Book Review: Magnitude - The Scale of the Universe
January 2018 :
Magnitude: The Scale of the Universe, by Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke, 2017, ISBN #978-0-316-50291-7, hardbound, $27.99 U.S.
Once again, the team of Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke have given us a book that is both very informative and totally colorful. With illustrations by Dr. Katie Peek, Magnitude goes into both the, well, magnitude and the structure of everything we have, from the tiniest blood cell to a supernova blast wave, from the density of the universe up to an atomic nucleus. Every dimension we have is increased in logarithmic scale, giving us an awareness of our surroundings we might have never believed. For instance, an average fast-food meal contains 10 times more energy than a 100-watt light bulb burns in an hour, but only 10 to the minus 12 that of rain from a typical hurricane.
The chapter on mass correctly discerns that from weight, something often not explained very well in general physics textbooks. From there we learn the difference between an eyelash and a standard dog breed, compared to the mass of the Earth.
Each chapter is an adventure in learning, from the tiniest to the largest, even to the historic speed of grass growing compared to the speed of light. Everything is carefully documented and described, with its own illustration, on a scale dedicated to the measurement at hand.
The last chapter also gives a history of computing, from the hectoscale of those in the 1940s to what will most likely be the zettascale within the next decade or two, and the importance of that much computing power in all forms of academic and practical uses. Finally, the authors go into astronomical observation, both present – such as ALMA – and future, to the James Webb Space Telescope and the Square Kilometer Array.
Magnitude is a fun read, whether you are looking for just the right information to impress your friends with, or to liven an academic conversation. No matter which set of units you open the book to, you’re sure to find a tidbit of information you might not have been aware of. If you do begin at the beginning, you might have trouble putting this book down, as every page will have you wanting to learn more. Magnitude will hold your interest from cover to cover.
