The Nature of Matter by David Ball - Ebook | Scribd

The Nature of Matter by David Ball - Ebook | Scribd

The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World (Transcript)
Ebook  473 pages12 hours

By David Ball
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

(1 rating)


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About this ebook

The Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

About this series:

From new words such as "bling" and "email" to the role of text messaging and other electronic communications, English is changing all around us. Discover the secrets behind the words in our everyday lexicon with this delightful, informative survey of English, from its Germanic origins to the rise of globalization and cyber-communications. Professor Curzan approaches words like an archaeologist, digging below the surface to uncover the story of words, from the humble "she" to such SAT words as "conflagration" and "pedimanous." In these 36 fascinating lectures, you'lldiscover the history of the dictionary and how words make it into a reference book like the Oxford English Dictionary;
survey the borrowed words that make up the English lexicon;
find out how words are born and how they die;
expand your vocabulary by studying Greek and Latin "word webs"; and
revel in new terms, such as "musquirt," "adorkable," and "struggle bus."English is an omnivorous language and has borrowed heavily from the many languages it has come into contact with, from Celtic and Old Norse in the Middle Ages to the dozens of world languages in the truly global 20th and 21st centuries. You'll be surprised to learn that the impulse to conserve "pure English" is nothing new. In fact, if English purists during the Renaissance had their way, we would now be using Old English compounds such as "flesh-strings" for "muscles" and "bone-lock" for "joint." You may not come away using terms like "whatevs" or "multislacking" in casual conversation, but you'll love studying the linguistic system that gives us such irreverent - and fun - slang, from "boy toy" to "cankles."
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PublisherThe Great Courses
Release dateMay 1, 2015



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David Ball

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https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-nature-of-matter-understanding-the-physical-world

Course Overview

Matter is the raw material of the universe. Stars, planets, mountains, oceans, and atmospheres are all made of matter. So are plants and animals—including humans and every material thing we have ever produced. Amazingly, this immense variety is generated by a limited number of chemical elements that combine in simple,...

24 Lectures

Average 31 minutes each

1

Matter, Energy, and Entropy

2

The Nature of Light and Matter

3

A New Theory of Matter

4

The Structure of Atoms and Molecules

5

The Stellar Atom-Building Machine

6

The Amazing Periodic Table

7

Ionic versus Covalent Matter

8

The Versatile Element: Carbon

9

The Strange Behavior of Water

10

Matter in Solution

11

Interactions: Adhesion and Cohesion

12

Surface Energy: The Interfaces among Us

13

The Eloquent Chemistry of Carbon Compounds

14

Materials for Body Implants

15

The Chemistry of Food and Drink

16

Fuels and Explosives

17

The Air We Breathe

18

Materials: The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages

19

Again and Again: Polymers

20

Recycling Materials

21

Resistance Is Futile: Superconductors

22

Resistance Is Useful: Semiconductors

23

Out of Many, One: Composites

24

The Future of Materials

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33554844-the-nature-of-matter

Charlene

875 reviews · 504 followers

December 12, 2017

Can you be in love with a lecture series? I mean really in love, releasing all the dopamine and oxytocin-- smack dab into that nucleus accumbens-- that you release when falling in love with a human being? If so, then I am in love with this lecture series. I felt the same way about John Kricher's Ecological Planet lecture series. Maybe if it hadn't been so long since I had taken a chemistry or biology class, I would have liked this series but not loved it. There is simply nothing better in life than thinking about how matter, which makes up everything we will ever see, works. It's always magical to me. It doesn't matter how many times I learn about it -- most of this wasn't new to me, and if you have had a few courses in chem, bio, and biochem it won't be that new to you -- it blows my mind every time. I make new connections in the old material. I turn it all over and over and over in my brain and feel a continual deep sense of awe. I tried as long as I could to not finish this series because I will miss it like I would miss an old friend who moved away.

All the matter you will ever encounter is governed by the same fundamental laws of physics. David Ball put together 24 marvelous lectures to bring the magic of those laws to life. You don't need to have any background in the sciences. All that is needed is a curious mind.

Lecture series starts a bit slow. Don't give up. It gets better with each lecture.

Some questions raised by this series:

What do we know about the matter that makes up our world and how did we come to know it? What advances arose each time we discovered new elements and how to take advantage of these new elements?

Why does the term, "Shape determines function," matter and why is so awesome? (Chemicals bond in predictable ways, using simple rules. The shape of each element and each form determines how it will interact with other matter. This matters on the tiniest level possible and the largest level possible. For example, on a microscopic level, receptors reside on cells and interact with ligands (something that wants to fit into that receptor). Ligands and receptors fit together (have that have affinity for each other) when they are the right shape. You can picture a receptor meeting its soulmate ligand and saying, "You are just my type!" When they bond, because they are the right shape, they have reactions that occur on much bigger levels. The bonding of ligand with a receptor might dictate how you bond with a lover, whether you laugh or cry. On a less emotional level, you can think about how the molecules in a vitamin or a pill of medicine mimic the very shape of food or a brain chemical that can kill pain. David Ball does a wonderful job of explaining how chemist mimic different elements in food or in the brain. So good! The shape of things, big and small, allows the interactions of all the matter --which, again, is everything you will ever see in the physical world-- to occur. It is what makes everything happen, all around you, all the time.)

Why do balls bounce? (It's as simple as the shape of the molecules inside them. Balls are made of long polymers. It is simply that aspect which makes them have a rubbery surface. Rubbery surfaces bounce).

What does sugar have to do with your blood type?


How does electricity conduct and what makes a superconductors?

Why do some materials that have the same chemical formula turn out to be so different-- like how carbon can make a hard, shiny diamond or a soft, flaky graphite writing tool? Same chemical makeup but very different products. (This was the only lecture I was a tiny bit disappointed in. Pressure and temperature are some of the best magic tricks planet Earth has to shape the same elements into different products. I felt there could have been a little more awe displayed in these lectures).

How did the discovery of different materials like bronze or metal shape the building of civilization? How might they have brought about agriculture?

How did our discoveries help advance the face of medicine?

This series was filled with wonderful histories that were sprinkled throughout in just the right amount. Sometimes the histories get in the way or serve to force a tangent that steals your focus and is hard to come back from. Every history included served to really drive home the nature of matter. Absolutely wonderful series!

biology favorites general-science 

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Amazon Customer

17-03-2021

OK but struggled through to the end

Designed for American audiences only. Bad pronunciation of non American words, uses only imperial measurements and goes off topic continually. Some nice anecdotes but ignores other disciplines of physics and mathematics.

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Anonymous User

15-02-2021

They didn't give us metric people much love

more metric units of measurement and temperature would have been nice, imperial units of measurement are bad for the science's

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John L. Luick

23-04-2021

Highly recommend

Great stuff. Even as a lifelong physical scientist, I got a heck of a lot from it. And I appreciate the clear and unaffected diction.

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Anonymous User

20-04-2021

Simply wonderful!

When I was at Uni I had a stupid idea that I was concentrating on physics not chemistry. How very silly. This awesome audio book brings it all together.

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The Historical Jesus (Transcript) by Bart D. Ehrman - Ebook | Scribd

The Historical Jesus (Transcript) by Bart D. Ehrman - Ebook | Scribd
Ebook419 pages15 hours
The Historical Jesus (Transcript)


By Bart D. Ehrman
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

(19 ratings)


Included in your subscription

About this ebook
The Historical Jesus is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

About this series:

To watch any opera lover listen to a favorite work, eyes clenched tight in concentration and passion, often betraying a tear, is to be almost envious. What must it be like, you might think, to love a piece of music so much? And now one of music's most gifted teachers is offering you the opportunity to answer that very question, in a spellbinding series of 32 lectures that will introduce you to the transcendentally beautiful performing art that has enthralled audiences for more than 400 years. As you meet the geniuses - including the likes of Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini - who have produced some of the landmark artistic achievements of the form, and listen to many of their most beautiful moments, you'll grasp how the addition of music can reveal truths beyond what mere spoken words can convey, and how opera's unique marriage of words and music makes the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Beginning with opera's origins in the early 17th century and continuing into the 20th, you'll trace the art's evolution and its ability to convey every shade of human emotion, whether sorrow or joy, drama or buffoonery. You'll understand how different types of voices enhance character. And you'll understand how the invention of the aria gave operatic composers a new power to make human emotions soar, adding to the impact of what continues to be one of the most beautiful musical forms ever devised.
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Music
LanguageEnglish
PublisherThe Great Courses
Release dateJul 18, 2000
ISBN9781565851757

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Author
Bart D. Ehrman


Bart D. Ehrman is one of the most renowned and controversial Bible scholars in the world today. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is the author of more than twenty books, including the New York Times bestsellers How Jesus Became God; Misquoting Jesus; God’s Problem; Jesus, Interrupted; and Forged. He has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, History, and top NPR programs, as well as been featured in TIME, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and other publications. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Visit the author online at www.bartdehrman.com.

Comparative Religion (Transcript) by Charles Kimball - Ebook | Scribd

Comparative Religion (Transcript) by Charles Kimball - Ebook | Scribd

Comparative Religion (Transcript)

Ebook386 pages14 hours

By Charles Kimball
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5/5

(1 rating)


Included in your subscription

About this ebook
Comparative Religion is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

About this series:

Do you dream of exploring the masterpieces of the Louvre Museum in Paris? Whether you're planning your first visit to this world-class museum, returning for a second look, or simply playing the role of armchair art critic, you'll enjoy the pleasures that await you in this tour of France's greatest treasures. In Museum Masterpieces: The Louvre, expert art critic and historian Richard Brettell takes you on an unforgettable journey through one of the world's greatest museums. This 12-lecture series begins with an overview of the Louvre's colorful history as royal palace, art academy, and national showcase. Then you'll explore some of the most beautiful and renowned examples from the museum's remarkable collection of European paintings from the late medieval period through the early 19th century, including masterworks by Raphael, Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Watteau, Rubens and Vermeer. Guided by Professor Brettell's expert commentary, you'll browse world-famous masterpieces and hidden gems as they come alive in luminous, full-color illustrations. What is the mystery behind Mona Lisa's smile? What does Jusepe Ribera's painting of the Clubfooted Boy seem to say about the proper subject of art? From the art novice to the expert, everyone will find something to enlighten and surprise. You'll also retrace the steps of aristocrats and artisans who over eight centuries have come to this beautiful structure for inspiration. See how succeeding generations built on the aesthetic foundation of those who came before, and forged new styles and forms out of the works of the past. Whether you're new to the world of art, or a long-time admirer of the masters of European painting, you'll be inspired and enchanted by Museum Masterpieces. A Fascinating Façade Your journey begins with a tour of the Louvre itself. A famously massive structure, the Louvre can be intimidating to a first-time visitor—and even to those who have already walked its many halls and corridors. Professor Brettell offers an overview of this complicated structure, highlighting the most popular galleries and departments. You'll also get a guided tour of the building's colorful past as it has grown and changed from a palace to an art academy to a public museum over the course of its 800-year history. Here's a sampling of the fascinating facts you'll learn: The original building that stood on the site of the modern Louvre was constructed as a walled defensive castle in the 12th century. France's King Henry IV linked the original Louvre with the Tuileries, the palace of Catherine de Medici. Many of the treasures of the Louvre's collection of ancient art can be traced from Napoleon's conquests. You'll also learn about the most recent development in the Louvre's construction, which transformed these sprawling buildings into a unified museum and included the addition of the famous pyramid entrance designed by acclaimed American architect I. M. Pei. With the aspiring traveler in mind, Professor Brettell provides practical tips designed to bring this spectacular showcase within reach—from the best times to visit the most popular galleries to commonsense strategies for avoiding museum fatigue. Every Picture Tells a Story After the introductory lecture, Professor Brettell offers a selective sampling of the grand masterpieces and lesser known gems that make up the museum's collection of European paintings, including religious artwork, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of everyday life. From beggars to kings, merchants to goddesses, miniature treasures to massive altarpieces, you'll sample the full range of the Louvre's rich collection of paintings and portraiture. Professor Brettell p

PublisherThe Great Courses
Release dateJul 21, 2008



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Charles Kimball, Th.D.

Given the depth of feelings and the passionate convictions connected to religion, few conversations are more urgently needed in the fragile, interdependent, and all too quarrelsome world of the 21st century.

InstitutionUniversity of Oklahoma

Alma materHarvard University

Learn More About This Professor

Course Overview

What, exactly, is religion? And why does one religious tradition often differ so markedly from another, even when you might not expect it to? Why, for example, are the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—despite their common source—often so different? And what kinds of factors separate the beliefs of a Hindu or Buddhist not only from those held by Jews, Christians, or Muslims, or by each other, but also from many who identify themselves as fellow Hindus or Buddhists?

A Powerful Force

Every day, religion affects your life, whether directly or indirectly.

It forms the foundation for a wide range of moral codes.

It is the driving force behind the conduct of many individuals.

It can influence the actions of nations on the world stage.

It can affect the public and private lives of citizens through religiously based acts of governance.

At a time when religion and religiously grounded issues are so prevalent in public and private life, it's difficult to overstate the importance of augmenting your understanding of this powerful force and its impact on so many. It's also difficult to get a solid working knowledge of the beliefs that unite and divide us—as well as the perspective from the other side of these divisions.

The 24 lectures of Comparative Religion offer you an opportunity to gain a solid grasp of the key ideas of religion itself—the issues that repeatedly surface when you look at any faith's beliefs, practices, and organization. Using five major religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism—as illustrations of how religions can address the same core issues in parallel and different ways, award-winning Professor Charles Kimball of the University of Oklahoma leads you on an exploration of religion's complex and multidimensional nature.

It's an exploration that can strengthen the interpersonal understanding that underlies your daily relationships, enhance your perception of events in a diverse world, and deepen your appreciation of your own beliefs and the traditions followed by others.

Learn the Key Components on Which Every Religion Is Built

Using the basics of these five major religions as a starting point—and explaining those basics so that no prior knowledge is needed—Professor Kimball plunges deeply into each to reveal and clarify the essential structural components shared by all faiths:

Creation myths and sacred stories

Concepts of the divine

Lifecycle- and calendar-based rituals

Various types of sacred people, texts, objects, and spaces

Religion's ultimate goals—the reasons its adherents give them such importance

You learn, for instance, how different religions conceive of a God, or gods, or even no god, and how some emphasize the idea of an afterlife and the beliefs required and rules for conducting your life in preparation for it.

At the same time, you also see how religions offer distinct perspectives, such as the cyclical concepts of life and rebirth held by Hindus or Buddhists, which differ so markedly from the linear understanding of life and its purpose seen in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And you see how even an idea so apparently fundamental as the human predicament can vary dramatically from one religion to another.

In Judaism and Christianity, for example, sin lies at the heart of that predicament. But where the Judaic tradition saw people born in innocence, the early Christian tradition came to see sin as "original," with reconciliation with God occurring not through observance of personal sacrificial traditions, as was the belief in Judaism, but by the sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of humankind.

And while the Islamic tradition also considers humans to be sinful, its view of the fundamental problem is one of forgetfulness, with people easily distracted from a knowledge of God they already possess. It is this failing that the ritual devotional duties known as the "Five Pillars of Islam" are designed to guard against through constant reminders of God, such as the five-times-daily prayers with which non-Muslims might be most familiar.

In contrast, Hinduism and Buddhism see the major human problem as what Professor Kimball characterizes as the "illusion of reality in this world." His presentation of some of the basic ways these two linked and complex religions endeavor to penetrate that illusion through cycles of death and rebirth underscores how different religions address the many questions with which all faiths must contend.

Learn How a Startling Range of Practices Can Exist Even within the Same Faith

Such variation need not be confined to different faiths. Even within the same broad religion, the range of practices reflected in faithful observances can be startling. For some Catholics, for example, the 40-day period of Lent might involve a small symbolic sacrifice such as giving up dessert; in some parts of the Philippines, however, a few Catholic faithful allow themselves to be briefly nailed to crosses to show identification with Christ's suffering.

But religious rituals encompass far more than sacrifice and can indicate commonality as well as divergence. Throughout this course's fascinating exploration of sacred rituals, you see how those associated with one tradition so often parallel those of another, even when the tenets of the faiths cause them to differ.

Birth rituals are a typical example. In Judaism, a circumcision ceremony is used to welcome a male child into the community. In many Christian churches, a baptism serves a similar purpose for infants, although other Christians, such as the Baptists, have a dedication ceremony instead, reserving actual baptism for later in life, when a mature profession of faith can be made. This is a distinction mirrored by many of the churches that do practice infant baptism, which also offer a later-in-life confirmation ceremony where believers can affirm their desire to be full members of the faith.

Above all, as Professor Kimball makes clear, sacred rituals are more than just requirements; they are meant to accomplish something, a point underscored by his example of the rehearsal that often occurs before a traditional Christian wedding. During those rehearsals, the performative element of the ritual—the vows—are not themselves rehearsed, preserving the specific purpose of the ritual for the wedding to come.

A Professor Whose Own Diverse Background Energizes His Teaching Skills

A course like this can't help but remind you of the remarkably diverse world in which we live, and it's a diversity reflected by Professor Kimball's own unusual combination of professional, academic, and personal credentials: a doctorate of theology in comparative religion from Harvard with an emphasis on Islam; a great deal of personal experience in the Middle East; ordination as a Baptist minister; and an extended family whose members practice not only his own Christian faith, but Judaism and Buddhism as well.

By combining this background with a relaxed, likeable style, personal and humorous anecdotes, and skillful use of multiple perspectives to revisit key issues, he's created a course as enjoyable as it is provocative. After completing these lectures, you are able to "see with a native eye," as Professor Kimball puts it, when you wonder why followers of a given religion believe or act as they do.

Professor Kimball often asks his first-day students to answer the same question posed at the beginning of this article—What, exactly, is religion?—and he is struck by the difficulty they have in answering it.

He is not, however, surprised. Religion's many layers make that a hard question. But it's also a question you are much better equipped to answer after hearing these lectures and learning to see with the "native eye"—and that may be this course's greatest gift.

24 Lectures

Average 31 minutes each

1

Comparative Religion—Who, What, Why, How

2

Exploring Similarities and Differences

3

The Sacred, the Holy, and the Profane

4

Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Objects

5

Sacred People—Prophets, Sages, Saviors

6

Sacred People—Clergy, Monastics, Shamans

7

Sacred Signs, Analogues, and Sacraments

8

Creation Myths and Sacred Stories

9

From Sacred Stories and Letters to Doctrine

10

Sacred Texts—The Bible and the Qur'an

11

Sacred Texts for Hindus and Buddhists

12

Polytheism, Dualism, Monism, and Monotheism

13

From Birth to Death—Religious Rituals

14

Daily, Weekly, Annual Religious Rituals

15

Ritual Sacrifice in the World's Religions

16

The Human Predicament—How to Overcome It

17

The Problems of Sin and Forgetfulness

18

Breaking through the Illusion of Reality

19

The Goals of Religious Life

20

The Way of Faith and the Way of Devotion

21

The Way of Action and the Way of Meditation

22

The Way of the Mystics

23

The Evolution of Religious Institutions

24

Religious Diversity in the 21st Century

===

Top reviews from the United States

D. Swayne

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Resource for Religion Teachers

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2011

Verified Purchase

Dr. Kimball does an excellent job in presenting comparative religions for a college level class. It would serve as a resource for teachers in middle school or high classes but not as a video series for student consumption. It is truly a college lecture series not a high school informative video.

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Barbara M.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great deal!

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017

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What a great deal and fast shipping! Thank you very much!

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James D. Link

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in every way

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2017

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Excellent in every way. Thanks.

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Gene

3.0 out of 5 stars The Tabernacle

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2010

This video is okay. It shows the Tabernacle and the furniture inside and outside. There is a lot of reading of scripture which did not appeal to my students. It does however, point out that it is a picture of Jesus and how He died for us.

4 people found this helpful

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• Omar
• 15-01-2019

Not what I expected

I wanted this book to teach me about the 5 religions. Instead it just uses the 5 religions as an example to present a comparative religion framework.... A very broad and obvious framework that isn't useful.

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• Mars
• 10-10-2015

Interesting topic. Dull delivery.

Topic should have provided for a fascinating journey. It's unfortunate that the narration was not engaging at all.

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