8 results for "Physics"

Modern physics

Bernstein, Jeremy
For sophomore-level courses in modern physics. This comprehensive text provides a clear, correct, and up-to-date introduction and survey of the topics of importance to tomorrow's engineers and scientists. The presentation includes the description of the history of the topics, to show students how we got to where we are; it stresses the importance of observation and experiment; and it emphasizes numbers, so that students develop a feel for the magnitudes involved and for when different principles become important.
Prentice Hall 2000 602 pages

Kinetic theory in the expanding universe

Bernstein, Jeremy
Kinetic Theory in the Expanding Universe is a self-contained exposition of the applications of kinetic theory to basic problems in modern cosmology, such as the role of stable and unstable massive neutrinos and the theory of cosmological helium production. There has been rapid development of the theory of the origin and evolution of the universe in recent years, stimulated, in large part, by new observations and theories in astrophysics and particle physics. Bernstein takes a different approach and studies what can be concluded from the application of kinetic theory, and in particular the Boltzmann equation and its solutions, to cosmological problems. He begins with a brief survey of the necessary relativity, cosmodynamics, and kinetic theory, before going on to discuss specific problems, such as the role of stable and unstable massive neutrinos, electron-positron annihilation and the theory of cosomological helium production. The focus is in obtaining both a theoretical understanding and concrete numerical results.
Cambridge University Press 2004-08-19 149 pages

Quantum leaps

Bernstein, Jeremy
In 1953, reflecting on early ventures in quantum theory, J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke of terror and exaltation, of history happening in a realm so remote from common experience that it was "unlikely to be known to any poet or historian." Yet now, anyone can Google "quantum theory" and find more than 34 million entries--from poets and historians, certainly, as well as film critics and Buddhist monks. How--and how pervasively--quantum mechanics has entered the general culture is the subject of this book, an engaging, eclectic, and thought-provoking look at the curious, boundlessly fertile intersection of scientific thought and everyday life. Including recollections of encounters with the theory and the people responsible for it, Jeremy Bernstein's account ranges from the cross-pollination of quantum mechanics with Marxist ideology and Christian and Buddhist mysticism to its influence on theater, film, and fiction. Along the way, Bernstein focuses on those--such as Niels Bohr, the Dalai Lama, W. H. Auden, and Tom Stoppard--who have made quantum physics; who have argued over it, pondered it, or taken literary inspiration from it, and who have misunderstood, misconstrued, or misapplied it. One person in particular supplies a narrative thread: John Bell, a notable yet underappreciated physicist who did groundbreaking research in quantum physics. In Bell's story, Bernstein provides a uniquely readable account of what physicists call the "measurement problem." Quantum Leaps is a lively, erudite book on a subject that Bernstein has lived with for most of its history. His experience and deep understanding are apparent on every page.
Belknap 2011-05 230 pages