Concepts of Modern Physics: The Haifa Lectures

by Sachs, Mendel

• ISBN13: 9781860948220
• ISBN10: 1860948227
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-27
• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc

Summary

This book highlihts foundational issues in theoretical physics in an informal, open style of lecture. It expresses the flow of ideas in physics - from the period of Galileo and Newton to the contemporary ideas of the quantum and relativity theories, astrophysics and cosmology - as explanations for the laws of matter. rather than presenting the ideas of physics as a fait accompli, the book leaves it up to the reader to decide which of these 20th-century ideas in science will carry over to the 21st century for our further comprehension of the lawsof nature in all domains, from that of elementary particles to cosmology.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Philosophy of Science	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Philosophy of Science	p. 3
Truth	p. 4
Significant Questions in Science	p. 7
Classical Precursors for the Concepts of Modern Physics	p. 9
Galileo Galilei	p. 9
The Thought Experiment	p. 9
Galileo's Principle of Inertia	p. 9
Laws of Motion in Two- and Three-Dimensional Space	p. 11
Galileo's Principle of Relativity	p. 11
Threads of Truth - Astronomy	p. 12
Rene Descartes	p. 13
Baruch Spinoza	p. 14
Isaac Newton	p. 15
Newton's Three Laws of Motion	p. 16
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation	p. 16
Newton's Concepts	p. 18
Newton's Optics	p. 19
Nineteenth Century Physics: Atomism and Continuity	p. 21
The Ideal Gas Law	p. 22
Heat and the Conservation of Energy	p. 24
The Laws of Thermodynamics and Atomism	p. 25
Ludwig Boltzmann's and Ernst Mach's Philosophy of Science	p. 27
Agreements between Boltzmann and Mach and 'Mach's Principle'	p. 28
The Continuous Field Concept	p. 29
Early Anomalies and Elementary Particles	p. 34
The Perihelion Precession of Mercury's Orbit	p. 34
The Michelson-Morley Experiment	p. 35
Blackbody Radiation and the Photon	p. 37
The Electron	p. 39
The Quantization of Electrical Charge	p. 40
The Photoelectric Effect	p. 41
The Compton Effect	p. 41
Radioactivity	p. 42
Rutherford and Atomic Structure	p. 43
Bohr's Atomic Model	p. 43
From the Old Quantum Theory to Quantum Mechanics	p. 46
Bohr's Atom and Energy Levels	p. 46
Electron Diffraction and Wave-Particle Dualism	p. 48
Schrodinger's Wave Mechanics	p. 49
Schrodinger's Interpretation of Wave Mechanics	p. 50
The Young Double Slit Experiment	p. 52
Einstein's Objection to Born's Interpretation of Linear Superposition	p. 54
Schrodinger's Cat Paradox	p. 55
Quantum Mechanics: Heisenberg's Matrix Mechanics and the Copenhagen School	p. 57
Heisenberg's Philosophy	p. 57
Matrix Mechanics	p. 58
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle	p. 60
The Subjectivity of Matter in the Copenhagen View	p. 61
The Principle of Complementarity	p. 62
Einstein's Photon Box Thought Experiment	p. 63
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Thought Experiment	p. 64
Hidden Variables	p. 66
Concepts of the Theory of Relativity	p. 68
The Principle of Relativity	p. 68
Einstein's Discovery of the Theory of Relativity	p. 70
The Spacetime Metric in Special Relativity	p. 72
The Light Cone	p. 73
Lorentz Transformations	p. 73
Relative Simultaneity	p. 74
Time Contraction and the Twin Paradox	p. 75
The Fitzgerald-Lorentz Contraction	p. 77
The Transformations of Velocities in Relativity Theory	p. 77
From Special to General Relativity	p. 79
The Paradoxes of Time Travel	p. 79
The Energy-Mass Relation E = mc[superscript 2] in Special Relativity	p. 81
The Meaning of E = mc[superscript 2]	p. 84
The Theory of General Relativity	p. 84
The Metric of a Curved Spacetime	p. 85
The Principle of Equivalence	p. 86
The Tests of General Relativity	p. 88
A Unified Field Theory	p. 90
The Universe	p. 93
Astrophysics	p. 93
Black Holes	p. 93
Pulsars	p. 95
Dark Matter	p. 96
Cosmology: The Physics of the Universe	p. 97
The Early Friedman Model	p. 100
The Hubble Law	p. 101
The Beginning of the Universe	p. 101
Olbers' Paradox	p. 101
A Spiral Universe	p. 103
The Separation of Matter and Antimatter in the Universe	p. 104
Conflicts in the Foundations of the Quantum and Relativity Theories	p. 106
The Principle of Complementarity versus the Principle of Relativity	p. 107
Atomism Versus Continuity	p. 108
On Epistemology - Logical Positivism Versus Abstract Realism	p. 109
Subjectivity Versus Objectivity	p. 110
On Quantum Electrodynamics	p. 113
Indeterminism Versus Determinism	p. 114
References and Notes	p. 116
Index	p. 123
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