Atomic Physics

by Max Born

The Nobel Laureate's brilliant exposition of the kinetic theory of gases, elementary particles, the nuclear atom, wave-corpuscles, atomic structure and spectral lines, electron spin and Pauli's principle, quantum statistics, molecular structure and nuclear physics. Over 40 appendices, a bibliography, numerous figures and graphs.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Textbooks

546 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Max Born (was a German-British physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s. Born won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with Walther Bothe).

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Max Born was a Nobel laureate physicist instrumental in quantum mechanical development. His Wikipedia page can get you into several hours of clicking on links to things he invented or coined. The English translation of Atomic Physics came out in 1935 and established a reputation as a go-to text.

That said, the book is not perfect. First, I will cover the positive aspects of the book. Atomic Physics is inexpensive and thorough. It starts with some chemistry and moves on to more complicated situations. Born explains all of the equations he uses with clarity and aplomb. Each graph and diagram is well-labeled. Professor Born also documents who discovered what. The book is made more impressive considering the time it came out. Quantum Mechanics was the hottest field in Physics. Scientists had discoveries at least once a month. Keeping up with that speed while maintaining your place in the forefront of research cannot have been an easy task. Perhaps he wasn't at the forefront, but that would be splitting hairs. Born devotes seventy-three percent of the book to Atomic Physics; the rest is a series of appendices and a bibliography.

The negative aspects of the book are minor enough for you to question my system. The book presents the problems it covers in cgs notation. It is a slight nitpick but an issue nonetheless. I couldn't remember what an Erg was, so I had to look it up on my internet machine. My other problem with the book is with the publisher. I don't know how they printed the book or how the industry works with getting words on paper. I know this, though; some of the text is smudged, and the characters are difficult to read. Professor Born uses Greek letters, which is fine, but some letters look similar to others, and I don't know what to call them. A chart of those in the book would be helpful. On the other hand, I have a smartphone and can look it up on that device.

Despite all that, the book still holds up. As I mentioned, a company published the English edition in 1935. This book is a reprint of the eighth edition from 1969, released right before Max Born died. So don't look to this book for mentions of the Higgs Particle. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Curtis Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read was the 1937 (2nd edition). I knew it was dated and that is what I wanted. This book is about the near edge of physics in the late 1930s. I came away with an understanding of what was going on in atomic physics before WWII.

This book was well written. Max Born separated the most of the math and derivations into appendices. I enjoyed reading this book.

[Jess SQ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, as excepted.

[Gaurav Chabra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book it is!
It helped me know what actually atomic physics is.