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Book Recommendation

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buckeyegrad

buckeyegrad

Don't Immanentize the Eschaton
I will be going on vacation in a couple of weeks and I am looking for some good books to take with me.

Specifically, I would like to learn more about the nature of light. Can anyone recommend a book that covers this topic, but does not require a degree in Physics to understand it?

BKB? Kinch? NewYorkBuck? Anyone?
 
I cannot offer much personal insight, however upon Googling "the nature of light" my search returns this image.

Apparently you just need to listen to Pink Floyds "Dark Side of the moon"

prism1.gif


The good news is it will be much easier than reading a book. :wink2:
 
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Don't know of any books which describe the nature of light.

However, I found This book to be pretty interesting. It doesn't necessarily relate to the nature of light, directly, but if you consider the effect that gravity has on light (Specifically high gravity, like Black Holes), it is at least tangentially related. Although, it's clearly a book more related to fluids and dynamics.

But, anyway, on something specific to the nature of light.... unfortunately, no.
 
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Buckeyeskickbuttocks;867159; said:
Why the interest in light? Just curious.
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Two reasons. First, I want to read something outside of my normal stomping grounds in the humanities and social sciences. I think it is a good exercise to do from time to time in order to expand one's thinking. For whatever reason, the nature of light was always an area that interested me when I was younger, especially its dual nature as both particle and wavelength, but I never had the time to study it. Second, I want to know what our scientific knowledge has to say about light because I would like to contemplate the possibility of light existing prior to the primary natural sources we attribute it to (i.e. stars).
 
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buckeyegrad;867198; said:
Two reasons. First, I want to read something outside of my normal stomping grounds in the humanities and social sciences. I think it is a good exercise to do from time to time in order to expand one's thinking. For whatever reason, the nature of light was always an area that interested me when I was younger, especially its dual nature as both particle and wavelength, but I never had the time to study it. Second, I want to know what our scientific knowledge has to say about light because I would like to contemplate the possibility of light existing prior to the primary natural sources we attribute it to (i.e. stars).
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Well, to really understand the nature of light I think you need to read about quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity, as they are all intermingled together. I'm not aware of any good books that focus on just the nature of light, but one book that has a portion of it devoted to the subject is "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene. It's one of the best books I've read for the general reader that makes some very difficult subjects fairly easy to understand (at least conceptually). The earlier chapters deal with relativity, space, time, light and quantum physics and the later ones focus on string theory, so hopefully half of the book will be useful to you.
 
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Brewtus;867293; said:
Well, to really understand the nature of light I think you need to read about quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity, as they are all intermingled together. I'm not aware of any good books that focus on just the nature of light, but one book that has a portion of it devoted to the subject is "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene. It's one of the best books I've read for the general reader that makes some very difficult subjects fairly easy to understand (at least conceptually). The earlier chapters deal with relativity, space, time, light and quantum physics and the later ones focus on string theory, so hopefully half of the book will be useful to you.
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grad - Let me second this. Light afterall is just a thin slice of the entire EM spectrum, but in a physical sense there is nothing special about the way it behaves relative to any other frequency in the band. All EMR is governed by amplitude, frequency, and energy as predicated by wave machanics. Physicists would tell you that we should not give special treatment to light just because we arbitrarily have organs that receive this small bandwidth.

I read "The Elegant Universe" also, and I can also recommend it, although its goal is to give an overview of the Unifying Theory / string theory rather than EM wave propogation itself. If light is really your only goal, I would pick up a book on wave and quantum mechanics, and at books end you will have a most intimate knowledge of how light works on a physical level, although granted to wrestle the most out of the book you will likely need at least a reasonable good working knowledge of calculus.
 
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buckeyegrad;867198; said:
Two reasons. First, I want to read something outside of my normal stomping grounds in the humanities and social sciences. I think it is a good exercise to do from time to time in order to expand one's thinking. For whatever reason, the nature of light was always an area that interested me when I was younger, especially its dual nature as both particle and wavelength, but I never had the time to study it. Second, I want to know what our scientific knowledge has to say about light because I would like to contemplate the possibility of light existing prior to the primary natural sources we attribute it to (i.e. stars).
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Cool.

I've been thinking a little bit about time recently... as a "force" of nature, if you will.
 
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buckeyegrad;867198; said:
Two reasons. First, I want to read something outside of my normal stomping grounds in the humanities and social sciences. I think it is a good exercise to do from time to time in order to expand one's thinking. For whatever reason, the nature of light was always an area that interested me when I was younger, especially its dual nature as both particle and wavelength, but I never had the time to study it. Second, I want to know what our scientific knowledge has to say about light because I would like to contemplate the possibility of light existing prior to the primary natural sources we attribute it to (i.e. stars).
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Not related to light (sorry) but the books The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe, both by Brian Greene, are great books that deal with the nature of the universe from relative, quantum and string bases that are very interesting and written for lay (if you will) audiences. Kind of related to what you're looking for.
 
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