Modern Introductory Physics

Thisbookgrewoutof anongoing e?orttomodernizeColgate University’s three-term,introductory,calculus-level physicscourse. Thebookisforthe ?rst term of this course and is intended to help ?rst-year college students make a good transition from high-school physics to university physics. Thebookconcentrates onthephysicsthatexplainswhywebelievethat atoms exist and have the properties we ascribe to them. This story line, which motivates much of our professional research, has helped us limit the material presented to a more humane and more realistic amount than is presented in many beginning university physics courses. The theme of atoms also supports the presentation of more non-Newtonian topics and ideas than is customary in the ?rst term of calculus-level physics. We think it is important and desirable to introduce students sooner than usual to some of the major ideas that shape contemporary physicists’ views of the nature and behavior of matter. Here in the second decade of the twenty-?rst century such a goal seems particularly appropriate. The quantum nature of atoms and light and the mysteries associated with quantum behavior clearly interest our students. By adding and - phasizing more modern content, we seek not only to present some of the physics that engages contemporary physicists but also to attract students to take more physics. Only a few of our beginning physics students come to us sharply focused on physics or astronomy. Nearly all of them, h- ever, have taken physics in high school and found it interesting.

This novel text structures a one-semester course of introductory physics around the question: "Why do we believe in atoms and their properties?" After a brief review of the basic terminology of mechanics, the book begins by introducing the atoms of chemistry. It then turns to the physicists hard-sphere atoms: ideal gases, pressure, temperature, viscosity. The first hint of subatomic structure comes from the discovery of the electron, and the discussion thus turns to electricity, magnetism, light, and x- rays. This leads in turn to waves and relativity, and the book concludes with modern insights into the atom: photons radioactivity, the particle/wave duality, quantum mechanics, the Bohr model, and closes the circle back to the chemists atom with Moseleys law and the periodic table. A large number of problems, some of them based on computer spreadsheets, as well as laboratory exercises serve to clarify students' understanding.

This is the first edition [revised on March 13, 2014] of two volumes of notes prepared by David J. Raymond for a physics course at New Mexico Tech. The course used the principles of optics, waves and relativity, rather than classical mechanics, as a foundation for teaching introductory physics. The topics covered are: waves in one, two and three dimensions; geometrical optics; special relativity; acceleration and general relativity; matter waves; Newton's Laws; symmetry and bound states; dynamics of multiple particles; rotational dynamics; and harmonic oscillators. This textbook is available as a PDF file under a GNU Free Documentation License.

Introduction to Modern Physics, Second Edition is a 16-chapter text that discusses the principles of modern physics. This book deals first with the basic topics of modern science including the atomic nature of matter and electricity; the theory of relativity; the old quantum theory; waves and particles; and the Schrödinger equation. The subsequent chapters cover other general topics of molecular spectra, superconductivity, and the biological effects of radiation, illustrating the fundamental quantum theory of angular momentum and the harmonic oscillator. The remaining chapters explore the properties of nucleus, nuclear transformation, and interactions of particles. This book is an invaluable source for undergraduate quantum mechanics students.

Our understanding of the physical world was revolutionized in the twentieth century — the era of “modern physics''. This book, aimed at the very best students, presents the foundations and frontiers of today's physics. It focuses on the following topics: quantum mechanics; applications in atomic, nuclear, particle, and condensed-matter physics; special relativity; relativistic quantum mechanics, including the Dirac equation and Feynman diagrams; quantum fields; and general relativity. The aim is to cover these topics in sufficient depth such that things “make sense'' to students and they can achieve an elementary working knowledge of them. Many problems are included, a great number of which take dedicated readers just as far as they want to go in modern physics. Although the book is designed so that one can, in principle, read and follow the text without doing any of the problems, the reader is urged to attempt as many of them as possible. Several appendices help bring the reader up to speed on any additional required mathematics. With very few exceptions, the reader should then find the text, together with the appendices and problems, to be self-contained.

For physics students interested in the mathematics they use, and for math students interested in seeing how some of the ideas of their discipline find realization in an applied setting. The presentation strikes a balance between formalism and application, between abstract and concrete. The interconnections among the various topics are clarified both by the use of vector spaces as a central unifying theme, recurring throughout the book, and by putting ideas into their historical context. Enough of the essential formalism is included to make the presentation self-contained.