Physics: Understanding the Properties of Matter and Energy

by John Murphy (Editor)

Without physics, modern life would not exist. Instead of electric light, we would read by the light of candles. We couldn't build skyscrapers. We could not possibly bridge rivers, much less build a jet or interplanetary craft. Computers and smartphones would be unimaginable. Physics is concerned with the most fundamental aspects of matter and energy and how they interact to make the physical universe work. In accessible language and with explanatory graphics and visual aids, this book introduces readers to the science that is at the very center of all other sciences and essential to our very existence.

115 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

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Reviews

[Mary Overton]

Physics appears to my observation (haha … that’s a quantum joke) to be the mathematical expression of paradox: two fundamental and opposing truths both remain true at the same time and within the same space. This science book for middle-schoolers captures the absurdity.

Page 45: “Elastic forces are also exerted by a surface when an object is pressing against it. A book resting on a table experiences a downward pull from the force of gravity. However the book does not fall through the table because the table exerts an upward compressive force against the book. The book remains at rest because the forces on the book (gravity from the Earth pulling downward and compression from the table pushing upward) are balanced and cancel each other out, following Newton’s first law of motion.”

YOU IDIOT. OF COURSE THE BOOK DOESN’T FALL THROUGH THE TABLE.
That is my expression of resounding decoherence when my common sense results in the crashing collapse of the probabilistic wave function. Then, again, what about those “many worlds” where the book DOES fall through the table and in that happier if more irrational space I achieve immortality because I keep following the outcome of not dying?
ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_...

You see my confusion in trying to learn science from Wikipedia. So to ground myself, I keep returning to a fundamental text such as this book, re-reading the basics, and with each re-reading entering more deeply into the superposition that the above quote is, simultaneously, entirely banal and profoundly insightful. My observation determines into which classic state it will decohere.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without physics, modern life would not exist. Instead of electric light, we would read by the light of candles. We couldn't build skyscrapers. We could not possibly bridge rivers, much less build a jet or interplanetary craft. Computers and smartphones would be unimaginable. Physics is concerned with the most fundamental aspects of matter and energy and how they interact to make the physical universe work. In accessible language and with explanatory graphics and visual aids, this book introduces readers to the science that is at the very center of all other sciences and essential to our very existence.