Product Description
Mr. Tompkins is back! The mild-mannered bank clerk with the short attention span and vivid imagination has inspired, charmed, and informed young and old alike since the publication of the hugely successful Mr Tompkins in Paperback (by George Gamow) in 1965. Now, this highly affable character returns to embark on a set of adventures that explore the extreme edges of the universe–the smallest, the largest, the fastest, and the farthest. Just by following the experi… More >>
The New World of Mr Tompkins: George Gamow’s Classic Mr Tompkins in Paperback
Tags: experi, george gamow, short attention span, tompkins, universe, vivid imagination
#1 by Tatsuo Tabata on June 28, 2010 - 4:42 am
The famous physicist and excellent popularizer of science George Gamow wrote the original version of this book “Mr Tompkins in Paperback” in 1965. Since then the understanding of the physical world from its smallest to largest entities has shown much progress. Thus the book, which was once one of the best classics in the genre of physics popularizations, needed a revision to continue its role of introducing the modern knowledge of fundamental physics to laypersons.
Russell Stannard, an able popularizer of science, courageously tackled this difficult problem of modernizing “Mr Tompkins.” Four chapters out of 17 are entirely new. Old chapters describe the theory of relativity, quantum physics and atomic and nuclear physics through Mr Tompkins’ adventurous dreams and a series of lectures given by “the professor” to the lay-audience. Tompkins is among the listeners of the lectures, gets acquainted with the professor’s daughter Maud, and . . . Maud’s look, hairstyle and dresses in illustrations and the episode of romance have also been modernized. The new chapters treat black holes, a high-energy accelerator (”atom smasher”) and the results of physics gotten by it, quarks and the Standard Model, and the relation between the life of the Universe and particle physics.
Even the old chapters have been rewritten considerably. For example, Chapter 2 newly tells about an experimental evidence by neutral pion decay for the constancy of light speed, demonstration of relativistic time dilation at CERN by the change of life time of muons traveling at high speed, etc. The “twin paradox” of relativity has also been added in Chapter 2, and its further explanation is given in Chapter 3 (here is a minor but confusing error of “she” and “he” wrongly interchanged). I like this addition very much, because the “paradox” bothered me even after I had learned the theory of relativity at a university. (For a more complete explanation of the twin paradox, I recommend Max Born’s “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity” to readers of an inquiring mind.)
Being one of old Japanese fans of Tompkins, I feel a little sorry that the name of Hideki Yukawa has disappeared from the present version. Surely, his meson theory of nuclear forces became outdated, because constituents of nucleons and mesons, i.e., quarks and gluons, had been discovered. However, Yukawa’s theory was a strong driving force for the birth of particle physics, and a good place where his name can be mentioned remains in Chapter 13 (in the original version it appeared in a later chapter, which has been omitted in the present version).
I highly recommend this book especially to young people who wish to major in physical sciences. There are a small number of simple equations of relativity and formulas of particle reactions. For those who are eager to learn about mysteries of the micro world and the universe, however, the presence of these would not be any hindrance to the enjoyment of the book but rather be an attractive feature. Some of old fans of Tompkins would also read the new version to welcome Stannard’s good job.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Bernie on June 28, 2010 - 6:31 am
I wish I had read the original book instead of this one, or at least read it first. The original had a charm, in both words and illustrations, that this revised version lacks. You can view excerpts from both the original and the revised versions on this website to see what I mean. They begin to show up as soon as the first page.
This revised version changes or adds some things to reflect discoveries and technologies since the original book was written. But it also changes the caliber of the story-telling that gave the orignal charm and clarity. The reviser has written 4 new chapters, three of which become the final chapters of the new book. In thsoe chapters Stannard has almost ignored the style and objectives of Gamow’s original. Gamow attempted to present complex physics ideas to the interested reader in ways that might be called “spoon feeding”. There was an effort to inject analogies and examples that help the reader understand the concepts. In the newly written chapters it seems like Stannard decided he didn’t have time for that, or perhaps didn’t have the understanding or confidence to follow through on the original approach. The difference in approach is obvious, and not for the better.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Robert D. C. Shearer on June 28, 2010 - 7:47 am
The results of many of the theories of modern physics are often very hard to grasp since they operate on such a different scale from most people’s everyday lives. This book solves that problem by tinkering with the physical constants of the universe to bring them into the realm of human experience: the theory of relativity is described through a narrative set in a universe in which the speed of light is only 30 miles per hour, the topology of space is explained using a universe which is only a few hundred yards in length, and the complex interactions of subatomic particles are narrated from the points of view of the particles themselves. While the social and emotional struggles of quarks and leptons may not give the reader nearly as much mathematical rigor as other overviews of modern physics, they are certainly much more entertaining and provide an intuitive grasp even for readers who don’t understand the underlying theories discussed.
This is a great book for anyone interested in modern physics, and a terrific introduction for junior high or high school students who might have the opportunity to study physics later in life.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by A. K. Johnston on June 28, 2010 - 9:31 am
My introduction to the world of the mild-mannered bank clerk with an interest in modern Physics came through copies of the original 1940s books rescued from a school library “disposal” pile. Unlike the school librarian I treasured those books, which presented hard science in a humorous, accessible way, and learned a lot from them.
George Gamow brought his original material up to date for “Mr Tompkins in Paperback” shortly before his death in 1968. However, since then Physics has moved on still further, and a new update was appropriate. Russell Stannard took on the challenge, and has done a superb job.
The new version brings both the science and the charming human back story fully up to date, and also addresses some inconsistencies in the earlier text and illustrations caused by their derivation from a group of separate magazine articles.
The books tackles all the main areas of modern Physics, from relativity to particle physics. Each topic is presented by both a serious (but straightforward) lecture text, and also by analogies in a dream experienced by one off the main characters. The two reinforce one another, and should leave the reader with a good basic understanding of all the key concepts. Familiarity with basic arithmetic and elementary concepts of classical physics are the only prerequisites, but the text should also be enjoyable for those with greater background knowledge.
I am very glad to see this classic developed for a new generation, and thoroughly recommend it.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Theresa Mendez on June 28, 2010 - 12:20 pm
This book was an excellent followup of the first. The old being made many years before this one had some holes in it but this new one fills all of them in. I would recomend this to anyone who read the first or to anyone interested in quantum phycis.
Rating: 4 / 5