A Nobel Laureate offers impressions of the development of modern physics, emphasizing complex but less familiar personalities. Offers fascinating scientific background and compelling treatments of topics of current interest. 1980 edition.

Widely regarded as a classic in its field, Constructing Quarks recounts the history of the post-war conceptual development of elementary-particle physics. Inviting a reappraisal of the status of scientific knowledge, Andrew Pickering suggests that scientists are not mere passive observers and reporters of nature. Rather they are social beings as well as active constructors of natural phenomena who engage in both experimental and theoretical practice. "A prodigious piece of scholarship that I can heartily recommend."—Michael Riordan, New Scientist "An admirable history. . . . Detailed and so accurate."—Hugh N. Pendleton, Physics Today

In this fascinating history, Cathy Cobb and Harold Goldwhite celebrate not only chemistry's theories and breakthroughs but also the provocative times and personalities that shaped this amazing science and brought it to life. Throughout the book, the reader will meet the hedonists and swindlers, monks and heretics, and men and women laboring in garages and over kitchen sinks who expanded our understanding of the elements and discovered such new substances as plastic, rubber, and aspirin. Creations of Fire expands our vision of the meaning of chemistry and reveals the oddballs and academics who have helped shape our world.

This enlightening book, a sequel to QUIPS, QUOTES, AND QUANTA, helps readers to understand how physicists think about and look at the world. Starting with the discovery and investigation of cosmic rays, the book proceeds to cover some major areas of modern physics in laymen's terms. Unlike other books that deal with the history of physics, this volume concentrates on anecdotes about the physicists who created the new ideas, with a heavy emphasis on personal incidents and quotes. At the same time it presents, in every day language, the ideas created by these physicists. Both thematic and biographical in nature, readers will be entertained with humorous events in the lives of some famous scientists. Readers will also learn quite a lot about modern physics without the mathematical details, but with the important concepts intact.

University Physics is a three-volume collection that meets the scope and sequence requirements for two- and three-semester calculus-based physics courses. Volume 1 covers mechanics, sound, oscillations, and waves. Volume 2 covers thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and Volume 3 covers optics and modern physics. This textbook emphasizes connections between between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigor inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result. The text and images in this textbook are grayscale.

"Examines the history of theories about the basic building block of the physical universe."--Source other than the Library of Congress.

This chronicle by a renowned physicist traces the development of scientific thought from the works of Galileo, Huygens, and Newton to discoveries by Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs. 1984 edition.

A recipient of the PROSE 2017 Honorable Mention in Chemistry & Physics, Radioactivity: Introduction and History, From the Quantum to Quarks, Second Edition provides a greatly expanded overview of radioactivity from natural and artificial sources on earth, radiation of cosmic origins, and an introduction to the atom and its nucleus. The book also includes historical accounts of the lives, works, and major achievements of many famous pioneers and Nobel Laureates from 1895 to the present. These leaders in the field have contributed to our knowledge of the science of the atom, its nucleus, nuclear decay, and subatomic particles that are part of our current knowledge of the structure of matter, including the role of quarks, leptons, and the bosons (force carriers). Users will find a completely revised and greatly expanded text that includes all new material that further describes the significant historical events on the topic dating from the 1950s to the present. - Provides a detailed account of nuclear radiation – its origin and properties, the atom, its nucleus, and subatomic particles including quarks, leptons, and force carriers (bosons) - Includes fascinating biographies of the pioneers in the field, including captivating anecdotes and insights - Presents meticulous accounts of experiments and calculations used by pioneers to confirm their findings

This book takes the reader for a short journey over the structures of matter showing that their main properties can be obtained even at a quantitative level with a minimum background knowledge including, besides first year calculus and physics, the extensive use of dimensional analysis and the three cornerstones of science, namely the atomic idea, the wave-particle duality and the minimization of energy as the condition for equilibrium. Dimensional analysis employing the universal physical constants and combined with “a little imagination and thinking”, to quote Feynman, allow an amazing short-cut derivation of several quantitative results concerning the structures of matter. In the current 2nd edition, new material and more explanations with more detailed derivations were added to make the book more student-friendly. Many multiple-choice questions with the correct answers at the end of the book, solved and unsolved problems make the book also suitable as a textbook. This book is of interest to students of physics, engineering and other science and to researchers in physics, material science, chemistry and engineering who may find stimulating the alternative derivation of several real world results which sometimes seem to pop out the magician’s hat.

The thoroughly updated fifth edition of this landmark work has been extensively revised to better represent the rapidly changing field of radiation oncology and to provide an understanding of the many aspects of radiation oncology. This edition places greater emphasis on use of radiation treatment in palliative and supportive care as well as therapy.