A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe

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A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe

Mark P. Silverman | Springer | 2002-10-01 | ISBN-10: 0387954376 | PDF | 4.83 M | 432 page

“The essays in this book are based on researches the author has undertaken on a wide range of topics, some using equipment no more elaborate than what one can find in an ordinary kitchen, others making elegant use of sophisticated experimental apparatus. Presenting a personal odyssey in physics, Silverman investigates processes for which no visualizable mechanism can be given, or that seem to violate fundamental physical laws (but do not), or that appear to be well understood but turn out to be subtly devious. Written in an engagingly personal style, the essays will be of interest to students of physics and related disciplines as well as professional physicists. Though they deal with subtle concepts, the discussions use little mathematics, and anyone with a little college physics will be able to read the book with pleasure.Silverman’s researches deal with in quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids, and these essays address .such questions as: How does one know that atomic electrons move? Would an \”anti-atom\” fall upward? How is it possible for randomly emitted particles to arrive at a detector preferentially in pairs? Can one influence electrons in London by not watching them in New York? Can a particle be influenced by a magnetic field through which it does not pass? A basketball is not changed by turning it once around its axis, but what about an electron? Can more light reflect from a surface than is incident upon it? \”A Universe of Atoms\” is the second edition of Silverman’s \”And Yet It Moves\”; each essay in the earlier collection has been revised and updated, and some new essays on the uncommon physics of common objects have been added

Table of Contents:

Preface

Introduction: The Fire Within 1

Ch. 1 The Wirbelrohr’s Roar 7

Ch. 2 Musical Bottles, Flying Balloons, and Hot Stoves: The Uncommon Physics of Common Things 30

Ch. 3 The Unimaginably Strange Behavior of Free Electrons 63

Ch. 4 Quantum Beats and Giant Atoms 127

Ch. 5 And Yet It Moves: Exotic Atoms and the Invariance of Charge 181

Ch. 6 Reflections on Light 203

Ch. 7 Two Worlds, Large and Small: Earth and Atom 245

Ch. 8 Computers, Coins, and Quanta: Unexpected Outcomes of Random Events 279

Ch. 9 A Universe of Atoms: Symmetry, Unity, Gravity, and the Problem of \”Missing Mass\” 325