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Mass : the quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields / Jim Baggott.

by Baggott, J. E.

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Oxford University Press, 2017.

Mass (Physics).

Matter -- Properties.

xvi, 346 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-324) and index.

Part I. Atom and void. The quiet citadel ; Things-in-themselves ; An impression of force ; The sceptical chymists -- Part II. Mass and energy. A very interesting conclusion ; Incommensurable ; The fabric ; In the heart of darkness -- Part III. Wave and particle. An act of desperation ; The wave equation ; The only mystery ; Mass bare and dressed -- Part IV. Field and force. The symmetries of nature ; The Goddamn particle ; The Standard Model ; Mass without mass.

Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents.

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