The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments (81-205)

I have just completed the book of The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. The book loved was incredible, though it is much different than that of a regular book that one would read. It is a book for one who has a love of science, because this book is about how and thoroughly explains how the experiment was carried out.

One of my favorite chapters is chapter seven, in which they try to explain the experiment about how James Joule, explains how the world works in his perspective. Joule, in 1847 creates the workings of an electrical motor, that resembles one that we use today.

Early On, Joule noticed that the strength of an electromagnet inceased as the square of the current. By doubling the number of batteries, you quadrupled the power. The possibility that the same my be true for an electric motor must have seemed as stunning as cold fusion did in the 1980's. "I can hardly doubt that electro-magnetism will ultimtally be substituted for steam to propel machinery," Joule declared with the enthusiasm of a twenty-year-old unused to the troubles posed by the material world. (96)

I found this section to be especially intriguing, because for some reason since I have been a little kid, have loved tinkering with electricity and the use of motors. The idea of how long ago more than 150 years ago when they were using electricity to work motors is amazing. The account of one of the first people, in detail of how he made an it, is just incredible. Then to go even further, he goes to the point of explaining that he thinks that the electric motor will replace the steam engines and will be made to be dominate in machinery. He was incredibly right even though it was such a long time ago. How could one predict the future based of of an invention of his own that he would not live to see put into every day use?

Johnson, George. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments. New York City: Random House Incorporated, 2008.

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments (1-80)

I have begun the intriguing book The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, by George Johnson, a nonfiction text about how the ten most beautiful experiments of history were accomplished. The book is divided into ten chapters, with each chapter consisting of an explanation of how the experiment was done, what happened in the experiment, and the importance of these experiments that were conducted. My favorite chapter so far is the second chapter about how William Harvey conducts an experiment regarding the human heart's functions.

He compared the movement to a machine's: "One wheel gives motion to another, yet all the wheels seem to move simultaneously." He knew that some of his readers might be offended by this mechanical description. But that was not his intention. "Whether or not the heart, besides propelling the blood, giving it motion locally, and distributing it to the body, adds anything else to it-heat, spirit, perfection - must be inquired into the by-and-by, and decided on the other grounds."(25)

He, William Harvey in this quote, suspected that there was more to the body than just the physical processes, that the heart was "the sun of the microcosm" (Johnson 24) and blood a spiritual substance, an instrument of heaven. However that did not mean the hearts motions could not be studied systematically. Additionally, he points out that the heart does not just flow in one direction and go endlessly to another, but flows in more of a circle like "one wheel [giving} motion to another," letting the blood have to circulate around the whole of the body. Before this experiment people though blood was created then destroyed at the end, and did not circle the body. This book is an amazing work that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good read, who has interested in mathematics or science, or is just looking for a good read.

Johnson, George. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments. New York City: Random House Incorporated, 2008.