Basic Physics

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Physics, Quantum Theory, General Physics

• Author: Kenneth W Ford
• ISBN: 9789813208032
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
• Publication: December 15, 2016
• Imprint: WSPC
• Language: English

IN THE NEWS Q&A: Kenneth Ford on Textbooks, Popularizations, and Scientific Secrecy Physics Today, June 2017

This reissued version of the classic text Basic Physics will help teachers at both the high-school and college levels gain new insights into, and deeper understanding of, many topics in both classical and modern physics that are commonly taught in introductory physics courses. All of the original book is included with new content added. Short sections of the previous book (174 in number) are labeled "Features." These Features are highlighted in the book, set forth in a separate Table of Contents, and separately indexed.

Many teachers will value this book as a personal reference during a teaching year as various topics are addressed. Ford's discussions of the history and meaning of topics from Newton's mechanics to Feynman's diagrams, although written first in 1968, have beautifully withstood the test of time and are fully relevant to 21st-century physics teaching.

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Contents:

• Prologue:

  • The Scientist's View of the World

• The Submicroscopic World:

  • Elementary Particles
  • The Large and the Small
  • Conservation Laws

• Mathematics:

  • Mathematics in Science
  • Vectors
  • Units, Functions, and Graphs

• Mechanics:

  • The Laws of Motion
  • Momentum
  • Angular Momentum
  • Energy
  • Universal Gravitation and the Evolution of Mechanics

• Thermodynamics:

  • Temperature, Heat, and the Kinetic Theory
  • Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

• Electromagnetism:

  • Electrostatics and Magnetostatics
  • Electromagnetism
  • Applications of Electromagnetism
  • Electromagnetic Radiation and Wave Phenomena

• Relativity:

  • Galilean Relativity and the Speed of Light
  • The Lorentz Transformation
  • The Special Theory of Relativity
  • General Relativity

• Quantum Mechanics:

  • The Key Ideas of Quantum Mechanics
  • Atoms
  • Nuclei
  • Particles and Interactions
  • The Submicroscopic Frontier

• Epilogue:

  • The Progress of Science

• Appendices:

  • Greek Alphabet
  • Numerical Data
  • Conversion of Units

Readership: University students, course lecturers, teaching assistants, university curriculum planners.
Key Features:

• Brief, digestible essays on historical and conceptual elements of physics discoveries
• Insights not available in standard textbooks
• A way for teachers to enrich and deepen their understanding topic by topic as needed