Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Until the middle of the nineteenth century entropy and energy were confused with one another. The intellectual fog slowly cleared and now these words name subtle and powerful concepts. Most people think they know what energy is, but few could define entropy. This Very Short Introduction traces the emergence of entropy and energy as distinct concepts, and explains how entropy spread from thermodynamics...

Astrophysics is the physics of the stars, and more widely the physics of the Universe. It enables us to understand the structure and evolution of planetary systems, stars, galaxies, interstellar gas, and the cosmos as a whole. In this Very Short Introduction, the leading astrophysicist James Binney shows how the field of astrophysics has expanded rapidly in the past century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, c...

La astrofísica es la física de las estrellas y, más ampliamente, la física del universo. Nos permite comprender la estructura y evolución de los sistemas planetarios, estrellas, galaxias y gas interestelar, y del cosmos como un todo. En esta breve introducción, el destacado astrofísico James Binney explica cómo el campo de la astrofísica creció tan rápidamente en el siglo pasado, con enormes cantidades de datos recopilados por telescopios que explotan el espectro electromagnético, combinad...

Astrophysics is the physics of the stars, and more widely the physics of the Universe. It enables us to understand the structure and evolution of planetary systems, stars, galaxies, interstellar gas, and the cosmos as a whole. In this Very Short Introduction, the leading astrophysicist James Binney shows how the field of astrophysics has expanded rapidly in the past century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, c...

Until the middle of the nineteenth century entropy and energy were confused with one another. The intellectual fog slowly cleared and now these words name subtle and powerful concepts. Most people think they know what energy is, but few could define entropy.This Very Short Introduction traces the emergence of entropy and energy as distinct concepts, and explains how entropy spread from thermodynamics into statistical mechanics, probability theory and data science. It expla...

Since it was first published in 1987, Galactic Dynamics has become the most widely used advanced textbook on the structure and dynamics of galaxies and one of the most cited references in astrophysics. Now, in this extensively revised and updated edition, James Binney and Scott Tremaine describe the dramatic recent advances in this subject, making Galactic Dynamics the most authoritative introduction to galactic astrophysics available to advanced undergraduate students, g...