Physics of the Impossible (2008) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Albert Einstein: Add a description of this character.
• James Clerk Maxwell
• Paul Dirac
• Richard Feynman
• Frank Drake
• Hendrik Casimir
• John Donoghue
• Prospero
• Schrodinger
• Meissner
• Potter
• Moore
• Testa
• H. G. Wells
• Alan Turing
• Gerald Nordley
• Carl Sagan
• Brian Gilchrist
• PAMELA
• Kelvin
• Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine
• Linda Dalrymple Henderson
• Werner Heisenberg
• Roger Penrose
• Neil Gershenfeld
• Macduff
• Andrei Sakharov
• Giordano Bruno
• Isaac Asimov
• Robert Goddard
• John Barrow
• Rodney Brooks
• Gerald Feinberg
• Arthur C. Clarke
• Isaac Newton
• Arthur Eddington
• Martin Rees
• Roy Kerr
• Nathan Myhrvold
• Theodor Kaluza
• Miranda
• Niels Bohr
• John Searle
• Cassandra
• John Schwarz
• Wolfgang Pauli
• Michael J. Fox
• Gerald Smith
• Sherlock Holmes
• Harry Potter
• Carson
• Randi
• Kurt Gödel
• Frank Wilczek
• Gerald Jackson
• Jules Verne
• Alan Guth
• Ted Taylor
• Hans Moravec
• Kirk
• Ludwig Boltzmann
• Nikola Tesla
• Douglas Lenat
• Max Tegmark
• Seth Shostak
• David Hilbert
• Thomas Edison
• Dr. Walter Levy
• Kip Thorne
• Garry Kasparov
• Stephen Hawking
• Freeman Dyson
• Max Planck
• Hugh Everett
• Steve Weinberg
• Richard Gott
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Andrei Linde
• Marvin Minsky
• Leo Szilard
• John Wheeler
• Matt Visser
• Uri Geller
• Karl Gauss
• Humphrey Davy
• Erwin Schrödinger
• Emmy Noether
• Plato
• Lois Lane
• Georg Bernhard Riemann
• Aston Bradley
• Richard Bentley
• Michael Faraday
• Miguel Alcubierre

Quotes edit see section history

• “One day in the distant future we will have our last nice day on Earth.”

• “What is at stake in this debate about various parallel universes is nothing less than the meaning of reality itself.”

• “Imagine fish swimming in a shallow pond. They might never suspect the presence of a third dimension, because their eyes point to the side, and they can only swim forward and backward, left and right. A third dimension to them might appear impossible. But then imagine it rains on the pond. Although they cannot see the third dimension, they can clearly see the shadows of the ripples on the surface of the pond. In the same way, Kaluza’s theory explained light as ripples traveling on the fifth dimension.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• As Sir William Osler once said, “The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.”

  Highlighted by 174 Kindle customers

• If at first an idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it. —ALBERT EINSTEIN

  Highlighted by 171 Kindle customers

• III. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. —ARTHUR C. CLARKE’S THREE LAWS

  Highlighted by 145 Kindle customers

• A plasma is the “fourth state of matter.” Solids, liquids, and gases make up the three familiar states of matter, but the most common form of matter in the universe is plasma, a gas of ionized atoms.

  Highlighted by 122 Kindle customers

• Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. —M. C. ESCHER

  Highlighted by 108 Kindle customers

• The moral that Plato wished to draw out is that no man can resist the temptation of being able to steal and kill at will. All men are corruptible. Morality is a social construct imposed from the outside. A man may appear to be moral in public to maintain his reputation for integrity and honesty, but once he possesses the power of invisibility, the use of such power would be irresistible.

  Highlighted by 107 Kindle customers

• The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” (I found it!) but “That’s funny…” —ISAAC ASIMOV

  Highlighted by 92 Kindle customers

• Many physicists subscribe to the famous dictum of T. H. White, who wrote in The Once and Future King, “Anything that is not forbidden, is mandatory!”

  Highlighted by 91 Kindle customers

• You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. —MARK TWAIN

  Highlighted by 80 Kindle customers

• The physicist Niels Bohr was fond of saying, “Prediction is very hard to do. Especially about the future.”

  Highlighted by 71 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Germany
• United States
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Earth
• Ise
• Berkeley
• Cern
• Princeton
• Soviet Union
• Geneva
• Planck
• Star Trek
• France
• Hollywood
• Milky Way

Organizations edit see section history

• Apple Corporation: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Michio Kaku (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: QC75.K18
• Dewey: 530

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Popular Culture
• Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Physics
• Books › Science › Physics

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible (IMDb): Television series hosted by Michio Kaku. Each episode deals with one topic from the book. Not all topics are covered.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history