Everyday Physics Waves From Sounds And Light To Tsunamis And Gravitation

This book aims to popularize physics by emphasizing conceptual ideas of physics and their interconnections, while avoiding mathematics entirely. The approach is to explore intriguing topics of daily relevance by asking and discussing questions: thereby the reader can participate in developing answers, which enables a deeper understanding than is achievable with memorization.The topic of this book — waves — is chosen because we experience waves in many forms every minute of our lives, from sound waves and light waves to quantum waves and brain waves.The target readership of this book is very broad: all those with a curious mind about nature and with a desire to understand how nature works, especially laymen, youngsters, secondary-school children and their teachers.

This book explores light and other types of waves, using this as a window into other aspects of physics. It emphasizes a conceptual understanding, using examples chosen from everyday life and the natural environment. For example, it explains how hummingbird feathers create shimmering colors, how musical instruments produce sound, and how atoms stick together to form molecules. It provides a unique perspective on physics by emphasizing commonalities among different types of waves, including string waves, water waves, sound waves, light waves, the matter waves of quantum mechanics, and the gravitational waves of general relativity. This book is targeted toward college non-science majors, advanced high school students, and adults who are curious about our physical world. It assumes familiarity with algebra but no further mathematics and is classroom-ready with many worked examples, exercises, exploratory puzzles, and appendices to support students from a variety of backgrounds.

The book consists of two separate parts, the first part is on waves and the second part on particles. In part 1, after describing the awesome power of tsunami and the history of their occurrences, the book turns to the history of explaining phenomena by means of mathematical equations. Then it describes other wave phenomena and the laws governing them: the vibration of strings and drums in musical instruments, the sound waves making them audible, ultrasound and its uses, sonar, and shock waves; electromagnetic waves: light waves, refraction, diffraction, why the sky is blue, the rainbow, and the glory; microwaves and radio waves: radar, radio astronomy, the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, microwave ovens and how a radio works, lasers and masers; waves in modern physics: the Schrödinger wave function and gravitational waves in general relativity; water waves in the ocean, tides and tidal waves, and the quite different solitary waves, solitons discovered in canals. Finally we return to tsunami and the question of what laws govern them. We conclude that the answer to that question is not quite known yet, but there is ongoing research to solve the riddle. In part 2, the history of the idea of atoms is reviewed, and then the scientific evidence for their existence, with Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus. The investigation of what the nucleus is like follows, including the discovery of the neutron, followed by that of the neutrino — of which there are several different kinds — and the muon as well as the pion. The important work of Paul Dirac is described, as well as the discovery of the positron and other antiparticles. The ways by which particles are discovered, by cloud chambers, bubble chambers, etc. are all explained, followed by the invention of the various machines to accelerate particles to high speeds: the cyclotron, the synchrotron, and the bigger and bigger machines, in the US as well as in Switzerland, including their storage rings. The new terminology of fermions and bosons are explained, followed by the remarkable use of group theory and group representations by matrices, whose unfamiliar algebra is carefully explained. Contents:Tsunami and other Waves:Introduction to Part IThe Story of a TsunamiScience and MathematicsThe Sound of MusicElectromagnetic WavesWave Mechanics and Gravitational WavesWater WavesAnd Back to TsunamiParticles:Introduction to Part IIAtomsNuclear PhysicsAnother New ParticleParticle AcceleratorsAn Abundance of New Particles Readership: Academics and students of physics as well as the general public. Keywords:Tsunami;Light Waves;Sound Waves;Radio Waves;Microwaves;Ultrasound;Radio Astronomy;Standing Waves;Overtones;Reverberation;Wave Equation;KdV Equation;Interference;Wave Function;Gravitational Waves;Water Waves;Solitons;Solitary Waves;Waves;Tidal Waves;Tides;Radar;Laser;Maser;Resonance;Echo;Cosmic Background Radiation;CMB;Atoms;Cyclotron;Synchrotron;Accelerators;Cosmic Rays;Bevatron;Cosmotron;SSC;Superconducting Super Collider;Storage Rings;Large Hadron Collider;LHC;Electrostatic Generator;Alpha Particles;Beta Particles;Gamma Rays;Atomic Nucleus;Fermions;Bosons;Exclusion Principle;Quantum Mechanics;QED;Antiparticle;Noether's Theorem;Group Theory;Group Representation;Matrices;Strangeness;Hyperons;Muons;Pions;Kaons;Cloud Chamber;Bubble Chamber;SU(3);Eightfold Way;Omega Minus;Quarks

From sound waves to gravitational waves, and from waves of light to crashing rollers on the ocean, Mike Goldsmith explores the fundamental features shared by all waves in the natural world, and considers the range of phenomena resulting from wave motion, including reflection, diffraction, and polarization in light, and beats and echoes in sound.

This comprehensive collection of nearly 200 investigations, demonstrations, mini-labs, and other activities uses everyday examples to make physics concepts easy to understand. For quick access, materials are organized into eight units covering Measurement, Motion, Force, Pressure, Energy & Momentum, Waves, Light, and Electromagnetism. Each lesson contains an introduction with common knowledge examples, reproducible pages for students, a "To the Teacher" information section, and a listing of additional applications students can relate to. Over 300 illustrations add interest and supplement instruction.

How Things Work provides an accessible introduction to physics for the non-science student. Like the previous editions it employs everyday objects, with which students are familiar, in case studies to explain the most essential physics concepts of day-to-day life. Lou Bloomfield takes seemingly highly complex devices and strips away the complexity to show how at their heart are simple physics ideas. Once these concepts are understood, they can be used to understand the behavior of many devices encountered in everyday life. The sixth edition uses the power of WileyPLUS Learning Space with Orion to give students the opportunity to actively practice the physics concepts presented in this edition. This text is an unbound, three hole punched version. Access to WileyPLUS sold separately.

This book deals with the physical aspects of the sea as exemplified by the Pacific Ocean and the contiguous waters of the British Columbia coast. Although principally devoted to waves, currents and tides, the book spans a broad spectrum of topics ranging from meteorology and marine biology to past and present marine geology. It attempts to elucidate the nature of oceanic motions and to relate them to everyday experience for the general interest of the casual reader and for the practical benefit of the professional mariner, scientist, or engineer.

This book was published in 2004. The Interaction of Ocean Waves and Wind describes in detail the two-way interaction between wind and ocean waves and shows how ocean waves affect weather forecasting on timescales of 5 to 90 days. Winds generate ocean waves, but at the same time airflow is modified due to the loss of energy and momentum to the waves; thus, momentum loss from the atmosphere to the ocean depends on the state of the waves. This volume discusses ocean wave evolution according to the energy balance equation. An extensive overview of nonlinear transfer is given, and as a by-product the role of four-wave interactions in the generation of extreme events, such as freak waves, is discussed. Effects on ocean circulation are described. Coupled ocean-wave, atmosphere modelling gives improved weather and wave forecasts. This volume will interest ocean wave modellers, physicists and applied mathematicians, and engineers interested in shipping and coastal protection.