三民網路書店 / 搜尋結果

This undergraduate text takes the reader along the trail of light from Newton's particles to Einstein's relativity. Like the best detective stories, it presents clues and encourages the reader to draw conclusions before the answers are revealed. The first seven chapters describe how light behaves, develop Newton's particle theory, introduce waves and an electromagnetic wave theory of light, discover the photon, and culminate in the wave-particle duality. The book then goes on to develop the special theory of relativity, showing how time dilation and length contraction are consequences of the two simple principles on which the theory is founded. An extensive chapter derives the equation E = mc2 clearly from first principles and then explores its consequences and the misconceptions surrounding it. That most famous of issues arising from special relativity - the aging of the twins - is treated simply but compellingly.

Clear and reader-friendly, this is an ideal textbook for students seeking an introduction to thermal physics. Written by an experienced teacher and extensively class-tested, Thermal Physics provides a comprehensive grounding in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory. A key feature of this text is its readily accessible introductory chapters, which begin with a review of fundamental ideas. Entropy, conceived microscopically and statistically, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics are introduced early in the book. Throughout, topics are built on a conceptual foundation of four linked elements: entropy and the Second Law, the canonical probability distribution, the partition function, and the chemical potential. As well as providing a solid preparation in the basics of the subject, the text goes on to explain exciting recent developments such as Bose-Einstein condensation and critical phenomena. Key equations are highlighted throughout, and each chapter contains a summar