C. Schiller – The Adventure of Physics

Автор: C. Schiller
Название книги: The Adventure of Physics
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Физика
Страницы: 1360
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

How high can animals jump? What are the fastest thrown balls? How fast can aeroplanes and butterflies fly? What does the sea level tell us about the sun? What are temperature and heat? What is self-organization? This free colour pdf on introductory physics guarantees to be entertaining, surprising and challenging on every page. The text presents the best stories, images, movies and puzzles in mechanics, gravity and thermodynamics – with little mathematics, always starting from observations of everyday life. This first volume also explains conservation laws and the reversibility of motion, explores mirror symmetry, and presents the principle of cosmic laziness: the principle of least action. This popular series has already more than 160 000 readers. If you are between the age of 16 and 106 and want to understand nature, you will enjoy it! To achieve wonder and thrill on every page, the first volume includes the various “colour of the bear” puzzles and the “picture on the wall” puzzle, explains about the many types of water waves, introduces the art of laying rope, tells about the the dangers of aeroplane toilets, explores the jumping height of different animals, presents the surprising motion of moguls on skiing slopes, explains why ultrasound imaging is not safe for a foetus, gives the ideal shape of skateboard half-pipes, estimates the total length of all capillaries in the human body, explains how it is possible to plunge a bare hand into molten lead, includes a film of an oscillating quartz inside a watch, includes the “handcuff puzzle” and the “horse pulling a rubber with a snail on it” puzzle, explains how jet pilots frighten civilians with sonic superbooms produced by fighter planes, presents the most beautiful and precise sundial available today, shows leap-frogging vortex rings, tells the story of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, mentions the world records for running backwards and the attempts to break the speed sailing record, and tells in detail how to learn from books with as little effort as possible. Enjoy the reading!

Preface 20
A request 21
An appetizer 23
First Part : Classical Physics – How Do Things and Images Move?
Chapter I Galilean Motion 28
1. Why should we care about motion? 28
2. Galilean physics – motion in everyday life 42
3. Global descriptions of motion – the simplicity of complexity 173
4. From the limitations of physics to the limits of motion 263
Chapter II Special Relativity 275
5. Maximum speed, observers at rest, and motion of light 275
Chapter III Gravitation and Relativity 349
6. Maximum force – general relativity in one statement 349
7. ¿e new ideas on space, time and gravity 377
8. Motion in general relativity – bent light and wobbling vacuum 397
9. Why can we see the stars? – Motion in the universe 437
10. Black holes – falling forever 476
11. Does space dier from time? 491
12. General relativity in ten points – a summary for the layman 497
Chapter IV Classical Electrodynamics 517
13. Liquid electricity, invisible elds and maximum speed 517
14. What is light? 558
15. Charges are discrete – the limits of classical electrodynamics 589
16. Electromagnetic eects and challenges 592
17. Classical physics in a nutshell – one and a half steps out of three 614
Intermezzo The Brain, Language and the Human Condition 631
Second Part : Quantum Theory – What Is Matter? What Are Interac-
tions?
Chapter V Quanta of Light and Matter 704
18. Minimum action – quantum theory for poets and lawyers 704
19. Light – the strange consequences of the quantum of action 717
20. Motion of matter – beyond classical physics 735
21. Colours and other interactions between light and matter 753
Chapter VI Permutation of Particles 771
22. Are particles like gloves? 771
23. Rotations and statistics – visualizing spin 780
Chapter VII Details of Quantum Theory and Electromagnetism 793
24. Superpositions and probabilities – quantum theory without ideology 793
25. Applied quantum mechanics – life, pleasure and the means to achieve them 816
26. Quantum electrodynamics – the origin of virtual reality 854
27. Quantum mechanics with gravitation – the rst approach 868
Chapter VIII Inside the Nucleus 897
28. ¿e structure of the nucleus – the densest clouds 897
29. ¿e strong nuclear interaction and the birth of matter 921
30. ¿e weak nuclear interaction and the handedness of nature 935
31. ¿e standard model of elementary particle physics – as seen on television 940
32. Grand unication – a simple dream 941
Chapter IX Advanced Quantum Theory (not yet available) 949
Chapter X Quantum Physics in a Nutshell 951
Intermezzo Bacteria, Flies and Knots 969
Third Part : Motion Without Motion – What Are Space, Time and
Particles?
Chapter XI General Relativity Versus Quantum Mechanics 996
33. Does matter dier from vacuum? 998
34. Nature at large scales – is the universe something or nothing? 1032
35. ¿e physics of love – a summary of the rst two and a half parts 1056
36. Maximum force and minimum distance – physics in limit statements 1068
37. ¿e shape of points – extension in nature 1101
38. String theory – a web of dualities 1128
Chapter XII Unification (not yet available) 1137
Chapter XIII The Top of the Mountain (not yet available) 1139
Fourth Part : Appendices
Appendix A Notation and Conventions 1142
Appendix B Units, Measurements and Constants 1154
Appendix C Particle Properties 1174
Appendix D Numbers and Spaces 1194
Appendix E Sources of Information on Motion 1227
Appendix F Challenge Hints and Solutions 1233
Appendix G List of Illustrations 1284
Appendix H List of Tables 1298
Appendix I Name Index 1301
Appendix J Subject Index 1326