Don't Be Afraid of Physics: Quantum Mechanics, Relativity and Cosmology for Everyone - Paperback

by Ross Barrett (Author), Pier Paolo Delsanto (Author)

Part I: What is science all about? .- The Ultimate Question.- The Meaning of Understanding.- Truth and Beauty.- Gödel, Hawking and the Foundations of Physics.- Part II: Today's Frontiers.- The Incredible Quantum Mechanics.- Special Relativity.- General Relativity.- The Most Accurate Theory in Physics.- The Standard Model of Fundamental Particles.- How the World Began.- Modern Cosmology.- Part III: Open Questions.- Issues for the Future.- Appendices.

Back Jacket

With the aid of entertaining short stories, anecdotes, lucid explanations and straight-forward figures, this book challenges the perception that the world of physics is inaccessible to the non-expert. Beginning with Neanderthal man, it traces the evolution of human reason and understanding from paradoxes and optical illusions to gravitational waves, black holes and dark energy. On the way, it provides insights into the mind-boggling advances at the frontiers of physics and cosmology. Unsolved problems and contradictions are highlighted, and contentious issues in modern physics are discussed in a non-dogmatic way in a language comprehensible to the non-scientist. It has something for everyone.

Author Biography

Ross Barrett: Formerly a Research Fellow and Lecturer at four universities in Australia and Germany, and Senior Principal Research Scientist (now retired) at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in Adelaide, his research interests range over experimental nuclear physics, theoretical nuclear physics, atomic physics, signal processing, and underwater acoustics. He has published over sixty research papers, and one book.

Pier Paolo Delsanto: Full Professor (now retired) and Director of Research in Condensed Matter Physics at the Politecnico of Torino, Italy, has spent half of his professional life in Universities and Research Centres abroad. His research fields range from Nuclear Physics, Acoustics and Ultrasonics to modelling and simulations in Materials Science, Biology and Oncology, with more than two hundred scientific articles and six books (two published by Springer).