Copyright
by
David Eric Smith
1993

To my Students, in an attempt to give them something I wish I had had

Fundamental Concepts of Century Physics

text by Eric Smith
from an outline by Austin Gleeson
August 1995

• Contents
• List of Figures
• CLASSICAL IDEAS
  • INTRODUCTION
    • GREETING
      • SO WHY PHYSICS?
    • WHAT PHYSICS IS
    • HOW THE KNOWLEDGE IS ARRANGED
      • THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ORDER
    • WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE COULD BE
    • ORGANIZATION OF THE SUBJECT MATTER
  • THE LANGUAGE OF PHYSICS
    • INTRODUCTION
    • IS THIS REALLY NECESSARY?
    • THREE EXAMPLES
    • FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGE
    • THE CONTEXT OF MODERN PHYSICS
  • DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS: THE BEGINNING OF PHYSICS
    • GENERALITIES VERSUS DETAILS
    • THE EMERGENCE OF NATURE'S PATTERNS
    • THE MATHEMATICAL STATEMENTS OF PHYSICS
    • THE TECHNIQUE OF DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
    • FERMI PROBLEMS
    • WHY ISN'T DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS ALL THERE IS?
    • MORE EXAMPLES
    • COMMENT
  • THE FUNDAMENTAL DIMENSIONFUL CONSTANTS
    • STARLIGHT AND LIFE
    • DIMENSIONS AND SCALING REVISITED
    • THE CONSTANT h/
      • Repeated angular momenta
    • THE SPEED OF LIGHT
    • NEWTON'S CONSTANT
    • PLANCK'S OTHER OBSERVATION
    • MISSING STEPS
    • EQUALLY OBSCURE REPEATABILITY
    • 
  • NEWTON'S REVOLUTION: THE OBJECT AND THE EXTERNAL WORLD
    • CONTEXT
    • WHAT WAS NEEDED; WHAT IS NEEDED
    • THE OBJECT AND THE EXTERNAL WORLD
    • CONSEQUENCES AND CAVEATS
    • FINISHING AN EXAMPLE: NEWTON'S LAW OF GRAVITATION
    • FREE-BODY DIAGRAMS
    • WRAP-UP
  • THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ACTION
    • INTRODUCTION
    • A NEW DEGREE OF REFINEMENT
    • MINIMIZATION
    • EXAMPLE OF A MINIMIZATION LAW: FERMAT'S LEAST TIME PRINCIPLE FOR LIGHT
    • RELATION TO THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION
    • THE SET OF ALL PATHS
      • ONE CAVEAT: MATHEMATICS VS. PHYSICS, OR, STRAIGHT AHEAD AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES!
    • MINIMIZATION AND THE SLOPE OF A VALLEY
    • WHY THIS WAS THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO LOOK
    • NOETHER'S THEOREM AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SYMMETRY
    • CHOOSING ACTIONS BY SYMMETRY
    • SYNOPSIS
  • Classical Fields and Currents
    • WHY FIELDS?
    • AN EXAMPLE: THE TEMPERATURE FIELD
      • PROPERTIES OF THE TEMPERATURE FIELD
    • A DIFFERENT EXAMPLE: THE PRESSURE FIELD
      • PROPERTIES OF SOUND
    • YOUNG'S DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT
    • A NATURAL LANGUAGE TO DESCRIBE WAVES
      • FOURIER'S THEOREM: WAVES ON A STRING
      • WAVES IN A BOX
      • HOW MANY MODES IN A BOX?
    • FLOW FIELDS
      • CONSERVATION AND DIVERGENCE
      • CIRCULATION
      • THE DIVERGENCE OF A CIRCULATION
    • SYNOPSIS
• References
• Index
• About this document ...