Wizards, Aliens, and Starships : : Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction / / Charles L. Adler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Adler, Charles L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (392 p.) :; 23 line illus. 9 tables.

From teleportation and space elevators to alien contact and interstellar travel, science fiction and fantasy writers have come up with some brilliant and innovative ideas. Yet how plausible are these ideas--for instance, could Mr. Weasley's flying car in the Harry Potter books really exist? Whi...

Table of Contents

• Frontmatter
• CONTENTS
• CHAPTER ONE. PLAYING THE GAME
• I. POTTER PHYSICS
• CHAPTER TWO. HARRY POTTER AND THE GREAT CONSERVATION LAWS
• CHAPTER THREE. WHY HOGWARTS IS SO DARK
• CHAPTER FOUR. FANTASTIC BEASTS AND HOW TO DISPROVE THEM
• II. SPACE TRAVEL
• CHAPTER FIVE. WHY COMPUTERS GET BETTER AND CARS CAN'T (MUCH)
• CHAPTER SIX. VACATIONS IN SPACE
• CHAPTER SEVEN. SPACE COLONIES
• CHAPTER EIGHT. THE SPACE ELEVATOR
• CHAPTER NINE. MANNED INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL
• CHAPTER TEN. ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
• CHAPTER ELEVEN. SPECULATIVE PROPULSION SYSTEMS
• CHAPTER TWELVE. INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL AND RELATIVITY
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN FASTER-THAN-LIGHT TRAVEL AND TIME TRAVEL.
• III. WORLDS AND ALIENS
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN. DESIGNING A HABITABLE PLANET
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN. THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR SPOCK
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN. THE MATHEMATICS OF TALKING WITH ALIENS
• IV. YEAR GOOGOL
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. THE SHORT-TERM SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY
• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. WORLD-BUILDING
• CHAPTER NINETEEN. DYSON SPHERES AND RINGWORLDS
• CHAPTER TWENTY. ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS AND THE KARDASHEV SCALE
• CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. A GOOGOL YEARS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• APPENDIX: NEWTON'S THREE LAWS OF MOTION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX