The Particle Garden: Our Universe As Understood By Particle Physicists

by Gordon L. Kane

The Particle Garden is the clearest survey of particle physics, including the theory, its experimental foundations, its relations to cosmology and astrophysics, and its future. Known as an excellent expositor of physics, Kane has marshaled his research and teaching experience to make this daunting subject understandable to all readers.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gordon Kane is the Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, and the director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics. He was awarded the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, and is the author of The Particle Garden.

Reviews

[TRXTRMXTR · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the best quick and dirty discussion of particle physics I've read. It also covers other applications of the science and is up to date.

[Maurits · Rating 2 out of 5]

Physics without math, that's what I'm about. And that's what this book offers. And although I learned some things through it, I felt that many things weren't explained well, were explained in a weird order, or were explained but didn't need explaining. Lastly, of course, this book is old and outdated.

Although this is not a bad book, I would recommend reading a different book - if a math-less particle physics book is out there.

[Lynn]

I read this book while I was taking Professor Kane's Particle Physics I course (Winter semester, 2008). It's a non-technical alternative to the book we used as our textbook, Modern elementary particle physics. They contain much of the same content, but this one (book being reviewed) doesn't have the same math the text for the class does.
Funny story: I did find the answer to one of the questions on the take-home final exam in an appendix of the book. Unfortunately, I had already turned in the exam...Oh well, I came out okay in the class, anyway.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little out of date now, but still good ( if you're already up to speed on things ) Chapter 3 ' Doing ' is esp. interesting. Hope he writes a new book soon.

[Dekemaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

It needs updating and that's actually exciting. Table on page 55 states mass of Higgs Boson is not known. I could correct it on my book, or they could publish a new edition.

[Shaunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer on particle physics.

[Stephen Renneberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid explanation of the standard model of particle physics.