Review by Choice Review
Five Equations is an outstanding account of the achievements of Newton, Bernoulli, Faraday, Clausius, and Einstein. Guillen, science editor for ABC and a physics and mathematics instructor at Harvard, does an outstanding job of presenting to the layperson the work of these five brilliant scientists. The engaging accounts are a blend of the biographical and the scientific, and are presented in simple, everyday language. For example, after reading the book, most will understand the notion of Einstein's special relativity theory. The book deserves to be in public, college and university, and even high school libraries and promises to become a classic. W. R. Lee; Iowa State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Take one part each of natural philosophy, biography, and historical novel, mix together, and you have this adventure through two centuries of changing scientific thought. Guillen chooses Newton's universal law of gravitation, Bernoulli's law of fluid flow pressure, Faraday's law relating electricity and magnetism, Clausius' law of constantly increasing entropy, and Einstein's law relating mass and energy, and in each instance discusses the common beliefs (often dominated by religious thinking) of the time, follows that with a short account of the scientist and his discovery, and ends by considering the effect of the discovery on the future. Newton's inquiry leads to a heliocentric solar system and to space travel, Faraday's to the generation of electricity and the electric motor, Bernoulli's to the airplane, etc. Far from being dauntingly technical, Guillen's presentations show how each man overcame significant obstacles and changed the world. He is a good storyteller who will enlighten many about aspects of these five equations that even many an erstwhile engineering student does not know. --Alan Hirsch
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Harvard mathematician Guillen looks at five mathematical breakthroughs and the theorists behind them, among them Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Guillen, an instructor in physics and mathematics at Harvard, devotes this work to discussions of five significant equations in physics and the individuals who developed them. The individuals are Issac Newton (universal gravitation), Daniel Bernoulli (hydrodynamic pressure), Michael Faraday (thermodynamics), Rudolf Clausius (thermodynamics), and Albert Einstein (special relativity). Guillen sets their work in the context of the science of their times with accounts that are obviously fictionalized, containing many purported conversations and private thoughts of the physicists in question. The prose is quite purplish in places, and the matters of fact and interpretation are often questionable if not outright wrong. Not recommended for most libraries.Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Well, of course E = mc; that's the last in chronological order of the five favorites that Guillen extols in this lively exposition of science for the layman. Good Morning America's science host and a Harvard instructor in physics and mathematics, Guillen (Bridges to Infinity, not reviewed) actually goes to great lengths to spare the reader the mathematical details of his equations. Instead, in showing how scientists developed these laws, he spices each chapter with emotional fervor and probes the innermost thoughts of his heroes in a way that scholarly biographers normally eschew. So, for example, we read that Isaac Newton, settled with an intellectual family after unhappier foster homes, ""just that suddenly had the inkling of what it was like to feel normal,"" or that the younger of the Bernoulli brothers (Daniel) was ""raring to flex his intellectual muscles,"" or that to Faraday ""facts were as sacred as scriptural voices."" Add to the hyperbole the bits about our heroes' childhoods, marriages, scientific rivalries, and feuds (for which the Bernoullis were justly famous), and the result is a crowd-pleasing kind of book designed to make the science as palatable as possible. In fact, Guillen succeeds. With all the juicy bits and spoon-feeding (even using words in equations before symbols), he nicely explains: Newton's law of universal gravitation (with an epilogue on space travel); Bernoulli's law of hydrodynamic pressure (with epilogue on why planes don't fall down); Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction (with epilogue on dynamos); Rudolf Clausius and the second law of thermodynamics (epilogue on entropy and the Krakatoa explosion); and Einstein on special relativity (with epilogue on the atom bomb). Great for high schoolers, the math-anxious but curious, and others who want to know--but not too much. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
