TWP in the UK market compared to string Top Five

[Martin]

I'm interested in following how TWP (The Trouble with Physics...and What Comes Next) is doing in the UK market. By themselves salesrank numbers are hard to understand so I will use these links to get a benchmark average

for comparison.

 

Randall warped

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Warped-Passages-Unravelling-Universes-Dimensions/dp/0141012978

 

Greene elegant

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate/dp/009928992X

 

Kaku parallel

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parallel-Worlds-Science-Alternative-Universes/dp/0141014636

 

Kaku hyperspace

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyperspace-Scientific-Parallel-Universes-Dimension/dp/0192861891

 

Greene fabric

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fabric-Cosmos-Texture-Reality-Penguin/dp/0141011114

 

These are the most popular stringy titles, and I have chosen the most popular edition where there are several editions of the same book on sale. If the situation changes and other string book titles or editions become more popular I will change the makeup of the benchmark, which is supposed to be the string Top Five.

 

Last time I looked, Smolin's TWP book had UK amazon salesrank 2166, and the average salesrank of the string Top Five was 25,826.6. The ratio of these numbers is about 12.

 

So we can say that judging by UK amazon salesranks TWP is selling about 12 times better than the average string book in the Top Five.

I'm interested because I think the book has had some impact in the US, and this impact may influence the distribution of funds supporting basic theoretical physics research.

 

Soon after Peter Woit's book appeared in UK (June 2006) and was well received by reviewers, the EU's science foundations, called the ESF, set up an agency for primarily non-string Quantum Gravity based at Uni Nottingham. Since then the ESF's QG² has been actively funding workshops, travel, a winterschool for graduate students and postdocs, and planning a QG conference. This is the kind of diversificaton of research support which TWP calls for and I believe the Woit book may also call for. So it is a case where a popular book written for wide audience MAY have had significant impact.

[Martin]

I just checked as of midnight Central time and Smolin's book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science/dp/0713997990

had salesrank 768 (being number one UK physics bestseller).

 

the salesranks of the string Top Five were, in increasing order:

 

2,071

10,293

14,527

26,615

48,607

 

which averages to 20,422.6

so the ratio is 20,422.6/768 = 26.6

 

In other words judging by salesranks the Smolin book was selling a bit over 26 times better than the average string Top Fiver that we use as standard of comparison.

It would seem therefore, that although the Smolin book came out in UK a couple of months ago, in February 2007, it is still quite popular and doing well at UK Amazon.

[Martin]

Two days later, 25 april, I checked at 10 AM Central time,

Smolin book salesrank was 541 (among all books) making it again the #1 physics bestseller.

 

the average salesrank of the five most popular string books was

31,478.4

and the ratio 31.478.4/541 = 58

So that at present one can say that judging by salesranks the Smolin book is 58 times more popular than the average string book in the Top Five.

 

this is remarkable, because in the US this ratio is not so large. Here TWP is also selling better than the average topfiver string book (typically it is the same titles that make up the top five) but the ratio is only something like 2 or 3.

In the US TWP is selling 2 or 3 times better than the string benchmark, judging from salesranks

 

what is striking is the order of magnitude difference. maybe it is due to the fact that TWP appeared in February in UK, more recently in other words.