"The captivating, all-but-forgotten story of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and the search for a planet that never existed. For more than fifty years, the world's top scientists searched for the "missing" planet Vulcan, whose existence was mandated by Isaac Newton's theories of gravity. Countless hours were spent on the hunt for the elusive orb, and some of the era's most skilled astronomers even claimed to have found it. There was just one problem: It was never there. In The Hunt for Vulcan, Thomas Levenson follows the ...
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"The captivating, all-but-forgotten story of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and the search for a planet that never existed. For more than fifty years, the world's top scientists searched for the "missing" planet Vulcan, whose existence was mandated by Isaac Newton's theories of gravity. Countless hours were spent on the hunt for the elusive orb, and some of the era's most skilled astronomers even claimed to have found it. There was just one problem: It was never there. In The Hunt for Vulcan, Thomas Levenson follows the visionary scientists who inhabit the story of the phantom planet, starting with Isaac Newton, who in 1687 provided an explanation for all matter in motion throughout the universe, leading to Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, who almost two centuries later built on Newton's theories and discovered Neptune, becoming the most famous scientist in the world. Le Verrier attempted to surpass that triumph by predicting the existence of yet another planet in our solar system, Vulcan. It took Albert Einstein to discern that the mystery of the missing planet was a problem not of measurements or math but of Newton's theory of gravity itself. Einstein's general theory of relativity proved that Vulcan did not and could not exist, and that the search for it had merely been a quirk of operating under the wrong set of assumptions about the universe. Levenson tells the previously untold tale of how the "discovery" of Vulcan in the nineteenth century set the stage for Einstein's monumental breakthrough, the greatest individual intellectual achievement of the twentieth century." --
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. Book and dust jacket are in very good condition. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Shows minimal wear such as frayed or folded edges, minor rips and tears, and/or slightly worn binding. May have stickers and/or contain inscription on title page. No observed missing pages.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. Hardcover first edition, 1st printing (2015) in Very Good+/Near Fine condition with a VG price-clipped dust jacket. The covers are in great shape with only light shelf wear and indented spine ends. The binding is square and tight. Small abrasion to the front flyleaf. The interior pages are clean and unmarked. Thee is a small 1/2 inch tear at the top front corner of the rear of the jacket; otherwise, the jacket looks great. The book will be carefully packaged for shipment for protection from the elements. USPS electronic tracking number issued free of charge. 256 pages.
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Seller's Description:
Used book in very good and clean conditions. Minor cosmetic defects may be present. Pages and cover intact. May include library marks notes marks and highlighting. Fast Shipping.