SIX IDEAS THAT SHAPED PHYSICS is the 21st century's alternative to traditional, encyclopedic textbooks. Thomas Moore designed SIX IDEAS to teach students: --to apply basic physical principles to realistic situations --to solve realistic problems --to resolve contradictions between their preconceptions and the laws of physics --to organize the ideas of physics into an integrated hierarchy

This series of six introductory physics textbooks uses a blend of standard and contemporary physics, and is an approach to a full year calculus-based physics course which has been developed with the support of the Introductory University Physics Project. This volume looks at conservation law.

This title gives students a good understanding of how quantum mechanics describes the material world. The text stresses the continuity between the quantum world and the classical world, which is merely an approximation to the quantum world.

This timeless exploration of the work of the great physicists of the early 20th century employs analogies, examples, and imaginative insights rather than computations to explain the dramatic impact of quantum physics on classical theory. Topics include Pauli's exclusion principle, Schroedinger's wave equation, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and many other concepts. 1959 edition.

Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement, and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.

Introduction to Plasma Physics is the standard text for an introductory lecture course on plasma physics. The text’s six sections lead readers systematically and comprehensively through the fundamentals of modern plasma physics. Sections on single-particle motion, plasmas as fluids, and collisional processes in plasmas lay the groundwork for a thorough understanding of the subject. The authors take care to place the material in its historical context for a rich understanding of the ideas presented. They also emphasize the importance of medical imaging in radiotherapy, providing a logical link to more advanced works in the area. The text includes problems, tables, and illustrations as well as a thorough index and a complete list of references.

For graduate students unfamiliar with particle physics, An Introductory Course of Particle Physics teaches the basic techniques and fundamental theories related to the subject. It gives students the competence to work out various properties of fundamental particles, such as scattering cross-section and lifetime. The book also gives a lucid summary of the main ideas involved. In giving students a taste of fundamental interactions among elementary particles, the author does not assume any prior knowledge of quantum field theory. He presents a brief introduction that supplies students with the necessary tools without seriously getting into the nitty-gritty of quantum field theory, and then explores advanced topics in detail. The book then discusses group theory, and in this case the author assumes that students are familiar with the basic definitions and properties of a group, and even SU(2) and its representations. With this foundation established, he goes on to discuss representations of continuous groups bigger than SU(2) in detail. The material is presented at a level that M.Sc. and Ph.D. students can understand, with exercises throughout the text at points at which performing the exercises would be most beneficial. Anyone teaching a one-semester course will probably have to choose from the topics covered, because this text also contains advanced material that might not be covered within a semester due to lack of time. Thus it provides the teaching tool with the flexibility to customize the course to suit your needs.

In this cleverly conceived book, physicist Robert Gilmore makes accessible some complex concepts in quantum mechanics by sending Alice to Quantumland-a whole new Wonderland, smaller than an atom, where each attraction demonstrates a different aspect of quantum theory. Alice unusual encounters, enhanced by illustrations by Gilmore himself, make the Uncertainty Principle, wave functions, the Pauli Principle, and other elusive concepts easier to grasp.

Thisbookgrewoutof anongoing e?orttomodernizeColgate University’s three-term,introductory,calculus-level physicscourse. Thebookisforthe ?rst term of this course and is intended to help ?rst-year college students make a good transition from high-school physics to university physics. Thebookconcentrates onthephysicsthatexplainswhywebelievethat atoms exist and have the properties we ascribe to them. This story line, which motivates much of our professional research, has helped us limit the material presented to a more humane and more realistic amount than is presented in many beginning university physics courses. The theme of atoms also supports the presentation of more non-Newtonian topics and ideas than is customary in the ?rst term of calculus-level physics. We think it is important and desirable to introduce students sooner than usual to some of the major ideas that shape contemporary physicists’ views of the nature and behavior of matter. Here in the second decade of the twenty-?rst century such a goal seems particularly appropriate. The quantum nature of atoms and light and the mysteries associated with quantum behavior clearly interest our students. By adding and - phasizing more modern content, we seek not only to present some of the physics that engages contemporary physicists but also to attract students to take more physics. Only a few of our beginning physics students come to us sharply focused on physics or astronomy. Nearly all of them, h- ever, have taken physics in high school and found it interesting.