Posted: April 7th, 2012 | Author:
admin | Filed under: Algebra, Books, Calculus, Mathematics, Movies, Physics, Self Improvement | Tags: alan watts, art, books, buddhism, carl sagan, detroit, john steinbeck, mathematics, newton, physics, stephen hawking, walt whitman | No Comments »
For my birthday this year my wife and I decided to go on a used book store tour in/near Detroit (this also happened to be on the opening day of the Tiger’s season) I wanted to document this trip. It was a great trip and a lot of fun.
We started our trip at “The Self Esteem Shop” this store sells a variety of items (including new and used books) relating to self-esteem, self-help, psychology etc. Passing by this store frequently, it does make you wonder what is inside here is a picture:
The signs outside describe their book listings as “Books to improve your life” “For ages 1 to 101″. The employees were very friendly and although we didn’t have any questions, it did seem like they were ready to answer any questions if we did have them. Most of the books were what you’d expect, psychology books, self help, improvement. Some of the books though, were quite odd. I am by no means a psychiatrist or therapist, but giving a child a book called “We were going to have a baby but had an angel instead” doesn’t seem to bode well for a kid’s self esteem. I obviously don’t know though, it might be very helpful, I’ve thankfully never been in a situation where it might be needed. Another book that kind of put me off was one by known fraudster Sylvia Browne. I don’t think most book stores you can judge by their content, I am only judging the Self Esteem Shop by it’s content because that’s what appears to be it’s main selling point. I don’t really think that these 2 books ruined the experience by any means anyway! They had a lot of books on childhood development to help children who have ADD/ADHD/Autism and other learning disabilities. Non-competitive (cooperative) games, and puppets. If you are a teacher I would definitely suggest peaking your head in here as there are so many great resources.
Books we bought: We found a book “Ten Days to Self Esteem” which seemed to be a nice introduction to helping improve one’s self image. Another book we got was “The Well Managed Classroom”
All in all, it was worth a drop in at the very least. I really wish that stores like this would be less inclined to sell the psychic and speaking to the dead nonsense, but that’s just my hangup I guess.
Self Esteem Shop
(248) 549-9900
selfesteemshop.com
32839 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak, MI 48073
The next stop was “Classic Book Shop” also on Woodward
Classic Book Shop
Phone
248-549-0220
Location
32336 Woodward Avenue
Royal Oak, Michigan 48073
This place definitely was an unexpected (and pleasant!) surprise. A variety of older books of all kinds, lots of categories. All packed into this small shop. The shop keeper kept mostly to himself while we shopped around. The prices in this store were more than reasonable, hardcovers rarely were over $20 (and if they were you could see why). I would definitely recommend this if you are looking to find a book, but don’t know quite what you’re looking for and like to find things off the beaten path.
Books from "Classic Books"
We bought the following books here to give you an idea of price our total was about $70 :
A translated copy of “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” which also includes “Optiks” by Newton
4 John Steinbeck novels “The Long Valley” “In Dubious Battle” Tortilla Flat” “Cup of Gold”
“God Created the Integers” a collection of the great mathematical works, with commentary by Stephen Hawking
“Cosmos” a companion guide to the television series by Carl Sagan
“Guillotine” a history of the instrument most popularly used during the French Revolution
“Travel Log” a useful book for travelers of the world.
“Pardon My Body” a pulp fiction type novel which amused us (Classic Books had these at the end of some of their bookshelves, very fun and interesting books).
This book store is definitely a must stop place for the book lover, lots of great finds and very friendly service, they also offer a book repair service.
Royal Oak Books
(248) 545-6510
28806 Wo
odward Ave, Royal Oak, MI 48067
Our next stop was Royal Oak Books this book store is located on a corner of Woodward near 12 Mile. The outside of it definitely looks aged and the inside is the same. The selection of books was varied in here, but much more overwhelming. Many of the books were on the top shelves where even Manute Bol would have trouble reaching them. The shop keep was a nice lady who had 2 cats keeping guard. The cats helped show us through the store in exchange for pets. Seriously though, the amount of books was overwhelming, there was a large selection of paperbacks (things like Grisham and Christie) a room for religious books (mostly Christianity). Some of the shelves were noticeably worn and old.
There wasn’t too many books that I was interested in, but I did find “A Brief History of Time” which is something that I had found at the library many times as a kid, but I’ve never owned. So I was happy to be able to take it off their hands.
The next book store we visited was John K King Books North
Ferndale residence will recognize this from the sign post above the store. This book store offers a variety of selection in a well organized fashion. They are a little more modern than other used book stores. They have signs clearly stating the section you are in the front desk workers are regularly eager to help. They usually have some kind of great music playing when you walk in ( a variety of R&B when we went on Thursday). This store is where I originally got my “The World of Mathematics” collection from a couple of months ago.
However we did get “Turkish Reflections” and “Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire” on this trip. Totally worth it. This is a great book store even to just browse around in (although they have great prices so you really should just buy something).
The layout of the store is really nice, their shelves aren’t too high or too low, multiple rows make for easy viewings. There is a young adult section too. One thing they are happy to remind you of with a quote by
Patton Oswald: “If you haggle in a used book store, you are FUNDAMENTALLY EVIL”
John K King Books North
(248) 548-9050
rarebooklink.com
22524 Woodward Ave, Ferndale, MI 48220
Next we went to what was certainly the smallest of the bookstores “Library Bookstore Inc.”
169 West 9 Mile Road Ferndale, MI 48220
This store was small, but seemed to offer a different variety of books than the other stores. For example the lines were lined with music sheets from the first half of the twentieth century. Included high up on the wall was one in particular I wanted to see, which had The Marx Brothers on it, but I was too scared to ask about it. Once again, this store is great for browsing around in and finding something you may not normally be interested in. I was very tired at this point and we still had one more book store to go to, so I found a few books I was interested in and we were out of there.
3 Alan Watts books, “This is it”, “The Book”, “Nature: Man and Woman” and 1 Walt Whitman collection of poetry. One thing to note about this place: They do not have a credit card processing maching (they do take cards though) it’s better to bring cash to a used book store.
After a little bit of fighting with our GPS (which hasn’t been updated in a while) we made it to King’s Books in downtown Detroit (“De Twai” for those who like to speak with French accents)
This place isn’t so much a used book store, as a museum/used book mall. You could almost literally find a book on most any subject if you looked hard enough
As you can see, the the store hosts a huge amount of old books. It’s 4 stories tall, and is an iconic Detroit landmark. If you are looking for rare books quirky off the wall books this is the place. You can also find old radio shows, antiques of various kinds and old records (I saw a Sachmo record in a glass case hiding behind some other memorabilia but didn’t get a chance to get a good look at it). I really love this store, and I hope others discover a love for it too. Their website is the same as their sister store in Ferndale, but you really need to go in and check it out. They also seem to know the number 1 rule of being in the used book store game: know your audience. For example, while looking for Asimov, you may encounter a sign that leads you to another shelf full of Asimov books (see the gallery for a picture) looking for a Ray Bradbury short story? No problem the workers have already marked the books with tags so that you can find them in anthologies or other collections. From this store we bought: A Munch book featuring his artwork, and ”Arthur C. Clarke: Time Probe”
Posted: January 24th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: elementary particles, physics, theoretical physics, women can do physics, women in science | No Comments »
When I first read the article about Girls needing Physics to be “Dumbed Down” in order to attract women to physics, the first person I thought of was Lisa Randall.
Lisa Randall does her research in theoretical physics at Harvard University where she earned her undergraduate degree.
Her research involves elementary particles. You might have heard the words “Up Quark, Down Quark” or “Fermions” or now more popularly “Higgs-Boson” these are all part of what physicists call the “Standard Model” this is the stuff that stuff is made from. Her work concerns putting these particles together and complementing them with the known fundamental forces (there are four fundamental forces, weak/strong nuclear, electromagentic, and gravity. gravity being the weakest of the four).
Randall helped develop what is called the Randall–Sundrum model. A sort of geometric understanding of time and space in a 5th dimension. This model allows theoretical physicists to do away with an older model known as the large extra dimensional theories which try to help explain the weakness of gravity and how that relates to elementary particles.
Randall has written 2 books , the first Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions is based heavily on her research. The second Knocking on Heavens Door is a love letter to science, describing the latest developments in physics and how we learn about the universe.
After thought:
I don’t personally know how to bring more women into physics, I suspect that there are many possible reasons that there is such a low number, and it probably has to do with early childhood development (for example: boys like math, girls like reading attitudes). What I do know is that making physics classes “easier” for women to attract them is the wrong way to go about it. If you gave a boy and a girl a model of the universe and started telling them about it, I doubt either one would say “Oh this is very uninteresting and it is because of my gender”, in the same vein, neither one would say “Oh this is very uninteresting because it is hard”. Let’s try not discouraging little girls and boys in their interests and instead let them tell US what they are interested in. You’d be surprised how much kids want to learn when they are simply given the tools to do so.
Posted: January 24th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: atoms, chemistry, physics, science, women in science | No Comments »
It’s interesting, to me at least. That even now in elementary school text books we are taught about these fascinating things called “Atoms” when only 150 years ago, we had no idea what these things were, or indeed if they existed at all. We can now, in great detail, and with great accuracy describe how an atom of an element is created, how it would perform under nuclear processes and what the by products of those processes are.
In 1924 Maria Mayer started to go to university to pursue a degree in mathematics, but soon after found herself stolen by the ideas of physics at the time (at this time there was a great deal of new discoveries in physics). After completing her Ph.D at the University of Göttingen she went on to move to the United States with her now husband, Dr. Joseph Edward Mayer.
Doing volunteer research work for John Hopkins, she was never awarded an official position, this was partly due to the fact that she was a woman, but also due to the fact that the school has strict rules against hiring and giving preference to family members.
This would change when her husband had moved to the University of Chicago, where she would begin her research on a mathematical model of the atom. You have to understand, while we had an understanding of where an element might fit on the periodic table, at this point, there was no way to tell where those electrons fit together. Goeppert-Mayer’s research allowed us now to see how an atom actually was put together, which lead to further research about newer elements, and even elements that haven’t been discovered naturally yet! She later won the Nobel Prize for this work.
Despite the sexism of her time, she was able to help produce something so mathematically beautiful that it is now taught in entry level Chemistry classes at Universities around the world. A mathematical model of the Atom.
Click here for more information about nuclear shells and Goeppert-Mayer’s “Magic Numbers”
Posted: January 24th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: astronomy, dark matter, physics, women in science | No Comments »
Depending on how many science classes you’ve taken, you’ve probably heard names of famous scientists; Einstein, Newton, Feynman. Many of the scientists in text books are male, with the occasional exception left for Miss Curie and her detection of radioactive isotopes.
But there are so many great women! In all of the sciences, there are women who have (almost silently) almost changed entire fields based on their work. Vera Rubin is one of these women.
Before we get to her discovery, we need to talk about what lead up to it. In the past the universe was mostly thought of as static and unmoving. After some careful observation it was found that the universe was actually expanding (a result of the initial expansion of the big bang more on that here)!
Vera Rubin is an interesting woman, she had been interested in astronomy since a very young age. Her father helped her to construct a telescope. Eventually she graduated from Vasser with a degree in astronomy. Later she famously applied to Princeton but was denied on the basis that she was a woman (this rule was not revised until 1975). After her rejection she decided to finish her Ph.D at Georgetown University, where it is said that her husband would wait patiently in the car while she went to school because she did not like driving.
After this, she began doing some work with spectroscopy. Remember all of that stuff above about the universe expanding? We measure that by looking a a phenomenon called “Red Shifting” (this phenomenon needs it’s very own post, but here is something to tide you over). So Vera was looking at this phenomenon and noticed something very suspicious. You see if the universe were expanding at a constant rate, and the universe came from the same place, there should be a sort of slow down in far away galaxies and stars. But the far away galaxies were moving much faster! There wasn’t enough gravity in the universe to account for this though, what was happening?
Vera had discovered something that is still puzzling scientists today, called “Dark Matter” this stuff surrounds us, and yet it doesn’t (directly) interact with us. Because of her discovery, we are able to make great predictions about how objects interact with one another in space.
Here is something else interesting about dark matter: just how much of it there is in the universe! First I want you to think about how much matter there is in the universe just close your eyes and think about every star, every planet, every single speck of dust floating in the universe. Done thinking? Now multiply that by 10. There is a 10:1 ratio of dark matter to our “regular matter”. We wouldn’t know about it at all if it weren’t for Vera Rubin.
Vera Rubin is currently 83 years old and still does astronomy.
Posted: January 13th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: astronomy, physics, sun | No Comments »
intothecontinuum:
Here is something to think about that was only casually mentioned in passing in the recent video that was posted.
The sunlight you may or may not have experienced today finally managed to reach you after a ~100,000 year long journey since it was originally created at the Sun’s core!
Since the speed of light is finite, about 300,000,000 meters/second (or about 671,000,000 miles/hour), it takes time for it to travel from one point in space to another.
Given that the distance from Earth to the Sun is about 150,000,000,000 meters (about 93,000,000 miles) it takes about 8 minutes for light to reach us!
But this is just the time it takes light to reach us from the surface of the sun.
The light coming from the surface of the Sun is itself created as a by-product of nuclear fusion occurring deep in the Sun’s core.
Once light is created at at the Sun’s core it begins its journey to the surface of the Sun some 700,000,000 meters (430,000 miles) away from the core.
One might assume that this light takes the shortest path and heads straight to the surface, which would only take a couple seconds of travel time.
However, this is not the case because there is all kinds of star stuff that gets in the way.
An actual photon may only travel a mere fraction of a centimeter (anywhere between .01 and .3 centimeters depending on how close it is to the surface) before it makes a collision with other matter thereby diverting its path to some other random direction.
Photons continue moving in these seemingly random trajectories, bumping into other particles along the way, and don’t actually reach the surface until about 100,000 years later (give or take an order of magnitude)!
This kind of behavior characterizing the photons motion is modeled by something called a random walk, and is illustrated in a few different instances in the animations above.
Random walks have widespread applications through out the sciences and mathematics. The idea of random walks are even used in some computer algorithms to allow for more efficient solutions to some problems.
One particular application of personal interest, and a rather abstract generalization of the idea, is the quantum random walk, in which the superposition principle of quantum mechanics is used to put the trajectory into a combination of multiple possible trajectories to assist quantum computers in solving problems. The workings of Grover’s search algorithm can be thought of in this way. This isn’t the only instance that relates quantum mechanics to the workings of the Sun (see here).
Anyway, next time you are out in the relentless light of the Sun you may wonder what was going on some 100,000 years ago when that light first originated in the Sun, or maybe even where you’ll be 100,000 years from now when the light being created in the Sun at this moment finally reaches Earth.
(GIFs created from this Java app)
Great Post!
However we did get “Turkish Reflections” and “Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire” on this trip. Totally worth it. This is a great book store even to just browse around in (although they have great prices so you really should just buy something).
