PHYSICS 341 Reading List

Robert K. Adair The Physics of Baseball Harper Row, Publishers, NY (1990) All you wanted to know about curveballs and home runs.

Peter Bergman. The Riddle of Gravitation. Scribner & Sons, NY (1968). An excellent book on general and special relativity.

Peter D. Bernstein Against the Gods J. Wiley and Sons Inc., NY (1996). A history of risk with the emphasise on investments.

Nigel Calder. The Key to the Universe. Viking Press, NY (1977). A report of a television show which primarily covers particle physics. A bit out of date.

Bernard Cohen The Nuclear Energy Option Plenum Press, NY (1990) The best book on nuclear power.

Robert P. Crease The Play of Nature Indiana University Press, Bloomington Ind. (1993). Developes a philosophy of physics based on experiment as the primary element.

A. D'Abro The Rise of the New Physics: Vol I Classical Physics Dover Publications, NY (1939) A classic history of the development of relativity and quantum mechanics.

A. D'Abro The Rise of the New Physics: Vol II Quantum Physics Dover Publications, NY (1939) A classic history of the development of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Gregg Easterbrook A Moment on the Earth Penguin Books NY (1995) If you are going to read one book on the environment this should be it.

Arthur Eddington. The Nature of the Physical World. MacMillan, NY (1948). A classic with a more philosophical bent by one of the great astronomers.

Albert Einstein. Relativity; Special and General Theory. Smith Publishing, NY (1931) 168p. A short and thorough description of relativity from the original source.

Albert Einstein, H.A. Lorentz, H. Weyl, & H. Minkrowski. The Principle of Relativity. Dover Publications, Inc., NY (1952). A marvelous collection of articles by the founders of the subject.

Timothy Ferris. Coming of Age in the Milky Way. William Morram and Co., Inc., NY (1988) 494p. A description of the historical development of our conception of the universe from ancient Greece to the 1990's.

Richard P. Feynman. The Character of Physical Law. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1967). A good treatment of the way physics works.

David Friedman Hidden Order Harper Business, NY (1996) An economics book by an economist trained as a physicist.

Robert Geroch. General Relativity from A to B. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL (1978) 225p. A discussion of relativity stressing the historical development of the concept of a "frame of reference" and its ties to observation. The best book on General Relativity.

James Gleick. Chaos. Viking Penguin, Inc., NY (1987). A best seller which covers work in an important branch of modern physics research.

James Gleick Genius:The Life and Science of Richard Feynman Pantheon Books, NY (1992) An idolatory biography of Feynman.

Robert Greenler Rainbows, Halos, and Glories Cambridge University Press, NY (1980) If you see it in the sky this bool shows it and explains it.

Robert Hahn Risk, Costs, and Lives Saved: Getting Better Results from Regulation Oxford University Press, NY (1996) The best of the contrarian books on the problem of regulation of the environmental.

Stephen Hawking. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Bantam Books, Toronto, Canada (1988) 198p. A very brief introduction to relativity and quantum mechanics is followed by a description of the search for a theory of quantum gravity, the flow of time, and unified fields.

Bruce Hunt The Maxwellians Cornell University Press, Ithaca New York, (1991) A wonderful review of the struggle to understand what Maxwell had done.

Max Jammer Concepts of Space Second Edition Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1969) Hisory of our understanding about space.

Max Jammer Concepts of Force Harvard University Press., Cambridge

J.M. Jauch. Are Quanta Real? Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN (1973). A discussion of the reality of quantum phenomena following the patterns of the Galilean dialogue.

Daniel Kevles The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America. Alfred A. Knopf, NY (1978) A solid history of American physics.

Leon Lederman The God Particle Houghton Mifflin Company, NY (1993) A book by a Nobel Prize winner that is more interested in humor than knowledge.

H. W. Lewis Technological Risk W. W. Norton & Co., NY (1990) A good book on risk assessment.

D. K. Lynch and W. Livingston. Color and Light in Nature Cambridge University Press, NY (1995) Great pictures of interesting optical effects and simple explainations

M. Minaert The Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air Dover Publications, NY (1954) A classic that tells you everything you wanted to know about how light interacts with the atmosphere. A little technical.

Jacque Monod. Chance and Necessity. Vintage Books, NY (1972). A biologist writes about the implications of microscopic physics.

Philip and Phylis Morrison. Powers of Ten Scientific American Library, NY (1982). A book based on the film that explores the scales of length in Physics

Walter Moore Schroedinger. Cambridge University Press, NY (1989). A biography of a major figure in the development of quantum mechanics.

Yuval Ne'eman & Yoram Kirsch. The Particle Hunters. Cambridge University Press (1986). A careful and correct review of modern particle physics. A new edition has just come out.

Heinz R. Pagels. Perfect Symmetry: The Search for the Beginning of Time. Bantam Books, Toronto (1985) 412p. Cosmology and the search for a unified field theory with more particle and quantum physics and less relativity.

Heinz R. Pagels The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature. Simon and Schuster, NY (1982) 370p. Modern particle physics is described beginning with an heavy emphasis on quantum mechanics.

Abraham Pais Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford University Press, NY (1982) An excellent history of the development of general relativity and Einstein's role in quantum mechanics. Somewhat technical.

Abraham Pais Inward Bound. Oxford University Press, NY (1986). Somewhat technical but very careful review of the history of modern microscopic physics.

Abraham Pais Neils Bohr's Times in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity. Oxford University Press, NY (1991). The best review of Bohr's contributions.

John Allen Paulos A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. Treats several topics of current interest from the perspective of a mathematican.

Roger Penrose. The Emperor's New Mind. Oxford University Press, NY (1989). discusses modern physics and mathematics in order to set the stage for a critique of current theories of intelligence.

Ilya Prigogine & Gre'goire Nicholas. Exploring Complexity. W. H. Freeman and Co., NY (1989). Explains the basis for complex dynamical behavior, it is somewhat technical.

Richard Rhodes. The Making of the Atomic Bomb Simon & Schuster, NY A great history of the nuclear physics that lead to the Manhatton Project and the making of the atomic bomb.

Richard Rhodes. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Simon & Schuster, NY (1995) Details the physics and the spying that were associated with the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Hazel Rossotti Colour: Why the World Isn't Grey Princeton University Press, Princeton (1983) All that you ever wanted to know about why things have the colours that they have.

Carl Sagan The Demon Haunted World. Random House, NY (1995) The well known television personality and astrophysicist is concerned about the public fasination with bad science.

Gary Taubes Nobel Dreams. Random House, NY (1986) A not flattering description of work that lead to a Nobel Prize.

Christopher P. Tomey Conjuring Science Rutgers University Press,, New Brunswick, NJ, (1996) An anthropologist looks at the use of scientific images in psuedo-science

James Trefil. The Dark Side of the Universe: A Scientist Explores the Mysteries of the Cosmos. Charles Scribner's Sons, NY (1988) 197p. Modern cosmology and astrophysics stressing ties to observation.

James Trefil. A Scientist at the Seashore Collier Books, NY (1984) A nice little book that tells you all about the neat things that happen at the beach.

James Trefil. A Scientist in the City. Doubleday, NY (1994) Illustrations of physics in an urban setting

Richard S. Westfall Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton Cambridge University Press, NY (1980) The definitive biography.

Steven Weinberg. The First Three Minutes. Basic Books, NY (1977). The best book on big bang cosmology.

Steven Weinberg Dreams of a Final Theory. The best book on how a modern physicist views the world.

Victor Weisskopf. Knowledge and Wonder. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY (1966). A classic by an excellent physicist.

John A. Wheeler A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime Scientific American Library, NY (1990) A great book that I almost made one of the texts for the course.

Frank Wilczek & Betsy Doinz. Longing for the Harmonies. W. W. Norton & Co., NY (1988). My favorite book on modern physics.

Clifford Will. Was Einstein Right? Basic Books, Inc., NY (1986). Nice little book on the observational basis for general relativity.

A. Zee. Fearful Symmetry. MacMillan Publishing Co., NY (1986). A good book on the attempt to establish a grand unified theory.