Wizards, aliens, and starships : physics and math in fantasy and science fiction / Charles L. Adler.
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Princeton :
Princeton University Press,
[2014]
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Table of Contents:
- Playing the game
- Part I. Potter physics. Harry Potter and the great conservation laws
- Why Hogwarts is so dark
- Fantastic beasts and how to disprove them
- Part II. Space travel. Why computers get better and cars can't (much)
- Vacations in space
- Space colonies
- The space elevator
- Manned interplanetary travel
- Advanced propulsion systems
- Speculative propulsion systems
- Interstellar travel and relativity
- Faster-than-light travel and time travel
- Part III. Worlds and Aliens. Designing a habitable planet
- The scientific search for spock
- The mathematics of talking with aliens
- Part IV. Year googol. The short-term survival of humanity
- World-building
- Dyson spheres and ringworlds
- Advanced civilizations and the Kardashev scale
- A googol years.
