Back-of-the-Envelope Physics

Back-of-the-Envelope Physics PDF Author: Clifford Swartz
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801881641
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
From an award-winning teacher, “a delightful and instructive accessory to an introductory physics course” (Physics World). Physicists use “back-of-the-envelope” estimates to check whether or not an idea could possibly be right. In many cases, the approximate solution is all that is needed. This compilation of 101 examples of back-of-the-envelope calculations celebrates a quantitative approach to solving physics problems. Drawing on a lifetime of physics research and nearly three decades as the editor of The Physics Teacher, Clifford Swartz—a winner of two awards from the American Association of Physics Teachers—provides simple, approximate solutions to physics problems that span a broad range of topics. What note do you get when you blow across the top of a Coke bottle? Could you lose weight on a diet of ice cubes? How can a fakir lie on a bed of nails without getting hurt? Does draining water in the northern hemisphere really swirl in a different direction than its counterpart below the equator? In each case, only a few lines of arithmetic and a few natural constants solve a problem to within a few percent. Covering such subjects as astronomy, magnetism, optics, sound, heat, mechanics, waves, and electricity, this book provides a rich source of material for teachers and anyone interested in the physics of everyday life. “This is a book that will help make the study of physics fun and relevant.” —Mark P. Silverman, author of Waves and Grains: Reflections on Light and Learning

Back-of-the-Envelope Physics

Back-of-the-Envelope Physics PDF Author: Clifford Swartz
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 0801881641
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Get Book Here

Book Description
From an award-winning teacher, “a delightful and instructive accessory to an introductory physics course” (Physics World). Physicists use “back-of-the-envelope” estimates to check whether or not an idea could possibly be right. In many cases, the approximate solution is all that is needed. This compilation of 101 examples of back-of-the-envelope calculations celebrates a quantitative approach to solving physics problems. Drawing on a lifetime of physics research and nearly three decades as the editor of The Physics Teacher, Clifford Swartz—a winner of two awards from the American Association of Physics Teachers—provides simple, approximate solutions to physics problems that span a broad range of topics. What note do you get when you blow across the top of a Coke bottle? Could you lose weight on a diet of ice cubes? How can a fakir lie on a bed of nails without getting hurt? Does draining water in the northern hemisphere really swirl in a different direction than its counterpart below the equator? In each case, only a few lines of arithmetic and a few natural constants solve a problem to within a few percent. Covering such subjects as astronomy, magnetism, optics, sound, heat, mechanics, waves, and electricity, this book provides a rich source of material for teachers and anyone interested in the physics of everyday life. “This is a book that will help make the study of physics fun and relevant.” —Mark P. Silverman, author of Waves and Grains: Reflections on Light and Learning

Back-of-the-Envelope Physics

Back-of-the-Envelope Physics PDF Author: Clifford Swartz
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801872631
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Offers quantitative analysis of one hundred and one physics questions with simple, approximate answers on a variety of topics.

Fly By Night Physics

Fly By Night Physics PDF Author: A. Zee
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691207739
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The essential primer for physics students who want to build their physical intuition Presented in A. Zee's incomparably engaging style, this book introduces physics students to the practice of using physical reasoning and judicious guesses to get at the crux of a problem. An essential primer for advanced undergraduates and beyond, Fly by Night Physics reveals the simple and effective techniques that researchers use to think through a problem to its solution—or failing that, to smartly guess the answer—before starting any calculations. In typical physics classrooms, students seek to master an enormous toolbox of mathematical methods, which are necessary to do the precise calculations used in physics. Consequently, students often develop the unfortunate impression that physics consists of well-defined problems that can be solved with tightly reasoned and logical steps. Idealized textbook exercises and homework problems reinforce this erroneous impression. As a result, even the best students can find themselves completely unprepared for the challenges of doing actual research. In reality, physics is replete with back of the envelope estimates, order of magnitude guesses, and fly by night leaps of logic. Including exciting problems related to cutting-edge topics in physics, from Hawking radiation to gravity waves, this indispensable book will help students more deeply understand the equations they have learned and develop the confidence to start flying by night to arrive at the answers they seek. For instructors, a solutions manual is available upon request.

Building Physics of the Envelope

Building Physics of the Envelope PDF Author: Ulrich Knaack
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3035609497
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Die Fassade ist die Schnittstelle des Gebäudes mit seiner Umwelt. Dort treffen bauphysikalische Parameter wie Wärme, Feuchte, Schall und Licht auf das Haus und wirken auf es ein. Alle diese Einflüsse bedürfen der Regulierung durch die Gebäudehülle, um Behaglichkeit für den Nutzer und Funktionstüchtigkeit der Architektur zu gewährleisten. Diese Einführung erläutert die wichtigsten Phänomene, um dann den Bezug zur Baupraxis herzustellen: Welche Materialien reagieren in welcher Weise auf diese Faktoren? Wie gehen Fassadensystemen mit Wärme, Feuchte, Schall und Licht um? Das praxisorientierte Buch, entstanden aus der Zusammenarbeit eines Architekten und eines Bauingenieurs, beschreibt die wichtigsten Fassadenmaterialien und -konstruktionen im Hinblick auf ihre bauphysikalische Performance.

Everyday Physics

Everyday Physics PDF Author: Jo Hermans
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1906860823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
Fascinating, fun and friendly, this physics book is perfect for anyone with a healthy dose of curiosity. How can you tell where a sound is coming from? What is the human energy equivalent of a vacuum cleaner? How does GPS work? Why do eggs explode in the microwave? Is there a vacuum inside double-glazed windows? Can you get less wet by cycling faster? With clear explanations and hundreds of colourful photos and diagrams, Everyday Physics is an engaging physics book accessible for all ages. You can read this brilliant book in whatever order you want, dipping in and out of the different sections. Based on Hermans' Everyday physics lecture series, it combines deep physical insights with back-of-the-envelope calculations, relating abstract physics concepts to the real world, often in a surprising way. Everyday Physics also features lots of intriguing home experiments to further demonstrate the explanations. Most of these can be done using simple items from the kitchen, such as using a glass of water, a torch, and a few drops of milk to understand why the sky is blue and the setting sun red. If you want to dig a bit deeper, there are extra resources in the shaded boxes throughout. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, college student or just have a healthy interest in the world around you, this book will bring the magic of physics to your everyday life. Once you discover the beauty of science, ordinary things will become extraordinary.

Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever ways to (roughly) calculate anything

Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever ways to (roughly) calculate anything PDF Author: Rob Eastaway
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 000832459X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
‘Another terrific book by Rob Eastaway’ SIMON SINGH ‘A delightfully accessible guide to how to play with numbers’ HANNAH FRY

Guesstimation

Guesstimation PDF Author: Lawrence Weinstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824443
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic. Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly simple to quite sophisticated and from serious real-world concerns to downright silly ones. How long would it take a running faucet to fill the inverted dome of the Capitol? What is the total length of all the pickles consumed in the US in one year? What are the relative merits of internal-combustion and electric cars, of coal and nuclear energy? The problems are marvelously diverse, yet the skills to solve them are the same. The authors show how easy it is to derive useful ballpark estimates by breaking complex problems into simpler, more manageable ones--and how there can be many paths to the right answer. The book is written in a question-and-answer format with lots of hints along the way. It includes a handy appendix summarizing the few formulas and basic science concepts needed, and its small size and French-fold design make it conveniently portable. Illustrated with humorous pen-and-ink sketches, Guesstimation will delight popular-math enthusiasts and is ideal for the classroom.

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary PDF Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0593135210
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Statistical Physics

Statistical Physics PDF Author: Gregory H. Wannier
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048665401X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
Classic text combines thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory in one unified presentation. Topics include equilibrium statistics of special systems, kinetic theory, transport coefficients, and fluctuations. Problems with solutions. 1966 edition.

The Astronomers' Magic Envelope

The Astronomers' Magic Envelope PDF Author: Prasenjit Saha
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198816464
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Working physicists, and especially astrophysicists, value a good `back-of-the-envelope' calculation, meaning a short, elegant computation or argument that starts from general principles and leads to an interesting result. This book guides students on how to understand astrophysics using general principles and concise calculations -- endeavouring to be elegant where possible and using short computer programs where necessary. The material proceeds in approximate historical order. The book begins with the Enlightenment-era insight that the orbits of the planets is easy, but the orbit of the Moon is a real headache, and continues to deterministic chaos. This is followed by a chapter on spacetime and black holes. Four chapters reveal how microphysics, especially quantum mechanics, allow us to understand how stars work. The last two chapters are about cosmology, bringing us to 21st-century developments on the microwave background and gravitational waves.