With little mathematics, the text explores the most fascinating parts of mechanics, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum theory and modern attempts at unification. Written in English, its over 1200 pages are provided for students, teachers, and for anybody who is interested in the precise description of nature.
Table of Contents
Volume I – FALL, FLOW AND HEAT
- Why should we care about motion?
- From motion measurement to continuity
- How to describe motion – kinematics
- From objects and images to conservation
- From the rotation of the Earth to the relativity of motion
- Motion due to gravitation
- Classical mechanics and the predictability of motion
- Measuring change with action
- Motion and symmetry
- Simple motions of extended bodies – oscillations and waves
- Do extended bodies exist? – Limits of continuity
- From heat to time-invariance
- Self-organization and chaos – the simplicity of complexity
- From the limitations of physics to the limits of motion
Volume II – RELATIVITY
- Maximum speed, observers at rest, and motion of light
- General relativity: gravitation, maximum speed and maximum force
- The new ideas on space, time and gravity
- Motion in general relativity – bent light and wobbling vacuum
- Why can we see the stars?
- Black holes – falling forever
- Does space differ from time?
- General relativity in ten points – a summary for the layman
Volume III – LIGHT, CHARGES AND BRAINS
- Liquid electricity, invisible fields and maximum speed
- The description of electromagnetic field evolution
- What is light?
- Images and the eye – optics
- Electromagnetic effects
- Summary and limity of classical electrodynamics
- Classical physics in a nutshell
- The story of the brain
- Thought and language
- Concepts, lies and patterns of nature
Volume IV – QUANTUM THEORY: THE SMALLEST CHANGE
- Minimum action – quantum theory for poets
- Light – the strange consequences of the quantum of action
- Motion of matter – beyond classical physics
- Colours and other interactions between light and matter
- Permutation of particles – Are particles like gloves?
- Rotations and statistics – visualising spin
- Superpositions and probabilities – quantum theory without ideology
- Quantum physics in a nutshell