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Superstrings and Other Things
A GUIDE TO PHYSICS
Carlos I. Calle
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Institute of Physics Publishing/CRC Press
Bristol and Philadelphia 647 pages, November 2001 ISBN: 0750307072 |
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Superstrings and Other Things: A Guide to Physics takes the reader on a fascinating journey through physics. Written in an accessible style, this comprehensive guide explains the basic concepts of motion, energy, and gravity, through to the latest theories about the structure of matter, the origin of the universe, and the beginning of time.
Do you know…
- How the ancient Greeks measured the Earth's circumference?
- How a car air bag works?
- Why cats always land on their paws?
- Why metal ships float?
- Why nothing can travel faster than the speed of light?
- What a black hole is?
- How an electron microscope works?
- If teleportation is possible?
- What connects novelist James Joyce and particle physics
About the Book
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Superstrings and Other Things: A Guide to Physics is a fascinating and comprehensive survey of physics written in an accessible style. It places physics in the context of other sciences and explains its close relationship with mathematics. Starting with simple concepts of motion and energy, it builds up to the latest theories about the structure of matter, the origin of the universe, and the beginning of time. Fully illustrated throughout, we learn about the major discoveries and the scientists behind them, from Galileo and Newton, Einstein and Bohr, to Feynman and Hawking. Numerous examples of physics in everyday situations are provided and explained in an easy to understand way. Intended for the general reader with an inquiring mind, this guide will also be indispensable to students and scientists in other disciplines, and professionals in non-scientific fields who would like to understand the basic concepts of physics. "The mix of fundamental physics and everyday applications in appealing." Professor Sir Michael Berry, Fellow Royal Society. The book is divided into seven parts. After the introductory concepts, the science of mechanics and the study of energy are presented. These six chapters are followed by an introduction to the structure of matter, where the story of the atom and its nucleus is presented. The book continues with thermodynamics, the conceptual development of electricity and magnetism, waves and light, and finally, with the rest of the story of modern physics, from the development of quantum theory and relativity to the present theories of the structure of matter. |