Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers

by John R. Taylor, Chris D. Zafiratos, Michael A. Dubson

Refreshingly contemporary, this beginning-level introduction to modern physics covers all the important topics of relativity, quantum mechanics, systems with two or more atoms, and subatomic physics—but does so in a manner that won't overwhelm readers who are new to the subject. Explanations of concepts are exceptionally readable (often enlivened with humor), and an abundance of high-quality worked examples and practice problems give readers the hands-on practice necessary to master applications. The Space and Time of Relativity. Relativistic Mechanics. Atoms. Quantization of Light. Quantization of Atomic Energy Levels. Matter Waves. The Schrödinger Equation in One Dimension. The Three-Dimensional Schrödinger Equation. Electron Spin. Multielectron Atoms; the Pauli Principle and the Periodic Table. Atomic Transitions and Radiation. Molecules. Solids—Theory. Solids—Applications. Statistical Mechanics. The Structure of Atomic Nuclei. Radioactivity and Nuclear Reactions. Elementary Particles. For anyone needing an introduction to, or refresher of, modern physics.

Genres: Physics, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Science, Reference

736 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 1991

About the author

John Taylor is Professor of Physics and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He took his B.A. in mathematics from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied the theory of elementary particles. He has taught at the Universities of Cambridge and London in England, and at Princeton. and Colorado in the U.S. He first came to Colorado in 1966. Since then he has won five university and departmental teaching awards. He is the author of three text books: a graduate text on quantum scattering theory; an undergraduate text on error analysis, which has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish; and an undergraduate

text on modem physics. The second edition of the book on error analysis appeared in 1997. His research interests include quantum scattering theory and the foundations of quantum theory, and he has published some fifty articles in journals such as the Physical Review and the Journal of Mathematical Physics. For several years he was Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physics.
For the past eighteen years he has given his "Mr. Wizard" shows to some 60,000 children on the Boulder campus and in many towns in Colorado. He received an Emmy Award for his television series "Physics for Fun", which aired on KCNC TV in 1988 -1990. In 1989 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Citation of the American Association of Physics Teachers. In the same year, he won one of eleven Gold Medals in the national "Professor of the Year" program and was named Colorado Professor of the Year. In 1998, at the invitation of the International Science Festival in Dunedin, he toured New Zealand and gave IS "Mr. Wizard" shows in various museums and colleges.

Reviews

[Sanjay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its really a nice introductory book for modern physics. It presents all the basic ideas of modern physics which has developed in 20th century very beautifully. I've also tried 'Modern Physics by Arthur and Beiser' and I was not impressed. But I found this book to be much more insightful and helpful.

Mathematically its not rigorous, but it didn't fall short either. That means it just uses optimum amount of mathematics to convey the ideas. And I think that's what the specialty of the book is. It first makes you feel the topic intuitively and then comes to mathematics of it, which make this book a perfect choice for those who want to learn the subject from scratch.


Highly Recommended!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book worked for me in a couple of ways. First, it did a better job than any other text I've read to convey the sense of historical development in physics from the 1890s to the 1980s (mostly through the 1930s)... the sense of what burning questions people had, what unexpected insights changed the trajectory of the discipline, etc.

Second, it managed to go a layer deeper into the various topics in the latter half of the book than anything I have read before and give some punchy, satisfying answers to questions like why the strong force behaves as it does. The solid state physics part has some intriguing comments like the conduction electrons of a metal behaving as a degenerate Fermi gas, including a fairly substantive description of what that means.

Interestingly, I thought the presentation of the Schrodinger equation itself was perhaps the least compelling part of the book, at least compared to other texts I've read (most recently McQuarrie's Quantum Chemistry and Eisberg and Resnick's Quantum Physics).

As an overview text to give me a broader sense of 20th century physics I thought this book succeeded well. Now I have my appetite whetted to go deeper and more of a sense how to get there.

[Elizabeth Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made me emotional

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad modern physics text but as is the case with most such texts it is frustratingly brief in its mathematical derivations and explorations of the physics.

[Sarah]

115

[Roderick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent book for Modern Physics and affordable as well