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Overview
For those who have always wanted to discover the joy of physics, this is the book that they've been waiting for. Many people remember their struggles with physics in high school and have wished for the right opportunity to gain an appreciation of this significant area of knowledge. Now is their chance not only to understand physics, but to do physics. The author provides the general reader with a fun-filled, entertaining, and truly educational tour of this all-important science. What makes the study of physics so worthwhile? The author says that, despite its reputation for difficulty, physics has an enormously ambitious goal, which appeals to people's innate curiosity: to understand the workings of the entire universe, from the smallest quarks to the largest galaxies. Learning and comprehending as much as we can about the inner and outer workings of the universe is what evokes the joy of physics. Taking a hands-on approach, he invites the reader to share the joy. Easy, practical experiments pepper the book and connect the ideas of physics with the reality of the universe. The yo-yo, flying disc, shake flashlight, laser pointer, LED, and even a microwave experiment with an edible result add to the fun.Complete with lively, memorable cartoons by Sidney Harris-America's premier science cartoonist-this book reveals the inherent fun, intellectual pleasure, and supreme importance of a subject that we can now finally tackle and enjoy.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781616144531 |
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Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
Publication date: | 03/23/2011 |
Pages: | 472 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.40(d) |
About the Author
Arthur W. Wiggins (Bloomfield Hills, MI), is the coauthor, with Charles M. Wynn, of the critically acclaimed The Five Biggest Ideas in Science, Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction, The Five Biggest Unsolved Problems in Science, and the textbook Natural Science: Bridging the Gaps. Wiggins is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics, Oakland Community College.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Foreword 11
Introduction-The Scientific Method 13
Experiments 19
A Word About Calculators 20
Apparatus Needed for All Experiments 21
Identified Flying Objects 22
Updated Cannonballs 24
How Things Move-Position, Velocity, and Acceleration 27
Weight 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie 33
Why Things Move-Forces and Their Effects 35
Dropsy 43
Sources of Forces-The Biggies in Nature 45
Horizontal Globalization 53
Round and Round It Goes, and Where It Stops...Circular Motion 55
Outgoing = Incoming 64
The Ultimate Four-Letter Word-Work 67
Follow the Bouncing Ball 73
Oops! Collisions-Impulse and Linear Momentum 75
You Say You Want a Revolution? 82
Spinning Wheels, Got to Go Round 83
Mo' Yo-Yo 92
Force with a Twist-Torque 95
Teeter-Totter 105
The Strange Case of the Body That Doesn't Move-Static Equilibrium 107
Stretchy Spring 113
Getting Bent Out ofShape-Elasticity 115
Gaze Intently at the Swinging Yo-Yo 119
Incredibly Repetitive 121
Back and Forth, Back and Forth...Simple Harmonic Motion and Waves 123
Magic Spring Tricks 130
Hey, Listen, What's That Sound? 131
Dive, Dive 144
Gooey and Gassy-Fluids at Their Finest 146
Soda Bottle Crush 159
Even Perfection Has Its Flaws-The Ideal Gas 161
Kitchen Physics 170
Some Like It Hot-Thermodynamics 171
Static Cling 190
Charge It-Electricity at Rest 191
Meter Reader 202
Who Let the Charges Out?-Electric Current 207
Resistance Is Futile 218
Silent Struggles in the Wires-Resistance 221
Do-It-Yourself Magnet 227
Approach/Avoidance-Magnetism 229
Battery-less Voltage 240
We Are Family-Electricity from Magnetism 241
All Shook Up 247
Big-Time Electricity-AC 251
LEDs Lead the Way 266
The Light Dawns-Electromagnetic Waves 267
Bent Light 274
Polar Opposites 276
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall-Reflection and Refraction of Light 277
Spreading the Beam 290
Compact Rainbow 292
Light's Strangest Tricks-Diffraction and Interference 293
Einstein's Prodigious Efforts-Special and General Relativity 299
LASER, not Phasor 311
Matter's Innards-Atoms and Quantum Mechanics 313
Half-Life Is Better Than No Life 322
Atoms' Innards-Nuclear Physics 323
Down to the Nitty-Gritty-The Standard Model of the Universe's Smallest Constituents 333
But Wait, There's Even More-The Universe's Biggest Constituents 343
Afterword 353
Additional Resources 355
Endnotes and Credits 355
Illustration Credits 365
Index 367
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