dafei187 2007-6-15 00:36
A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe【Mark P. Silverman】
A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe
jladam 2007-11-3 17:10
A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe
By Mark P. Silverman
Publisher: Springer
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Sales Rank: 1453960
ISBN / ASIN: 0387954376
EAN: 9780387954370
Binding: Hardcover
Manufacturer: Springer
Studio: Springer
Book Description:
The essays in this book are based on researches the author has undertaken on a wide range of topics, some using equipment no more elaborate than what one can find in an ordinary kitchen, others making elegant use of sophisticated experimental apparatus. Presenting a personal odyssey in physics, Silverman investigates processes for which no visualizable mechanism can be given, or that seem to violate fundamental physical laws (but do not), or that appear to be well understood but turn out to be subtly devious. Written in an engagingly personal style, the essays will be of interest to students of physics and related disciplines as well as professional physicists. Though they deal with subtle concepts, the discussions use little mathematics, and anyone with a little college physics will be able to read the book with pleasure. Silverman's researches deal with in quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids, and these essays address .such questions as: How does one know that atomic electrons move? Would an "anti-atom" fall upward? How is it possible for randomly emitted particles to arrive at a detector preferentially in pairs? Can one influence electrons in London by not watching them in New York? Can a particle be influenced by a magnetic field through which it does not pass? A basketball is not changed by turning it once around its axis, but what about an electron? Can more light reflect from a surface than is incident upon it? "A Universe of Atoms" is the second edition of Silverman's "And Yet It Moves"; each essay in the earlier collection has been revised and updated, and some new essays on the uncommon physics of common objects have been added
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: The Fire Within
Ch. 1 The Wirbelrohr's Roar
Ch. 2 Musical Bottles, Flying Balloons, and Hot Stoves: The Uncommon Physics of Common Things
Ch. 3 The Unimaginably Strange Behavior of Free Electrons
Ch. 4 Quantum Beats and Giant Atoms
Ch. 5 And Yet It Moves: Exotic Atoms and the Invariance of Charge
Ch. 6 Reflections on Light
Ch. 7 Two Worlds, Large and Small: Earth and Atom
Ch. 8 Computers, Coins, and Quanta: Unexpected Outcomes of Random Events
Ch. 9 A Universe of Atoms: Symmetry, Unity, Gravity, and the Problem of "Missing Mass"
Ch. 10 Science and Wonder
Selected Papers by the Author
About the Author
Index
