Atoms and Photons and Quanta, Oh My!


Book Description

This is the second book in the “Ask the Physicist” series. The first book, From Newton to Einstein: Ask the physicist about mechanics and relativity, provides an excellent foundation for this book that covers topics in ‘modern’ physics. The main emphasis of this volume is providing an accessible introduction to quantum physics, atomic physics, and nuclear physics to anyone with at least high-school physics knowledge.




Atoms and Photons and Quanta, Oh My!


Book Description

This is the second book in the “Ask the Physicist” series. The first book, From Newton to Einstein: Ask the physicist about mechanics and relativity, provides an excellent foundation for this book that covers topics in ‘modern’ physics. The main emphasis of this volume is providing an accessible introduction to quantum physics, atomic physics, and nuclear physics to anyone with at least high-school physics knowledge.




Physics is...


Book Description

He's back! The physicist returns with an entirely new compilation of questions and answers from his long-lived website where laypeople can ask questions about anything physics related. This book focuses on adjectives (practical, beautiful, surprising, cool, frivolous) instead of nouns like the first two books (atoms, photons, quanta, mechanics, relativity). The answers within 'Physics Is' are responses to people looking for answers to fascinating (and often uninformed) questions. It covers topics such as sports, electromagnetism, gravitational theory, special relativity, superheroes, videogames, and science fiction. These books are designed for laypeople and rely heavily on concepts rather than formalism. That said, they keep the physics correct and don't water down, so expert physicists will find this book and its two companion titles fun reads. They may actually recognize similar questions posed to them by friends and family. As with the first two books, 'Physics Is' ends with a chapter with questions from people who think that 'The physicist' is a psychic and from people who think they have the answers to life, the universe and everything.




Light and Waves


Book Description

This book explores light and other types of waves, using this as a window into other aspects of physics. It emphasizes a conceptual understanding, using examples chosen from everyday life and the natural environment. For example, it explains how hummingbird feathers create shimmering colors, how musical instruments produce sound, and how atoms stick together to form molecules. It provides a unique perspective on physics by emphasizing commonalities among different types of waves, including string waves, water waves, sound waves, light waves, the matter waves of quantum mechanics, and the gravitational waves of general relativity. This book is targeted toward college non-science majors, advanced high school students, and adults who are curious about our physical world. It assumes familiarity with algebra but no further mathematics and is classroom-ready with many worked examples, exercises, exploratory puzzles, and appendices to support students from a variety of backgrounds.




Escape from Shadow Physics


Book Description

An expert researcher argues for a revolutionary new understanding of quantum mechanics The received wisdom in quantum physics is that, at the deepest levels of reality, there are no actual causes for atomic events. This idea led to the outlandish belief that quantum objects—indeed, reality itself—aren’t real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this idea, asking whether his bed spread out across his room unless he looked at it. And yet it remains one of the most influential ideas in science and our culture. In Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Forrest Kay takes up Einstein’s torch: reality isn’t mysterious or dependent on human measurement, but predictable and independent of us. At the heart of his argument is groundbreaking research with little drops of oil. These droplets behave as particles do in the long-overlooked quantum theory of pilot waves; crucially, they showcase quantum behavior while being described by classical physics. And that classical-quantum interface points to a true understanding of quantum mechanics and a reasonable universe. A bold and essential reset of the field, Escape from Shadow Physics describes the kind of true scientific revolution that comes along just once—or less—in a century.




Atoms, Molecules and Photons


Book Description

This introduction to Atomic and Molecular Physics explains how our present model of atoms and molecules has been developed over the last two centuries both by many experimental discoveries and, from the theoretical side, by the introduction of quantum physics to the adequate description of micro-particles. It illustrates the wave model of particles by many examples and shows the limits of classical description. The interaction of electromagnetic radiation with atoms and molecules and its potential for spectroscopy is outlined in more detail and in particular lasers as modern spectroscopic tools are discussed more thoroughly. Many examples and problems with solutions are offered to encourage readers to actively engage in applying and adapting the fundamental physics presented in this textbook to specific situations. Completely revised third edition with new sections covering all actual developments, like photonics, ultrashort lasers, ultraprecise frequency combs, free electron lasers, cooling and trapping of atoms, quantum optics and quantum information.




Exploring the Quantum


Book Description

The counter-intuitive aspects of quantum physics have been long illustrated by thought experiments, from Einstein's photon box to Schrödinger's cat. These experiments have now become real, with single particles - electrons, atoms, or photons - directly unveiling the strange features of the quantum. State superpositions, entanglement and complementarity define a novel quantum logic which can be harnessed for information processing, raising great hopes for applications. This book describes a class of such thought experiments made real. Juggling with atoms and photons confined in cavities, ions or cold atoms in traps, is here an incentive to shed a new light on the basic concepts of quantum physics. Measurement processes and decoherence at the quantum-classical boundary are highlighted. This volume, which combines theory and experiments, will be of interest to students in quantum physics, teachers seeking illustrations for their lectures and new problem sets, researchers in quantum optics and quantum information.




From Newton to Einstein


Book Description

From Newton to Einstein is a book devoted to classical mechanics. "Classical" here includes the theory of special relativity as well because, as argued in the book, it is essentially Newtonian mechanics extended to very high speeds. This information is expanded from the author's popular Q&A website, a site aimed primarily at general readers who are curious about how physics explains the workings of the world. Hence, the answers emphasize concepts over formalism, and the mathematics is kept to a minimum. Students new to physics will find discussion and quantitative calculations for areas often neglected in introductory courses (e.g. air drag and non-inertial frames). The author gives us a more intuitive approach to special relativity than normally taught in introductory courses. One chapter discusses general relativity in a completely non-mathematical way emphasizing the equivalence principle and the generalized principle of relativity; the examples in this chapter can offer a new slant on applications of classical mechanics. Another chapter is devoted to the physics of computer games, sci-fi, superheros, and super weapons for those interested in the intersection of popular culture and science. Professional scientists will find topics that they may find amusing and, in some cases, everyday applications that they had not thought of. Brief tutorials are given for essential concepts (e.g. Newton's laws) and appendices give technical details for the interested reader.




Dance of the Photons


Book Description

The Nobel laureate in physics explains his experiments in quantum entanglement: “An accessible popular account of this fascinating field.” —Science Einstein’s steadfast refusal to accept certain aspects of quantum theory was rooted in his insistence that physics has to be about reality. Accordingly, he once derided as “spooky action at a distance” the notion that two elementary particles far removed from each other could nonetheless influence each other’s properties—a hypothetical phenomenon his fellow theorist Erwin Schrödinger termed “quantum entanglement.” In a series of ingenious experiments conducted in various locations—from a dank sewage tunnel under the Danube River to the balmy air between a pair of mountain peaks in the Canary Islands—the author and his colleagues have demonstrated the reality of such entanglement using photons, or light quanta, created by laser beams. In principle the lessons learned may be applicable in other areas, including the eventual development of quantum computers. In Dance of the Photons, Anton Zeilinger guides us on a “rewarding exploration of the weird world of quantum physics” (Kirkus Reviews). “This delightful little book, by one of the world’s leading practitioners in this area, explains these recent advances in a way that should be accessible even to readers with no physics background.” —Anthony J. Leggett, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics




A-level Physics Oh-My-God Drill Questions w Sns (Yellowreef)


Book Description

• For intensive practices • MCQs / structure question-types with solutions taken from special and/or H3 exams worldwide • arranged topically • Complete edition eBook only