Spectrums: Our Mind-boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity

by David Blatner, Scott Citron (Design)

In Spectrums , David Blatner blends narrative and illustration to illuminate the variety of spectrums that affect our lives every numbers, size, light, sound, heat, and time.There is actually surprisingly little in the universe that we can feel, touch, see, hear, or possibly even comprehend. It's not an easy task to stretch the mind to encompass both billions of years and billionths of seconds; the distance to Jupiter and the size of a proton; the tiny waves of visible light and gargantuan but invisible gamma rays; or the freezing point of Helium and the heat generated by the blast of an atom bomb. But exploring these far-reaching spectrums gives us invaluable perspective on our small but not insignificant place in the universe.

With easy-to-read, engaging, and insightful observations, and brilliant photographs and diagrams, Blatner helps us "grok"--to understand intuitively--the six primary spectrums, making our daily lives richer and more meaningful through greater appreciation of the bizarre and beautiful world in which we live.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2012

About the author

David Blatner is the author of 15 books, translated into 14 languages with over a half-million copies in print, including Spectrums, The Joy of Pi, and The Flying Book. As an expert on digital publishing, he has lectured in five continents over the past two decades. He and his wife and two sons live, explore, and write outside Seattle, Washington.

Reviews

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spectrums: Our Mind-Boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity by David Blatner

"Spectrums: Our Mind-Boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity" is a wonderful, educational book that provides a scale across six spectrums representative of our everyday experience: numbers, size, light, sound, heat, and time. Author David Blatner takes the reader on an exploration of the universe, from the smallest to the incomprehensively large. This 192-page book is composed of the following six chapters: 1. Numbers, 2. Size, 3. Light, 4. Sound, 5. Heat, and 6. Time.

Positives:
1. An engaging, entertaining and an accessible book for the masses.
2. Very engaging prose which is atypical in science writing.
3. Excellent layout.
4. Great use of charts, illustrations and tables to assist the reader.
5. Immersed with thought-provoking quotes and interesting anecdotes.
6. A lot of great tidbits. Spoiler alert..."The only countries that haven't standardized on the metric system are the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia."
7. The author does a wonderful job of not just explaining complex topic to the reader but making it fun to do so.
8. The essence of numbers. Getting a grasp on numbers.
9. Infinity in its proper perspective.
10. Sizing up size, distance...helpful analogies.
11. Perhaps the best chapter in the book, Light. The author does a wonderful job of explaining the basic physics of light. A lot of complex topics made reachable to the general audience.
12. An excellent chapter on sound, the author provides plenty of interesting factoids and many great visual aids such as a table of "Intensity of Selected Sounds" and an excellent comparison pictorial of frequency hearing ranges among popular living creatures including humans.
13. The essence of heat, temperature...the scientists behind the greatest discoveries associated with the aforementioned topics.
14. Phase states of material. A table of phase change of popular elements.
15. Very promising science underway. Controlling fusion? The Large Hadron Collider...
16. An exploration into time. Atomic clocks, time zones, cosmic time...
17. The theory of relativity.
18. The book ends on a little philosophy.

Negatives:
1. A very limited notes and bibliography section.
2. The book covers a narrow "spectrum" of science.
3. Intended for the general audience. If you are looking for depth look elsewhere.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. The author's engaging prose and ability to convey difficult scientific topics in an accessible way will win over the general audience. One really does get a better grasp of how infinitesimal and how enormous our universe truly is. This is the perfect book for the layperson interested in learning some of the basics of physics without sacrificing too much time. The book covers a narrow "spectrum" of science but what it covers it does so very well. I recommend it!

Further suggestions: "About Time" by Adam Frank, "The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction" by Peter Atkins, "For the Love of Physics" by Walter Lewin, "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100" by Michio Kaku, "A Universe from Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, "Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World" by Lisa Randall, "Wonders of the Universe" and "Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?)Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe" by Brian Cox, "The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe" by Simon Singh, and "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking.

[Greg Nigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If every atom that makes up the book Spectrums: Our Mind-boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity were expanded to the size of a golf ball, it would take 23 years moving at the speed of light to travel from the upper left to the bottom right corner of the open book.

OK, I just made that up, but that's the gist of the book. Each chapter explores the extremes in the measurement of some particular quality: size, light, sound, heat and time. Blatner does an excellent job of translating the incomprehensible into the merely unfathomable.

Light, for example, takes 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the Earth. That's grade-school stuff. What's not common knowledge is that it takes that same light about 20 months to finally reach the outermost edge of the our solar system, far out beyond the planets and through the comet belt that circles the sun way way out there.

So that's big, right? Now, if you were to expand a single atom up to the size of that solar system, the smallest length possible to measure - called a Plank's length, spanning a whole 1.6^-35 meters - would be the width of a molecule of DNA.

Want to put time into perspective? If the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth were smashed down to 50 years, then the last Ice Age ended about an hour ago and the entire spectrum of recorded history started a few minutes later. The modern computer age started 17 seconds ago.

And at the small end of the time scale, consider that a typical computer can do 900 million calculations in the time it takes you to blink your eyes. And the fastest computers can do a calculation in less than 1 femtosecond. How long is a femtosecond, you ask? Well, there are as many femtoseconds in 1 second as there are seconds in 31.7 million years.

The value of Blatner's book is not that it makes these insane extremes comprehensible. He tries his best and hopes that his analogies will carry the impossible weight he wrangles them into. Each time we move from one imponderable fact, then into an analogy, only to pop up in the middle of another kind of imponderability. To write that Plank's length is to the width of DNA what an atom is to the size of the solar system is not to suddenly make understandable what a Plank's length really is, other than something so crazy small we still can't imagine how small it is.

Spectrums confirms for us that, even translated into language we can understand, these extremes in measurement are still beyond understanding.

I recommend the book, but to a limited crowd. Obviously, a geeky disposition is a prerequisite. I think there is a subset of geeks who enjoy the experience of awe. That's what this book is filled with, the repeated confrontation with the unfathomable that is, in many ways, happening all around us.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Which is greater? The number of stars in the known universe or the grains of sand on the earth? The stars, by a lot, David Blatner tells us, though he adds that the number of stars is about how many molecules you'd find in just ten drops of water.

I came across Blatner's Spectrums while trying to answer the age old sand vs. stars question so I decided to read on, and I was not disappointed. Blatner describes spectrums in six areas--numbers, size. light, sound, heat, and time. He compares small to large, near to far, fast to slow, hot to cold (really less hot)...on and on. He includes marginal quotations from scientists, philosophers, and comedians (most of the quotations enjoyable); he provides tables (good); visual depictions (OK); and photographs (poor).

Blatner knows his stuff, and I came away with an appreciation for the vast incomprehensible range across each of the various spectrums he considers. I say "incomprehensible" because I can't comprehend the differences even after Blatner's multiple analogies. Fortunately, Blatner says many of the differences are indeed impossible for humans to comprehend, and frequently, he tells the reader how little we really know about the world, and the universe, we live in. The book is a great ride through fascinating topics, and my awareness of how much I don't know is certainly enhanced.

I have deducted a star for a reason. The book is overflowing with comparisons, interesting comparisons as I've said. But there are so many that after a while I became a bit numb and unable to recall much of anything. For instance, take size as an example. If the earth were the size of a basketball, then...or if it were the size of a tennis ball...or the size of the sun...or the size of the period at the end of this sentence... So page after page throughout the six sections, there are multiple comparisons, each intriguing, but most impossible to remember. Well, at least I remember enough to win that old bar bet--grains of sand vs. number of stars.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What really bothers physicists is that when you lay out all the equations that appear to describe our universe, none of them specifies a 'now' or even that there is a future distinct from the past. For a physicist, time does not pass or flow or fly. it just is! past, present and future are all one thing, like a finished timescape on a canvas.

People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." (Albert Einstein).

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen all at once." (Albert Einstein)

Only through time can we experience change and only through the aggregate of the tiniest and most subtle changes can the magisterial movement of galaxies be achieved.

What you are aware of right now feels not like a photo but a movie clip. This movie isn't reality it exists only in your head.

Are we living in a simulation?

[Rosebud · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways this book was beyond my scientific knowledge. However, I enjoyed how the author brought comlex math and science calculations to a more basic level. He did a great job of explaining distance, speed, etc. in relative terms the average person can comprehend. Some of the comparisons were still mind boggling, especially when you think of the size of the universe.

[Nedra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a science book, thus the 2. But it dealt with spectrums that go beyond human comprehension. We can measure, do the math, etc. but the spectrums of size, heat, light, numbers, sound and time are beyond us. Because of much of what was said I found myself thinking about you beliefs about deity and eternity. That produced enough thought that I could bump the rating to 2.5

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something calming and inspiring and terrifying and overwhelming about the realization that the universe was not designed for you. Nature does not care if it makes sense to you. This book by David Blatner makes this point clearly, not directly, but perhaps more vividly and thoroughly than any book on the subject. After describing how numbers can be useful and misleading in chapter one, the second chapter describes the very big and the very small -- all sizes that our brains can't fully appreciate. But that's the point. The author explains that we can't comprehend an atom or a galaxy, but also light outside our visual spectrum (chapter three), sound outside our auditory spectrum (chapter four), and temperatures and time scales outside our daily experience (chapter five and six). The content itself might not be any new information for most scientifically-literate readers, but I love the way Blatner pulls all these different strands together to form a single thesis: the universe is too cool to believe we are the center of it.

[Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard scientific facts dressed up in down-to-earth language and relatable examples. Very thought-provoking and highly readable. You begin to reexamine your systems of comparison after you read this book -- Which one is of a larger size? Large in a spatial sense or temporal sense? How can you be sure? Common people's perceptions of numbers experience a leap into indifference once the number becomes immeasurably big, yet we never really have a visual sense of how gigantic things are on an astronomical scale. This book seeks to help us to understand the measures of the universe -- the purpose is not to show us how tiny and insignificant we are in front of the universe, or how mind-blowing these facts are; I think the value of deepening our understanding of the universe lies in its close connection with understanding our own inner selves. To equip ourselves with a more transcendental mind of the objective world enables us to look upon our subjective minds with extra inspiration.

[Jina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content of this book was thought provoking and yet, not overly technical. There were a number of concepts in this piece that I was already familiar with, but David really opened my eyes, mostly to the world of the very small. While the colossal size of space can make you feel insignificant, the complexity of existence down to the Planck make you question your daily human experiences of reality. I loved how David would take a paragraph or two to put a new idea into perspective of the human scale making is easy to grasp, no matter how crazy the idea may sound at first. The only thing I didn’t like about this book, were the quotes and facts highlighted on the outer edges of the pages. It was easy to forget they were there and I honestly only read about half of them

[Mark Clackum · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world we experience is muted & very narrow sliver of what is happening around us. We only see 1/3 of 1% of the spectrum & all other colors are invisibke to us.  The universe is larger & smaller, higher & lower, hotter & colder, faster & slower than we can imagine. From the infinite to the infinitesimal, this book offers fascinating perspective by covering 6 of the spectrums that affect our lives every day: numbers, size, light, sound, heat, and time. He includes some great tables of relative scales.

[Anna Brewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting assortment of science facts centred around six themes: number, size, light, sound, heat, and time. It lightly skims a lot of more complicated scientific ideas and is a good starting point for further exploration. However, I can't say that is was my favourite read - I found it lacked direction, and sometimes I just wanted something a little more in depth to sink my teeth into.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books I read to connect with my dad, who loved it! The first 2 chapters were not that interesting to me, but I’m glad I stuck with it because it landed in richer material.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't something I would normally have picked up; it was recommended to me by a teen. He was at such a loss to explain it, but so obviously engaged with the ideas, I had to give it a try. And I'm grateful for the recommendation. "Spectrums" is definitely worth reading!

Blatner has a gift for comparisons that make abstract and unimaginable scientific concepts and definitions graspable for the average person. He tackles six spectrums: numbers, size, light, sound, heat and time. My favorite was the chapter on time. I learned, for example, that my head ages faster than my feet, based on Einstein's principles of relativity and proven by comparing the speeds of atomic clocks on earth with those launched into space. In this last chapter, Blatner also hints at parallel universes, time travel, and other science "fictions" that turn out to be ... possible!

[Bill Streever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectrums is really about scaling. What do I mean by that? I mean it is a book that helps readers gain a perspective when it comes to comparing the size of an atom to the size of the sun to the size of the galaxy. Or the wealth of the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to the wealth of the millionaire next door to the wealth of someone barely scraping by. Or the sound of silence to the sound or a rocket launch. Or the temperature of deep space to ... well, you get it. Blatner presents information in digestible chunks, with lots of text boxes and picture. On the downside, if you are like me you will never be able to trade this book in at the used book store because you will have written notes all over the margins.

[Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and easy to follow, but my mind has been expanded enough for one day, thank you. I'm going to go lie down now.

- Space is REALLY BIG and we're all going to die.
- We as humans are never going to be able to make it out of this solar system. It's ridiculously big.
- Magenta is an imaginary color.
- Tiny things are REALLY REALLY TINY.
- Scientists do things that scare me.
- Time is messed up.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Imagine being a neutrino that, while traveling through even the most dense rock, is in wonder at the vast spaces within and between atoms, like a spaceship traveling between the planets and the stars."

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely mind bogglingly amazing!