The Great Design: Particles, Fields, and Creation / Edition 1

by Robert K. Adair

Overview

Although modern physics surrounds us, and newspapers constantly refer to its concepts, most nonscientists find the subject extremely intimidating. Complicated mathematics or gross oversimplifications written by laypersons obscure most attempts to explain physics to general readers.
Now, at long last, we have a comprehensive—and comprehensible—account of particles, fields, and cosmology, written by a working physicist who does not burden the reader with the weight of ponderous scientific notation. Exploring how physicists think about problems, Robert K. Adair considers the assumptions they make in order to simplify impossibly complex relationships between objects, how they determine on what scale to treat the problem, how they make measurements, and the interplay between theory and experiment.
Adair gently guides the reader through the ideas of particles, fields, relativity, and quantum mechanics. He explains the great discoveries of this century—which have caused a revolution in how we view the universe—in simple, logical terms, comprehensible with a knowledge of high school algebra. Performing the difficult task of predigesting complex concepts, Adair gives nonscientists access to what often appears to be an arcane discipline, and captures the joy of discovery which lies at the heart of research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195060690
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/30/1989
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	9.23(w) x 6.15(h) x 0.99(d)
Lexile:	1460L (what's this?)

About the Author

Robert K. Adair is Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale University. He is the author of Concepts in Physics and (with Earle C. Fowler) Strange Particles.

Table of Contents

1	Concepts in Physics	3
2	Invariance and Conservation Laws	14
3	Covariance, Scalars, Vectors, and Tensors	30
4	The Discrete in Nature--The Atoms of Demokritos	38
5	The Continuum in Nature--Faraday's Fields	49
6	The Nature of Space and Time--The Special Theory of Relativity	67
7	The Equivalence Principle and the General Theory of Relativity	103
8	The Electromagnetic Field--The First Unified Field Theory	128
9	The Problem of Change--The Second Law of Thermodynamics	140
10	Quantum Mechanics--Determinism to Probability	149
11	The Atom--A Quantum Laboratory	194
12	Fundamental Particles and Forces--An Introduction	208
13	Symmetries and Conservation Laws--CPT	230
14	The Strong Interactions	248
15	The Weak Interactions	280
16	Cosmology--The World's Beginning and End	308
17	Gauge Invariance--The Unification of Fields	325
18	To the Ultimate Theory--Through a Glass Darkly	344
	Index	370