Brian Clegg: Gravity

A history of gravity, and a study of its importance and relevance to our lives, as well as its influence on other areas of science. 

Physicists will tell you that four forces control the universe. Of these, gravity may the most obvious, but it is also the most mysterious. Newton managed to predict the force of gravity but couldn’t explain how it worked at a distance. Einstein picked up on the simple premise that gravity and acceleration are interchangeable to devise his mind-bending general relativity, showing how matter warps space and time. Not only did this explain how gravity worked – and how apparently simple gravitation has four separate components – but it predicted everything from black holes to gravity’s effect on time. Whether it’s the reality of anti-gravity or the unexpected discovery that a ball and a laser beam drop at the same rate, gravity is the force that fascinates. Gravity: How the Weakest Force in the Universe Shaped Our Lives

It is an interesting read so far. I have always had a fondness of the historical take information can  provide from that historical sense.  Each time an author can enlighten the world with our science forbears it makes for a deeper feel of what came out of these scientists as precursors to where we are today. I enjoy how Brian Clegg can fill in the gaps with what I had learn of Sir Isaac Newton. The historical progress from the ancient Greeks to what has transpire to today in terms of our definition of Gravity.

It allows one to look at around them and the way in which early ideas became foundations points from which development move on toward the world of the science we have today in terms of that gravity.