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Title:
Gravity : a very short introduction / Timothy Clifton.
Author:
Clifton, Timothy, author.
Publication Information:
Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, [2017]

©2017
Call Number:
QC178 .C554 2017
Abstract:
Timothy Clifton looks at the development of our understanding of gravity since the early observations of Kepler and Newtonian theory. He discusses Einstein's theory of gravity, which now supplants Newton's, showing how it allows us to understand why the frequency of light changes as it passes through a gravitational field, why GPS satellites need their clocks corrected as they orbit the Earth, and why the orbits of distant neutron stars speed up. Today, almost 100 years after Einstein published his theory of gravity, we have even detected the waves of gravitational radiation that he predicted. Clifton concludes by considering the testing and application of general relativity in astrophysics and cosmology, and looks at dark energy and efforts such as string theory to combine gravity with quantum mechanics.
Edition:
First edition.
ISBN:
9780198729143
Series:
Very short introductions ; 512

Very short introductions ; 512.
Physical Description:
103 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm.
Contents:
Preface -- 1. From Newton to Einstein -- 2. Gravity in the Solar system -- 3. Extrasolar tests of gravity -- 4. Gravitational waves -- 5. Cosmology -- 6. Frontiers of gravitational physics -- Epilogue.
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