---
product_id: 34722050
title: "Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries"
brand: "prometheus"
price: "S$42"
currency: SGD
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 6
category: "Book"
url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/34722050-great-calculations-a-surprising-look-behind-50-scientific-inquiries
store_origin: SG
region: Singapore
---

# Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries

**Brand:** prometheus
**Price:** S$42
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Great Calculations: A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries by prometheus
- **How much does it cost?** S$42 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/34722050-great-calculations-a-surprising-look-behind-50-scientific-inquiries)

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- prometheus enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Very well-written book on the application of mathematics to science
  

*by D***N on Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2017*

I found this a fascinating book, though I’m not sure how many others will. Science and math don’t seem to be that popular with most people, but this is really well written, and while equations and the like are given, it’s not necessary to really dig into them to gain some new appreciation for how we have been able to learn a great deal about how the universe works by using mathematical techniques developed over the millennia. All fifty of the calculations that he chooses to write about have been important, and he acknowledges that there are probably 500 more that would also be worthy and that a different chooser might have chosen with as much validity as he chose his. At the end he does pare his list down further, to what he considers the ten most important calculations over the course of human history, and listing those will give you an idea of the kind of thing he covers. In more or less chronological order:1. Archimedes Bounds π. Approximating the circumference of a circle by the perimeters of circumscribing and inscribing polygons of ever-increasing number of sides2. Production of Tables of Logarithms. In the last 50 years electronic calculators have made logarithms obsolete, but those of us who did calculations of any complexity before that mightily appreciated them.3. Seismic Rays Reveal the Earth’s Interior. Until the mid-1920s it was generally believed that it was impossible to know much about the interior of the earth. (Tales like Burroughs’ Pellucidar series even made it hollow.) Then a female geologist had an inspiration and succeeded in showing how to use the timing of vibrations from earthquakes to learn a great deal about it.4. Kepler’s Astronomical Calculations. Kepler took the very accurate measurement of apparent planetary motions that Tycho Brahe had recorded and worked back from them to establish his three laws of planetary motion.5. Predicting the Return of Halley’s Comet. Comets had been viewed as omens that appeared from nowhere and had a powerful influence on the world. Newton believed that they were just other bodies, like the planets, that orbited the sun, only with long periods. Edmund Halley did a calculation of the orbit of the comet that appeared in the early 18th century and predicted that it would appear again some 70-odd years later. He was right.6. Rotating Orbits. Newton’s law of gravitation assumed that gravitation attraction was proportional to the inverse square of distance. This would make a planetary orbit an ellipse. If the force was not exactly inverse square, the orbit would still be an ellipse, but the ellipse would rotate with respect to inertial space. The orbit of Mercury did in fact have such a rotation, which was explained by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.7. Harvey Establishes Blood Circulation. The ancient belief about blood was that it was created in the heart and eliminated in the liver; arterial and venous blood were not believed to be the same substance. Harvey did some fairly basic calculations that proved that there was no way blood could be created and eliminated fast enough to deal with the volume in question; it had to circulate as we currently understand.8. Light and Electromagnetism. Establishing the nature of light was one of the great crusades in physics. Treating light as wave motion led to highly successful results, but the question of what kind of waves they were was unknown until James Clerk Maxwell worked out a theory combining electrical and magnetic forces, proving that the nature of light (and other radiation) was electromagnetic.9. The New Mechanics Explains Atoms. Developing quantum mechanics was essential to the understanding that we now have of the nature of matter and energy. It leads to results that to a considerable degree defy common sense, but using the equations works to predict what actually happens in the real world.10. Simply Chaos. The development of chaos theory, where small perturbations of initial conditions cause large effects—e.g. the butterfly that sets off  a hurricane on the other side of the world.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    but it is nonetheless interesting to read Pask's take on the best of the best
  

*by B***W on Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2016*

There have been countless "great calculations" through history, but it is nonetheless interesting to read Pask's take on the best of the best.  He presents each calculation in terms that can be appreciated by the non-expert, even when the underlying methodology would be pretty esoteric.  His choices of great calculations are very good, and very interesting, and well-justified.  His writing style in very comfortable.  You can read the book for a while, put it down and pick it up later without losing the thread of the "story."

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    exceeding initial expectations
  

*by J***N on Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2016*

Beautifully written and in-depth on various topics of interest.

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*Store origin: SG*
*Last updated: 2026-01-28*