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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2013
It is an especial pleasure to me that George Gamow's two gems—concerning the two adventures of Mr Tompkins in the wonderful worlds conjured up when the speed of light is made small or Planck's constant large—are now reprinted in paperback. Whilst, with hindsight, one may find details to quibble about, the excitement of these deeply delightful tales remains as fresh with me as it was some fifty years ago when I first encountered them. Though physics has moved on in many ways, the basic physics of relativity and quantum theory has not changed. By his ingenuity and narrative skills, Gamow is able to transform some of the puzzling and obscure mysteries of this basic physics—a physics which, indeed, is still modern—into magical and enthralling stories for children.
I remember reading (or being read) the Tompkins stories as a quite young child, and I am sure that their magic was responsible, to a very considerable extent, for the great excitement that fundamental physics has held for me for the rest of my life. I still vividly recall the tigers of the quantum jungle, and the old woodcarver's boxes of mysterious coloured balls (the nucleons), the relativistically flattened bicycle, and the professor calling out ‘Just lie down and observe’ as he and Mr Tompkins see their miniature universe collapse inwards upon them. It was Mr Tompkins who made the new physics vivid and real for me as a child and I am sure that he will continue to do the same for a great many others.
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