Reviews for Pyotr Nikolayevich Lebedev

The average rating for Pyotr Nikolayevich Lebedev based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-09 00:00:00 Natalie Ross Instead of review Soddy argued that all life depended on energy. All energy came ultimately from the sun and could be converted to a form which could only be used by animals by the actions of plants. The tendency of this energy is entropic, it moves only in one direction, to imperceptibly warn the oceans. Periods of prosperity in the past have depended on finding new sources of power and new discoveries. The use of coal depended not only on the sinking of mines, but on the discovery that using it for fuelling machinery could develop new kinds of power and technical achievement. Whatever discoveries might be made, there would still be a dependence on sunshine, on revenue of energy. Energy in a form which could be utilised for life could not be stored. Bodies need food and this food ultimately decays, therefore it must constantly be replaced and no discovery had (has?) yet been made which can replace the plant in this process, which Soddy labelled 'life-use'. Populations come to the limit of expansion of food supply, even after attempting to expand this through colonisation and factory manufacture and artificial fertilizers. This leads to a race for markets for the produce of factories which results in reducing capacity for food production. At this point he concludes "the aspects of this mad system which is now uppermost in the minds of many thoughtful people, its inevitable end in world-war'.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-11-08 00:00:00 Reynold Ellis I don't have the other version of this with the CD, I have just the book. This is a fantastic little book. Basically in his unique engaging style Richard Feynman proves the motion of the planets around the sun, but with Geometry! Anyone with a piece of paper, pencil, determination and school maths could follow this with effort. I don't think any other science writer could have pulled this off. After reading it I found you get a new found respect for the audacity and cheekiness of Mr Newton, who not satisfied with just using calculus decided to prove it using geometry too!