#132 in Science & math books
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Reddit mentions of Cosmos
Sentiment score: 8
Reddit mentions: 14
We found 14 Reddit mentions of Cosmos. Here are the top ones.
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Color | Black |
Height | 7.96 Inches |
Length | 5.16 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | December 2013 |
Weight | 1 Pounds |
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This is definitely above your level, and it's from 1982 so it's a little outdated, but if you're really interested in astrophysics then it might be worth checking it out and trying to work through at least the first few sections. I think it's written so that you can follow it without too much math involvement.
Frank Shu - The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy
Otherwise, there are a lot of great popular-writing (i.e. not a textbook) books about physics/astrophysics. Here are a few:
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Carl Sagan - Cosmos
Neil deGrasse Tyson - Death By Black Hole, and Other Cosmic Quandaries
My biggest advice, though, for taking physics in high school is to try to do as well as you possibly can in your math classes. Those are the most important for getting into physics. If you do well in math then physics should be pretty easy.
Cosmos (the original, and I think the new one) has a companion book. It was a NYT bestseller, in 1980, so it'll be easy to find at a secondhand book shop.
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345539435/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462352386&sr=8-2&keywords=cosmos
I posted this response to the supposed 'emptiness' of a secular life, on a different sub:
Try reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345539435/
The universe is an astounding place- just our galaxy has hundreds of billions of suns, and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies. It is mindbogglingly huge.
Life is astounding. Evolving on our planet for a billion years, from single cells to human consciousness, trees, insects, whales, birds, dinosaurs, and countless millions of life forms in between.
Have you watched David Attenborough's Planet Earth series? It is so beautiful it will make you cry: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02544td
Have you been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MOMA in NYC, or your local art or natural history museum?
How about laughter? Comedy brings me great joy. I watch the Daily Show, Bill Maher, and have enjoyed other series over the years, but I realize comedy is highly culture-specific.
Exercise? If you are feeling down, going for a jog or workout is a great natural endorphin rush.
Food! Do you like to cook? This is another wonderful joy in life.
Do you have friends? Even if you are in an isolated place, with mostly fundamentalist religious people, perhaps there are others you can talk to, and if not, be glad that we live in 2018 and you have the internet!
I wish you luck. It takes great courage and strength to acknowledge that your previous way of life was based on a collective delusion, even if it was a comforting one. But:
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” ― Flannery O'Connor
Bill Nye
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Carl Sagan
Stephen Hawking
Other
Further reading/research: (Not all of which I've gotten to read yet. Some of which may be quite tangentially relevant to the discussion at hand along with the books and sites I mentioned above. Consider this more a list of books pertaining to the history of technology, machining, metrology, some general science and good engineering texts.)
Dan Gelbart's Youtube Channel
Engineerguy's Youtube Channel
Nick Mueller's Youtube Channel
mrpete222/tubalcain's youtube channel
Tom Lipton (oxtools) Youtube Channel
Suburban Tool's Youtube Channel
NYCNC's Youtube Channel
Computer History Museum's Youtube Channel
History of Machine Tools, 1700-1910 by Steeds
Studies in the History of Machine Tools by Woodbury
A History of Machine Tools by Bradley
Tools for the Job: A History of Machine Tools to 1950 by The Science Museum
A History of Engineering Metrology by Hume
Tools and Machines by Barnard
The Testing of Machine Tools by Burley
Modern machine shop tools, their construction, operation and manipulation, including both hand and machine tools: a book of practical instruction by Humphrey & Dervoort
Machine-Shop Tools and Methods by Leonard
A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement by Whitelaw
Handbook of Optical Metrology: Principles and Applications by Yoshizawa
Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon by Gray
Machine Shop Training Course Vol 1 & 2 by Jones
A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982
Numerical Control: Making a New Technology by Reintjes
History of Strength of Materials by Timoshenko
Rust: The Longest War by Waldman
The Companion Reference Book on Dial and Test Indicators: Based on our popular website www.longislandindicator.com by Meyer
Optical Shop Testing by Malacara
Lost Moon: The Preilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell and Kruger
Kelly: More Than My Share of It All by Johnson & Smith
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Rich & Janos
Unwritten Laws of Engineering by King
Advanced Machine Work by Smith
Accurate Tool Work by Goodrich
Optical Tooling, for Precise Manufacture and Alignment by Kissam
The Martian: A Novel by Weir
Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain by Young Budynas & Sadegh
Materials Selection in Mechanical Design by Ashby
Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer by Shute
Cosmos by Sagan
Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook by Smith Carol Smith wrote a number of other great books such as Engineer to Win.
Tool & Cutter Sharpening by Hall
Handbook of Machine Tool Analysis by Marinescu, Ispas & Boboc
The Intel Trinity by Malone
Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Thompson
A Handbook on Tool Room Grinding
Tolerance Design: A Handbook for Developing Optimal Specifications by Creveling
Inspection and Gaging by Kennedy
Precision Engineering by Evans
Procedures in Experimental Physics by Strong
Dick's Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes or How They Did it in the 1870's by Dick
Flextures: Elements of Elastic Mechanisms by Smith
Precision Engineering by Venkatesh & Izman
Metal Cutting Theory and Practice by Stephenson & Agapiou
American Lathe Builders, 1810-1910 by Cope As mentioned in the above post, Kennth Cope did a series of books on early machine tool builders. This is one of them.
Shop Theory by Henry Ford Trade Shop
Learning the lost Art of Hand Scraping: From Eight Classic Machine Shop Textbooks A small collection of articles combined in one small book. Lindsay Publications was a smallish company that would collect, reprint or combine public domain source material related to machining and sell them at reasonable prices. They retired a few years ago and sold what rights and materials they had to another company.
How Round Is Your Circle?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet by Bryant & Sangwin
Machining & CNC Technology by Fitzpatrick
CNC Programming Handbook by Smid
Machine Shop Practice Vol 1 & 2 by Moltrecht
The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles A fantastic book with tons of free online material, labs, and courses built around it. This book could take a 6th grader interested in learning, and teach them the fundamentals from scratch to design a basic computer processor and programming a simple OS etc.
Bosch Automotive Handbook by Bosch
Trajectory Planning for Automatic Machines and Robots by Biagiotti & Melchiorri
The Finite Element Method: Its Basis and Fundamentals by Zhu, Zienkiewicz and Taylor
Practical Treatise on Milling and Milling Machines by Brown & Sharpe
Grinding Technology by Krar & Oswold
Principles of Precision Engineering by Nakazawa & Takeguchi
Foundations of Ultra-Precision Mechanism Design by Smith
I.C.S. Reference Library, Volume 50: Working Chilled Iron, Planer Work, Shaper and Slotter Work, Drilling and Boring, Milling-Machine Work, Gear Calculations, Gear Cutting
I. C. S. Reference Library, Volume 51: Grinding, Bench, Vise, and Floor Work, Erecting, Shop Hints, Toolmaking, Gauges and Gauge Making, Dies and Die Making, Jigs and Jig Making
and many more ICS books on various engineering, technical and non-technical topics.
American Machinists' Handbook and Dictionary of Shop Terms: A Reference Book of Machine-Shop and Drawing-Room Data, Methods and Definitions, Seventh Edition by Colvin & Stanley
Modern Metal Cutting: A Practical Handbook by Sandvik
Mechanical Behavior of Materials by Dowling
Engineering Design by Dieter and Schmidt
[Creative Design of Products and Systems by Saeed]()
English and American Tool Builders by Roe
Machine Design by Norton
Control Systems by Nise
That doesn't include some random books I've found when traveling and visiting used book stores. :)
Great movie, and even greater book (more detailed, esp at the ending). +1 would recommend.
The book list just keeps growing in so many different directions that it's hard to identify which I want to tackle next (I also have a tendency to take meticulous notes while I read and that slows the process down even further!). Some of the topics I intend to read about once I'm done with the books mentioned:
Plus a bunch of books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Sagan, and others. There are way too many. And all the fiction books I want to read too! It's not that I didn't read books before, but my faith transition has sparked an intense desire to study and learn far greater than I ever experienced before.
I don't know, but NDGT wrote a new foreward for an updated version of the original book: http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345539435/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394477843&sr=8-2&keywords=cosmos
Read Carl Sagan's Cosmos. If you're truly interested in physics, it'll motivate you to learn as much as you physically can.
Thanks for responding!
I think that there are a few books which have influenced me greatly, but I have a much more expansive list of books I want to read than ones I have already consumed.
To start, you should try the greats:
For a historical perspective, try: The Barbarian Conversion
Evolutionary perspective: The Selfish Gene
And, if you have a sense of wonder:
But this is such a small selection... Try them out and let them guide you to many more works.
Carl Sagan - The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark + Cosmos (I haven't read it, just watched the show, so I don't know how it compares)
Brian Cox - Wonders Of... book series (again, haven't read them but watched the mini-series)
I have 0 experience with incarceration, but I have loads of experience with books. Not sure his interests, but here are a few books I adore:
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Basically an Ocean's 11 heist story set in a world similar to Game of Thrones.
The Name of the Wind - (from the Amazon description) The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen.
Cosmos - Carl Sagan saw the best in our species. This book is what the TV series was based on.
I would encourage your friend to read text books as well while he is inside as well. Pick a topic they have an interest in, and find an older textbook on the subject. For me that would be this book. Not a topic I was educated on, but something I have an interest in.
Thank you for supporting your friend!
This really depends on what you want to learn. I'll throw out some of my favorites.
Coming of Age In The Milky Way
Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure The Heavens
Of course there's Carl Sagan's Cosmos which is a bit outdated, but still a fantastic read. I'd personally recommend any of Sagans books. Demon Haunted World (about science and skepticism), Pale Blue Dot (spiritual sequel to Cosmos)
Death by Black Hole
Atom: A Single Oxygen Atom's Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth... and Beyond
There are a few decent books out there for beginners: