Cosmology and controversy : the historical development of two theories of the universe

書誌事項

Cosmology and controversy : the historical development of two theories of the universe

Helge Kragh

(Princeton paperbacks)

Princeton University Press, 1999, c1996

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注記

Includes bibliographical references (p. [447]-486) and index

内容説明・目次

内容説明

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age. In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaitre showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

目次

PrefaceCh. 1Background: From Einstein to Hubble3Ch. 2Lemaitre's Fireworks Universe22Ch. 3Gamow's Big Bang80Ch. 4The Steady-State Alternative142Ch. 5Creation and Controversy202Ch. 6The Universe Observed269Ch. 7From Controversy to Marginalization318Ch. 8Epilogue: Dynamics of a Controversy389Appendix IA Cosmological Chronology, 1917-1971397Appendix IITechnical Glossary400Notes403Bibliography447Index487

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詳細情報

  • NII書誌ID(NCID)
    BA64913539
  • ISBN
    • 069100546X
  • LCCN
    96005612
  • 出版国コード
    us
  • タイトル言語コード
    eng
  • 本文言語コード
    eng
  • 出版地
    Princeton, N.J.
  • ページ数/冊数
    xiii, 500 p.
  • 大きさ
    24 cm
  • 分類
  • 件名
  • 親書誌ID
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