The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet

by Richard Panek

Overview

What is gravity? Nobody knows—and just about nobody knows that nobody knows. How something so pervasive can also be so mysterious, and how that mystery can be so wholly unrecognized outside the field of physics, is one of the greatest conundrums in modern science. But as award-winning author Richard Panek shows in this groundbreaking, mind-bending book, gravity is a cold case that’s beginning to heat up.

In The Trouble with Gravity, Panek invites the reader to experience this ubiquitous yet elusive force in a breathtakingly new way. Gravity, Panek explains, structures not only our bodies and our physical world, but also our minds and culture. From our very beginnings, humans’ conceptions of gravity have been inextricably bound to our understanding of existence itself. As we get closer and closer to solving the riddle of gravity, it is not only physics that is becoming clearer. We are also getting to know ourselves as never before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358299578
Publisher:	HMH Books
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	258
Sales rank:	477,502
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

A Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, RICHARD PANEK is the author of The 4% Universe, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award. He is also the coauthor, with Temple Grandin, of the New York Times bestseller The Autistic Brain.
 

Table of Contents

Gravity: An Introduction 1

1 Gravity in Our Myths 9

2 Gravity in Matter 35

3 Gravity in Motion 66

4 Gravity as a Fiction 90

5 Gravity as a Fact 122

6 Gravity in Excelsis 145

7 Gravity in Our Bones 180

Gravity: In Conclusion 212

Acknowledgments 219

Notes 220

Bibliography 225

Index 232

Editorial Reviews

Thought-provoking...Panek’s inquisitive, fine-tuned narrative is full of character and, unlike many other books on physics, imbued with the friendly casualness of a coffee-shop chat. As such, it will delight both lay readers and serious students.”
—Booklist

“Fine popular primer...expert description of the spectacular things that gravity does.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“I've long been a big fan of Richard Panek’s writing. He is eloquent, smart, and a fascinating thinker, someone who is able to get me excited about topics that would have never even occurred to me. I respect and trust him—and am always eager to see what he will write next.”
—Maria Konnikova, New York Times best-selling author of Mastermind and The Confidence Game

“Richard Panek moves with startling grace and economy through the intersecting realms of philosophy and physics, always asking the unexpected question. He has forced me to rethink my fundamental assumptions about gravity—and shown me how much we can gain by doing so.”
—Andrea Barrett, author of The Air We Breathe and Archangel

“In The Trouble with Gravity, Richard Panek acts as a guide, both amiable and erudite, through one of the most puzzling mysteries of the natural world.  In explaining the various ‘explanations’ of gravity from classical to post-modern times, Panek draws us into a thoughtful meditation on the mythic, cultural, philosophical and, yes, scientific implications of what happens when a wet potato or a crystal vase slips from your hand.”
—Billy Collins

“Gravity is a mystery—one of the greatest. It has baffled and teased humans since the dawn of history and perplexes us still. Richard Panek takes us on a journey that is original, brave, and ultimately very beautiful: a reminder that sometimes science isn’t a solution but a search.”
—James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History

“Without gravity, there would be no earth, no humans, and no nonfiction books. Which would be a shame, because we’d miss out on Richard Panek’s wonderful, entertaining work. Richard takes us on a vivid journey from the arctic to the tropics, from the human skeleton to the edges of the universe, filling our imagination with counterintuitive modern science and ancient philosophy. And all of this is delivered in buoyant, almost poetic, writing. So thank you gravity and Richard.”
—A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically
 

From the Publisher

04/29/2019

Science writer Panek (The 4 Percent Universe) examines evolving theories of gravity in this thought-provoking volume, rounding up “the usual suspects—Aristotle, Newton, Einstein” to reconstruct their preconceptions and interrogate their conclusions. From the rigid spheres-only cosmology of Aristotle, which forced mathematicians to try to manipulate “the math down here to match the motions up there,” to Copernicus’s equations introducing the “possibility that Earth was a planet like any other,” to the experiments of Galileo establishing that a rolling ball “sped up at an unvarying rate,” Panek demystifies early investigations of gravity with easy humor and a philosophical bent. In contemporary theories, readers learn “the velocity of light is finite in Maxwell’s equations, too, but it’s also, crucially, something else: constant,” which, in the 1860s, shifted the paradigm once again. Ultimately, he observes, Aristotle’s view of the universe held sway for two millennia, while “Einstein’s lasted less than a decade,” thanks to the introduction of quantum mechanics. Panek’s inquisitive, fine-tuned narrative is full of character and, unlike many other books on physics, imbued with the friendly casualness of a coffee-shop chat. As such, it will delight both lay readers and serious students. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow & Carlson Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2019

The latest from Panek (The 4% Universe) is one of the best of the postgravitational-waves-discovery physics books for fans of popular science. Undeterred by Nobelist Kip Thorne amusedly telling him that the question "What is Gravity?" is meaningless, Panek proceeds to explore attempts to find an answer to the question. Beginning with myths from around the world that all differentiate between "down" here where we live and "up" there where there are stars, Panek progresses through key philosophical and scientific points made by Aristotle, John Philoponus, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and more. His journey through time is written in a conversational style with clear explanations. For example, he describes Galileo's main experiment with gravity: rolling balls of differing weights down various inclines. Panek makes clear that our understanding of gravity, and of the universe itself, is rapidly accelerating: "Aristotle's universe lasted 2000 years. Newton's…200 years. Einstein's less than a decade." VERDICT Teen and adult readers interested in better understanding the force of gravity and gaining insight into humanity's expanding knowledge of the universe will find this highly recommended book to be both accessible and enjoyable.—Sara R. Tompson, Lawrence, KS

Library Journal

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