Modern introductory physics

This is an extensive revision of a successful and innovative introductory text for students of college and university physics. Like the first edition, thisrevision concentrates on the physics that answers the question: Why do we believe in atoms and their properties? While providing a sound introduction to basic physical concepts, it emphasizes nineteenth- and twentieth-century physicsthat has led to our modern picture of the atom. The revision also has two newchapters that explore, in the context of real experiments, important ideas ofquantum mechanics---including disturbing consequences of superposition such as entanglement, non-locality, and the violation of Bell’s inequalities. The book begins with a review of Newtonian mechanics. It then looks at physical evidence that chemical compounds are made of atoms and shows how basic mechanics and a simple hard-sphere model of atoms explain pressure, temperature, viscosity, and the ideal gas laws, and yield the first determination of the size of anatom. Three chapters of basic electricity and magnetism provide tools used toreveal the electrical nature of atoms, to discover the electron, and to identify it as an important part of all atoms. A description of waves and their properties---particularly interference---provides background for chapters describing how the interactions of light, x-rays, and electrons with crystalline matter and with atoms reveal internal structure. After two chapters unfold the discovery of the particle nature of light and the wave behavior of electrons, thepuzzle of wave-particle duality emerges. A chapter on radioactivity, transmutation, the discovery of the nucleus, isotopes, and the neutron and a chapter on Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom and Moseley’s identification of the atomicnumber establish the nuclear model of the atom. The final chapters show how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and Feynman’s rules of quantum superposition resolve the issues of wave-particle duality at the cost of some uncomfortably unintuitive ideas. These and experiments that confirm them are described indetail. To help students make a good transition from high-school physics to university physics, this book fosters quantitative skills: There is much use oforder-of-magnitude calculations, scaling arguments, proportionalities, approximations, and other basic tools of quantitative reasoning, progressing from simple and direct in the early parts of the book to more elaborate later. There is also a strong effort to show how new physics and new ideas are inferred from experimental data and quantitative reasoning. The book has a large number ofproblems to help students clarify their understanding. The spreadsheet problems have been updated, and new problems have been added to many chapters. Like most of the problems in the first edition, the new ones are original creationsfor this book. Supports an uncommonly coherent introduction to physics by emphasizing the physics needed to understand why we believe in atoms Presents lively, innovative text that engages students and enables them to approach frontiers in physics earlier in their education than usual Updated second edition with added exercises and new chapters on quantum mechanics INDICE: What's going on here?- Some physics you need to know.- The chemist's atoms.- Gas laws.- Hard-sphere atoms.- Electrical forces and fields.- Magnetic field and magnetic force.- Electrical atoms and the electron.- Waves and light.- Time and length at high speeds.- Energy and momentum at high speeds.- Photons and quantum mechanics.- Entanglement and bell's inequalities.- The granularity of light.- X-rays.- Particles as waves.- The heisenberg uncertainty principle.- Radioactivity and the atomic nucleus.- Spectra and the bohr atom.- Useful information.- Index.

• ISBN: 978-0-387-79079-4
• Editorial: Springer
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 668
• Fecha Publicación: 28/08/2010
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés