A Universe of Atoms, an Atom in the Universe

by Silverman, Mark P.

• ISBN13: 9780387954370
• ISBN10: 0387954376
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Springer Nature

Summary

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	ix
Introduction The Fire Within	1	(6)
The Wirbelrohr's Roar	7	(23)
Wirbelrohr Follow-up	24	(6)
Musical Bottles, Flying Balloons, and Hot Stoves: The Uncommon Physics of Common Things	30	(33)
The Good Sound of Coke™: Physical Modeling by Analogy	30	(8)
Comedy of Errors: What Every Aeronaut Needs to Know	38	(10)
Cool in the Kitchen: Radiation, Conduction, and Newton's ``Hot Block'' Experiment	48	(15)
The Unimaginably Strange Behavior of Free Electrons	63	(64)
Variations on ``The Only Mystery''	63	(13)
Electron Interference in a Space with Holes	76	(16)
The Two-Electron Quantum Interference Disappearing Act	92	(10)
Heretical Correlations	102	(17)
HBT Update	119	(8)
Quantum Beats and Giant Atoms	127	(54)
The Light from Atomic ``Pulsars''	127	(13)
Anomalous Reversals	140	(15)
Quantum Implications of Traveling in Circles	155	(13)
Long-Distance Beats	168	(13)
And Yet It Moves: Exotic Atoms and the Invariance of Charge	181	(22)
A Commotion About Motion	181	(6)
The Electric Charge of a Moving Electron	187	(4)
The Exotic Atom	191	(6)
The Planetary Atom	197	(6)
Reflections on Light	203	(42)
Exorcising a Maxwell Demon	203	(3)
Enhanced Reflection: How Light Gets Brighter When It Is Up Against a Wall	206	(18)
Left- and Right-Handed Reflection	224	(21)
Two Worlds, Large and Small: Earth and Atom	245	(34)
Computers, Coins, and Quanta: Unexpected Outcomes of Random Events	279	(46)
The Suggestive Power of Fun	279	(2)
To Switch or Not to Switch---That Is the Question	281	(2)
On the Run: How Random Is Random?	283	(11)
Random Acts of Measurement	294	(5)
Do Radioactive Nuclei Decay Randomly?	299	(17)
Mark Off Time with Markov	316	(4)
Exponential Decay, Correlation, and Randomness: The Quantum Perspective	320	(5)
A Universe of Atoms: Symmetry, Unity, Gravity, and the Problem of ``Missing Mass''	325	(61)
Keep It Together! Keep It Together! Keep It Together!	325	(4)
Symmetries for the Mind's Eye	329	(13)
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking	342	(6)
What Is the Matter with Gravity?	348	(16)
Shedding Light on Dark Matter	364	(7)
A Galactic Superfluid?	371	(6)
And So ...	377	(9)
Science and Wonder	386	(10)
Selected Papers by the Author	396	(13)
About the Author	409	(2)
Index	411