Mr Tompkins is the title character in a series of four popular science books by the

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

George Gamow George Gamow (March 4, 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov ( uk, Георгій Антонович Гамов, russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов), was a Russian-born Soviet and American polymath, theoret ...

. The books are structured as a series of dreams in which Mr Tompkins enters alternative worlds where the physical constants have radically different values from those they have in the real world. Gamow aims to use these alterations to explain modern scientific theories. Mr Tompkins' adventures begin when he chooses to spend the afternoon of a bank holiday attending a lecture on the

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

. The lecture proves less comprehensible than he had hoped and he drifts off to sleep and enters a dream world in which the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit ...

is a mere . This becomes apparent to him through the fact that passing cyclists are subject to a noticeable

Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction Length contraction is the phenomenon that a moving object's length is measured to be shorter than its proper length, which is the length as measured in the object's own rest frame. It is also known as Lorentz contraction or Lorentz–FitzGeral ...

. Mr Tompkins becomes acquainted with the Professor delivering the lectures and ultimately marries the Professor's daughter, Maud. Later chapters in the books deal with

atomic structure Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...

(Mr Tompkins spends time as a

conduction electron In solid-state physics, the valence band and conduction band are the bands closest to the Fermi level, and thus determine the electrical conductivity of the solid. In nonmetals, the valence band is the highest range of electron energies i ...

, returning to consciousness when he is annihilated in an encounter with a positron), and

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...

(the Professor expounds an analogy between the

second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects (or "downhill"), unles ...

and the bias towards the casino in gambling before being confounded by a local reversal of the second law through the intervention of Maxwell's demon who has introduced himself to Maud in one of her dreams). Mr Tompkins' initials are 'C.G.H.' which stand for c (the speed of light), G (the constant of gravitation) and h (Planck's constant). Following their marriage Maud refers to him as 'Cyril'. Later books in the series tackled biology and advanced

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. In 2010 the first volume of a proposed ten-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series, ''The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins'', was created by

Igor Gamow Rustem Igor Gamow (November 4, 1935, in Georgetown, D.C. – April 15, 2021)Gamow, George: ''My World Line: An Informal Autobiography'', The Viking Press, New York, 1970, page 106. was a microbiology professor at the University of Colorado and inv ...

, George Gamow's son, and illustrator Scorpio Steele. In the book Tompkins learns about relativity from

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, radioactivity from

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

and the structure of the atom from

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' considers him to be the greatest ...

. A second volume, in which Tompkins meets

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was ...

and James Watson, was published in July 2011.

Main belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

asteroid 12448 Mr. Tompkins is named after Tompkins. The Scientific Background to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry begins by citing ''Mr Tompkins Inside Himself''. The University of Akron produced a film adaption of this story starring Prof.

Alan Neville Gent Alan Neville Gent (11 November 1927 – 20 September 2012) was a distinguished professor of the University of Akron widely recognized during his lifetime as a world-leading authority on the topic of adhesion physics, crystalline and glassy pol ...

, which can be viewe
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Books in the series

* 1940: ''Mr Tompkins in Wonderland'', originally published 1938 in serial form in ''Discovery'' magazine (UK) * 1945: ''Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom'' * 1965: ''Mr Tompkins in Paperback'', combines ''Mr Tompkins in Wonderland'' with ''Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom'' * 1953: ''Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life'', about biology * 1967: ''Mr. Tompkins Inside Himself'', coauthor Martynas Yčas revised ''Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life'' giving a broader view of biology, including recent developments in molecular biology * 1993: Canto edition ''Mr Tompkins in Paperback'', forward by Roger Penrose,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

* 1999: ''The New World of Mr Tompkins'', coauthor

Russell Stannard Russell Stannard, (December 24.5 1931 – 4 July 2022) was a British high-energy particle physicist. Stannard was born in London, England, on December 24.5 1931. He held the position of Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Open University. I ...

updated ''Mr Tompkins in Paperback'' ( hardcover)

Notes

References

*George Gamow, ''Mr Tompkins in Wonderland'', first published in 1939 *George Gamow, ''Mr Tompkins explores the atom'', first published in 1944 *George Gamow, ''Mr Tompkins learns the facts of life'', Cambridge University Press, 1953 *George Gamow and Martynas Ycas, ''Mr Tompkins inside himself: Adventures in the new biology'', Viking Press, 1967 *George Gamow, Roger Penrose (Foreword), ''Mr Tompkins in Paperback'' (Omnibus of ''Mr Tompkins in Wonderland'' and ''Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom''), Cambridge University Press, 1993, *George Gamow,

(Editor), Michael Edwards (Illustrator), ''The New World of Mr Tompkins'', Cambridge University Press, 2001 (revised and updated edition), *Igor Gamow (Writer), Scorpio Steele (Illustrator), ''The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins'', CreateSpace, 2010 *Igor Gamow (Writer), Scorpio Steele (Illustrator), ''The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins, No. 2'', CreateSpace, 2011

Books in the series

Notes

References

Further reading