Great Design:particles,fields+creation

9780195043808

0195043804

Although modern physics surrounds us and its concepts are constantlyreferred to in every newspaper, even educated nonscientists find the subjectintimidating in the extreme. Most attempts to explain physics to general readersare either obscured by masses of mathematics or gross oversimplificationswritten by laymen. Here at last is a comprehensive--and comprehensible--accountof particles, fields and cosmology written by a working physicist not burdenedby the weight of ponderous scientific notation. Robert K. Adair gives us a feelfor how physicists think about problems: what assumptions must be made tosimplify impossibly complex relationships between objects, on what scale theproblem needs to be treated, how measurements are made, and what the interplaybetween theory and experiment is.Adair gently guides the reader through the ideas of particles, fields,relativity, and quantum mechanics. He explains the great discoveries of thiscentury, which have caused a revolution in how we view the universe, in logical,simple terms not requiring anything beyond high school algebra to comprehend.He has performed the difficult task of predigesting complex concepts to permitthe layman access to what appears to be an arcane discipline. He captures theflavor of the joy of discovery at the heart of research.