From Aristotle to Schrödinger: The Curiosity of Physics

by Antonis Modinos

From Aristotle to Schrödinger: The Curiosity of Physics offers a novel introduction to the topics commonly encountered in the first two years of an undergraduate physics course, including classical mechanics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, electromagnetism, relativity, quantum mechanics, atomic and molecular physics, and astrophysics. The book presents physics as it evolved historically; it covers in considerable depth the development of the subject from ancient Greece to the present day. Though the emphasis is on the observations, experiments, theories, and applications of physics, there are additionally short sections on the life and times of the main protagonists of physics. This book grew out of the author's long experience in giving undergraduate and graduate courses in classical physics and in quantum mechanics and its elementary applications. Although meant primarily for the student and teacher of physics, it will be of interest to other scientists and to historians of science, and to those who wish to know something about physics, how it started, and how it developed to its present day magnificence and sophistication.

Genres: Physics

530 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2013

Reviews

[Pero Krivić · Rating 3 out of 5]

Profound overview of the developement of the physical thoughts thoughout the cenuries. The author nicely lays some details from famous phyicists' lives, their discoveries, their experiments and that's where the charm of the book is. But Modinos also tries to give a lectures on physics in a manner of classroom texbooks what is not very fortunate, for he lack both space and depth. While the introduction to QM or relativity were worth reading and easy to understand, chapters on solid-state physics or thermodynamics were completely futile.

[Mills College Library]

530.09 M6924 2014