Author: Nick Evans
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681746999
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
This book and its sequel (Theories of Matter Space and Time: Quantum Theories) are taken from third and fourth year undergraduate Physics courses at Southampton University, UK. The aim of both books is to move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence. The goal is to guide undergraduates through some of the trickier areas of theoretical physics with concise analysis while revealing the key elegance of each subject. The first chapter introduces the key areas of the principle of least action, an alternative treatment of Newtownian dynamics, that provides new understanding of conservation laws. In particular, it shows how the formalism evolved from Fermat's principle of least time in optics. The second introduces special relativity leading quickly to the need and form of four-vectors. It develops four-vectors for all kinematic variables and generalize Newton's second law to the relativistic environment; then returns to the principle of least action for a free relativistic particle. The third chapter presents a review of the integral and differential forms of Maxwell's equations before massaging them to four-vector form so that the Lorentz boost properties of electric and magnetic fields are transparent. Again, it then returns to the action principle to formulate minimal substitution for an electrically charged particle.
Theories of Matter, Space and Time
Author: Nick Evans
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681746999
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
This book and its sequel (Theories of Matter Space and Time: Quantum Theories) are taken from third and fourth year undergraduate Physics courses at Southampton University, UK. The aim of both books is to move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence. The goal is to guide undergraduates through some of the trickier areas of theoretical physics with concise analysis while revealing the key elegance of each subject. The first chapter introduces the key areas of the principle of least action, an alternative treatment of Newtownian dynamics, that provides new understanding of conservation laws. In particular, it shows how the formalism evolved from Fermat's principle of least time in optics. The second introduces special relativity leading quickly to the need and form of four-vectors. It develops four-vectors for all kinematic variables and generalize Newton's second law to the relativistic environment; then returns to the principle of least action for a free relativistic particle. The third chapter presents a review of the integral and differential forms of Maxwell's equations before massaging them to four-vector form so that the Lorentz boost properties of electric and magnetic fields are transparent. Again, it then returns to the action principle to formulate minimal substitution for an electrically charged particle.
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681746999
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
This book and its sequel (Theories of Matter Space and Time: Quantum Theories) are taken from third and fourth year undergraduate Physics courses at Southampton University, UK. The aim of both books is to move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence. The goal is to guide undergraduates through some of the trickier areas of theoretical physics with concise analysis while revealing the key elegance of each subject. The first chapter introduces the key areas of the principle of least action, an alternative treatment of Newtownian dynamics, that provides new understanding of conservation laws. In particular, it shows how the formalism evolved from Fermat's principle of least time in optics. The second introduces special relativity leading quickly to the need and form of four-vectors. It develops four-vectors for all kinematic variables and generalize Newton's second law to the relativistic environment; then returns to the principle of least action for a free relativistic particle. The third chapter presents a review of the integral and differential forms of Maxwell's equations before massaging them to four-vector form so that the Lorentz boost properties of electric and magnetic fields are transparent. Again, it then returns to the action principle to formulate minimal substitution for an electrically charged particle.
Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030917113X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030917113X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.
Theories of Matter, Space, and Time
Author: Nick Evans
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681749823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
This book and its prequel (Theories of Matter, Space, and Time: Classical Theories) grew out of courses that are taught by the authors on the undergraduate degree program in physics at Southampton University, UK. The authors aim to guide the full MPhys undergraduate cohort through some of the trickier areas of theoretical physics that undergraduates are expected to master. To move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence. This approach keeps the analysis as concise and physical as possible whilst revealing the key elegance in each subject discussed. This second book of the pair looks at ideas to the arena of Quantum Mechanics. First quickly reviewing the basics of quantum mechanics which should be familiar to the reader from a first course, it then links the Schrodinger equation to the Principle of Least Action introducing Feynman's path integral methods. Next, it presents the relativistic wave equations of Klein, Gordon and Dirac. Finally, Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are converted to a wave equation for photons and make contact with Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) at a first quantized level. Between the two volumes the authors hope to move a student's understanding from their first courses to a place where they are ready to embark on graduate level courses on quantum field theory.
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681749823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
This book and its prequel (Theories of Matter, Space, and Time: Classical Theories) grew out of courses that are taught by the authors on the undergraduate degree program in physics at Southampton University, UK. The authors aim to guide the full MPhys undergraduate cohort through some of the trickier areas of theoretical physics that undergraduates are expected to master. To move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence. This approach keeps the analysis as concise and physical as possible whilst revealing the key elegance in each subject discussed. This second book of the pair looks at ideas to the arena of Quantum Mechanics. First quickly reviewing the basics of quantum mechanics which should be familiar to the reader from a first course, it then links the Schrodinger equation to the Principle of Least Action introducing Feynman's path integral methods. Next, it presents the relativistic wave equations of Klein, Gordon and Dirac. Finally, Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are converted to a wave equation for photons and make contact with Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) at a first quantized level. Between the two volumes the authors hope to move a student's understanding from their first courses to a place where they are ready to embark on graduate level courses on quantum field theory.
Space, Time, Matter
Author: Hermann Weyl
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Relativity (Physics)
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Relativity (Physics)
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
Matter, Space, and Motion
Author: Richard Sorabji
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
The nature of matter was as intriguing a question for ancient philosophers as it is for contemporary physicists, and Matter, Space, and Motion presents a fresh and illuminating account of the rich legacy of the physical theories of the Greeks from the fifth century B.C. to the late sixth century A.D.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
The nature of matter was as intriguing a question for ancient philosophers as it is for contemporary physicists, and Matter, Space, and Motion presents a fresh and illuminating account of the rich legacy of the physical theories of the Greeks from the fifth century B.C. to the late sixth century A.D.
Space, Time and Matter
Author: Dipak Kumar Sen
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814522848
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 153
Book Description
This volume deals with the fundamental concepts of space, time and matter. It presents a novel reformulation of both the special and general theory of relativity, in which time does not constitute the fourth dimension in a conventional 4-dimensional space-time. Instead, the role of time is played by the flow of a vector field on a 3-dimensional space. The standard models of de Sitter, Schwarzschild and Kerr space-times are reformulated in a purely 3-dimensional manifold. The volume also presents a theory of matter in which the fundamental particles, such as baryons and leptons, appear as a result of an interaction between left-handed and right-handed 2-component Weyl neutrinos. The Appendices contain a comprehensive treatment of classical mechanics in terms of Hamiltonian vector fields on symplectic manifolds. Graduate students of mathematical physics or theoretical physics, as well as academics, will find this volume of interest. Sample Chapter(s). Space and Time (295 KB). Contents: Relativistic Kinematics and Dynamics on 3-Manifolds; GaussOCoEinstein Equations on 3-Manifolds; The de Sitter, Schwarzschild and Kerr Space-Times; A New Solution of the Vacuum Einstein Field Equations; Weyl Neutrinos and the Photon; A Neutrino Theory of Matter; Dynamical Vector Fields of Classical Mechanics. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in mathematical physics and theoretical physics.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814522848
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 153
Book Description
This volume deals with the fundamental concepts of space, time and matter. It presents a novel reformulation of both the special and general theory of relativity, in which time does not constitute the fourth dimension in a conventional 4-dimensional space-time. Instead, the role of time is played by the flow of a vector field on a 3-dimensional space. The standard models of de Sitter, Schwarzschild and Kerr space-times are reformulated in a purely 3-dimensional manifold. The volume also presents a theory of matter in which the fundamental particles, such as baryons and leptons, appear as a result of an interaction between left-handed and right-handed 2-component Weyl neutrinos. The Appendices contain a comprehensive treatment of classical mechanics in terms of Hamiltonian vector fields on symplectic manifolds. Graduate students of mathematical physics or theoretical physics, as well as academics, will find this volume of interest. Sample Chapter(s). Space and Time (295 KB). Contents: Relativistic Kinematics and Dynamics on 3-Manifolds; GaussOCoEinstein Equations on 3-Manifolds; The de Sitter, Schwarzschild and Kerr Space-Times; A New Solution of the Vacuum Einstein Field Equations; Weyl Neutrinos and the Photon; A Neutrino Theory of Matter; Dynamical Vector Fields of Classical Mechanics. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in mathematical physics and theoretical physics.
Biocentrism
Author: Robert Lanza
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458795179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Robert Lanza is one of the most respected scientists in the world a US News and World Report cover story called him a genius and a renegade thinker, even likening him to Einstein. Lanza has teamed with Bob Berman, the most widely read astronomer in the world, to produce Biocentrism, a revolutionary new view of the universe. Every now and then a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge. The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and ultimately changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationship with the world. For most humans of the 15th century, the notion of Earth as ball of rock was nonsense. The whole of Western, natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change again, increasingly being forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory, and at the same time, toward doubt and uncertainty in the physical explanations of the universes genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. In this paradigm, life is not an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe our own from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. Switching perspective from physics to biology unlocks the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. Biocentrism will shatter the readers ideas of life--time and space, and even death. At the same time it will release us from the dull worldview of life being merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal. The 21st century is predicted to be the Century of Biology, a shift from the previous century dominated by physics. It seems fitting, then, to begin the century by turning the universe outside-in and unifying the foundations of science with a simple idea discovered by one of the leading life-scientists of our age. Biocentrism awakens in readers a new sense of possibility, and is full of so many shocking new perspectives that the reader will never see reality the same way again.
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458795179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Robert Lanza is one of the most respected scientists in the world a US News and World Report cover story called him a genius and a renegade thinker, even likening him to Einstein. Lanza has teamed with Bob Berman, the most widely read astronomer in the world, to produce Biocentrism, a revolutionary new view of the universe. Every now and then a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge. The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and ultimately changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationship with the world. For most humans of the 15th century, the notion of Earth as ball of rock was nonsense. The whole of Western, natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change again, increasingly being forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory, and at the same time, toward doubt and uncertainty in the physical explanations of the universes genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. In this paradigm, life is not an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe our own from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. Switching perspective from physics to biology unlocks the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. Biocentrism will shatter the readers ideas of life--time and space, and even death. At the same time it will release us from the dull worldview of life being merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal. The 21st century is predicted to be the Century of Biology, a shift from the previous century dominated by physics. It seems fitting, then, to begin the century by turning the universe outside-in and unifying the foundations of science with a simple idea discovered by one of the leading life-scientists of our age. Biocentrism awakens in readers a new sense of possibility, and is full of so many shocking new perspectives that the reader will never see reality the same way again.
At the Edge of Time
Author: Dan Hooper
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691197008
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
A new look at the first few seconds after the Big Bang—and how research into these moments continues to revolutionize our understanding of our universe Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: we still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the beginning of cosmic history. Delving into the remarkable science of cosmology, Dan Hooper describes many of the extraordinary and perplexing questions that scientists are asking about the origin and nature of our world. Hooper examines how we are using the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments to re-create the conditions of the Big Bang and test promising theories for how and why our universe came to contain so much matter and so little antimatter. We may be poised to finally discover how dark matter was formed during our universe’s first moments, and, with new telescopes, we are also lifting the veil on the era of cosmic inflation, which led to the creation of our world as we know it. Wrestling with the mysteries surrounding the initial moments that followed the Big Bang, At the Edge of Time presents an accessible investigation of our universe and its origin.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691197008
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
A new look at the first few seconds after the Big Bang—and how research into these moments continues to revolutionize our understanding of our universe Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: we still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the beginning of cosmic history. Delving into the remarkable science of cosmology, Dan Hooper describes many of the extraordinary and perplexing questions that scientists are asking about the origin and nature of our world. Hooper examines how we are using the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments to re-create the conditions of the Big Bang and test promising theories for how and why our universe came to contain so much matter and so little antimatter. We may be poised to finally discover how dark matter was formed during our universe’s first moments, and, with new telescopes, we are also lifting the veil on the era of cosmic inflation, which led to the creation of our world as we know it. Wrestling with the mysteries surrounding the initial moments that followed the Big Bang, At the Edge of Time presents an accessible investigation of our universe and its origin.
Towards a Theory of Spacetime Theories
Author: Dennis Lehmkuhl
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 1493932101
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
This contributed volume is the result of a July 2010 workshop at the University of Wuppertal Interdisciplinary Centre for Science and Technology Studies which brought together world-wide experts from physics, philosophy and history, in order to address a set of questions first posed in the 1950s: How do we compare spacetime theories? How do we judge, objectively, which is the “best” theory? Is there even a unique answer to this question? The goal of the workshop, and of this book, is to contribute to the development of a meta-theory of spacetime theories. Such a meta-theory would reveal insights about specific spacetime theories by distilling their essential similarities and differences, deliver a framework for a class of theories that could be helpful as a blueprint to build other meta-theories, and provide a higher level viewpoint for judging which theory most accurately describes nature. But rather than drawing a map in broad strokes, the focus is on particularly rich regions in the “space of spacetime theories.” This work will be of interest to physicists, as well as philosophers and historians of science working with or interested in General Relativity and/or Space, Time and Gravitation more generally.
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 1493932101
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
This contributed volume is the result of a July 2010 workshop at the University of Wuppertal Interdisciplinary Centre for Science and Technology Studies which brought together world-wide experts from physics, philosophy and history, in order to address a set of questions first posed in the 1950s: How do we compare spacetime theories? How do we judge, objectively, which is the “best” theory? Is there even a unique answer to this question? The goal of the workshop, and of this book, is to contribute to the development of a meta-theory of spacetime theories. Such a meta-theory would reveal insights about specific spacetime theories by distilling their essential similarities and differences, deliver a framework for a class of theories that could be helpful as a blueprint to build other meta-theories, and provide a higher level viewpoint for judging which theory most accurately describes nature. But rather than drawing a map in broad strokes, the focus is on particularly rich regions in the “space of spacetime theories.” This work will be of interest to physicists, as well as philosophers and historians of science working with or interested in General Relativity and/or Space, Time and Gravitation more generally.
A New Kind of Science
Author: Stephen Wolfram
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780713991161
Category : Cellular automata
Languages : en
Pages : 1197
Book Description
This work presents a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments---illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics---Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science: from the origin of the Second Law of thermodynamics, to the development of complexity in biology, the computational limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, and the interplay between free will and determinism.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780713991161
Category : Cellular automata
Languages : en
Pages : 1197
Book Description
This work presents a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments---illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics---Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science: from the origin of the Second Law of thermodynamics, to the development of complexity in biology, the computational limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, and the interplay between free will and determinism.