for that, or perhaps didn’t have the understanding or confidence to follow through on the original approach. The difference in approach is obvious, and not for the better.
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|Mr Tompkins’ Adventure in Physical Wonderland Modernized,
The famous physicist and excellent popularizer of science George Gamow wrote the original version of this book “Mr Tompkins in Paperback” in 1965. Since then the understanding of the physical world from its smallest to largest entities has shown much progress. Thus the book, which was once one of the best classics in the genre of physics popularizations, needed a revision to continue its role of introducing the modern knowledge of fundamental physics to laypersons.
Russell Stannard, an able popularizer of science, courageously tackled this difficult problem of modernizing “Mr Tompkins.” Four chapters out of 17 are entirely new. Old chapters describe the theory of relativity, quantum physics and atomic and nuclear physics through Mr Tompkins’ adventurous dreams and a series of lectures given by “the professor” to the lay-audience. Tompkins is among the listeners of the lectures, gets acquainted with the professor’s daughter Maud, and . . . Maud’s look, hairstyle and dresses in illustrations and the episode of romance have also been modernized. The new chapters treat black holes, a high-energy accelerator (“atom smasher”) and the results of physics gotten by it, quarks and the Standard Model, and the relation between the life of the Universe and particle physics.
Even the old chapters have been rewritten considerably. For example, Chapter 2 newly tells about an experimental evidence by neutral pion decay for the constancy of light speed, demonstration of relativistic time dilation at CERN by the change of life time of muons traveling at high speed, etc. The “twin paradox” of relativity has also been added in Chapter 2, and its further explanation is given in Chapter 3 (here is a minor but confusing error of “she” and “he” wrongly interchanged). I like this addition very much, because the “paradox” bothered me even after I had learned the theory of relativity at a university. (For a more complete explanation of the twin paradox, I recommend Max Born’s “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity” to readers of an inquiring mind.)
Being one of old Japanese fans of Tompkins, I feel a little sorry that the name of Hideki Yukawa has disappeared from the present version. Surely, his meson theory of nuclear forces became outdated, because constituents of nucleons and mesons, i.e., quarks and gluons, had been discovered. However, Yukawa’s theory was a strong driving force for the birth of particle physics, and a good place where his name can be mentioned remains in Chapter 13 (in the original version it appeared in a later chapter, which has been omitted in the present version).
I highly recommend this book especially to young people who wish to major in physical sciences. There are a small number of simple equations of relativity and formulas of particle reactions. For those who are eager to learn about mysteries of the micro world and the universe, however, the presence of these would not be any hindrance to the enjoyment of the book but rather be an attractive feature. Some of old fans of Tompkins would also read the new version to welcome Stannard’s good job.
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|Fun discussion of modern physics for the non-scientist,
The results of many of the theories of modern physics are often very hard to grasp since they operate on such a different scale from most people’s everyday lives. This book solves that problem by tinkering with the physical constants of the universe to bring them into the realm of human experience: the theory of relativity is described through a narrative set in a universe in which the speed of light is only 30 miles per hour, the topology of space is explained using a universe which is only a few hundred yards in length, and the complex interactions of subatomic particles are narrated from the points of view of the particles themselves. While the social and emotional struggles of quarks and leptons may not give the reader nearly as much mathematical rigor as other overviews of modern physics, they are certainly much more entertaining and provide an intuitive grasp even for readers who don’t understand the underlying theories discussed.
This is a great book for anyone interested in modern physics, and a terrific introduction for junior high or high school students who might have the opportunity to study physics later in life.
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|One of the best,
This book is one of the best i have ever read.
I feel as if I have known Annie and Alec all my life.
I feel as if I’ve been in Scotland and seen the streets, bridges, stores and houses in howgland.
If you could read only 1 book this year…make it this one!!!!
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|Haunting, Pure Characters Make a Beautiful Tale!,
I read this book for the first time when I was in high school and fell in love with it. I read it again in college, and recently again in my mid-20′s. Every time I read it it inspires me. The character of Annie is so unlike your typical protagonist; she is shy, self-deprecating, loyal, insecure, pure, and simply the most precious character you’re likely to come across. The love between her and Alec grows so sweetly and unexpectedly that it’s a revelation. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you are seeking something different from what is mainstream today. It is sweet, and pure, and incredibly beautiful and you will never forget the time you spent in its world. It illustrates what real love is in a way you will carry with you forever.
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|This book was great!,
Michael Phillips did an excellent job of reproducing George MacDonald’s Alec Forbes of Howglen. This book has all the touching qualities of a George MacDonald book with all the thought provoking one-liners that we all know George sat and crafted carefully.
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