The physical world : an inspirational tour of fundamental physics /
Nicholas Manton, Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Nicholas Mee, Trinity College, Cambridge.
- First edition.
- xiii, 556 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color).
"It is over half a century since The Feynman lectures on physics were published. A new authoritative account of fundamental physics covering all branches of the subject is now well overdue. The physical world has been written to satisfy this need."--Page 4 of cover.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction -- Fundamental ideas -- Motions of bodies : Newton's laws -- Fields : Maxwell's equations -- Special relativity -- Curved space -- General relativity -- Quantum mechanics -- Quantum mechanics in three dimensions -- Atoms, molecules and solids -- Thermodynamics -- Nuclear physics -- Particle physics -- Stars -- Cosmology -- Frontiers of physics.
The book offers a grand vision of the essential unity of physics that will enable the reader to see the world through the eyes of a physicist and understand their thinking. The text follows Einstein's dictum that 'explanations should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler', to give an honest account of how modern physicists understand their subject, including the shortcomings of current theory. The result is an up-to-date and engaging portrait of physics that contains concise derivations of the important results in a style where every step in a derivation is clearly explained, so that anyone with the appropriate mathematical skills will find the text easy to digest. The book concentrates on the conceptual principles of each branch of physics and shows how they fit together to form a coherent whole. Emphasis is placed on the use of variational principles in physics, and in particular the principle of least action, an approach that lies at the heart of modern theoretical physics, but has been neglected in most introductory accounts of the subject.--