Inhalt

Table of Contents

"Handbook of Modern Physics"

INTRODUCTION

INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

PREFACE

PHYSICAL CONSTANTS

NABLA OPERATOR

OUTLINE OF TENSORIAL CALCULATION

III

VII

VIII

"Handbook of Modern Physics"

"Handbook of Modern Physics"

SIMONE MALACRIDA

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This textbook describes, with the necessary mathematical formalism, all cognitive areas related to modern physics, starting from the formulation of the scientific method to the crisis of classical physics in the second half of the nineteenth century.

These areas range from mechanics to fluid dynamics, thermodynamics to optics, oscillatory phenomena to electromagnetism, and are interconnected by the cognitive matrix of experimental physics and the evolution of human society over the centuries.

Therefore, the book stands as a springboard toward the understanding of contemporary physics, which arose as an outgrowth and extension of classical physics, and toward the knowledge of all those technological fields that, even today, are based on the applications of the theories set forth in this paper.

Simone Malacrida (1977)

Engineer and writer, has worked on research, finance, energy policy and industrial plants.

ANALYTICAL INDEX

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INTRODUCTION

INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

PREFIXES

PHYSICAL CONSTANTS

NABLA OPERATOR

OUTLINE OF TENSORIAL CALCULATION

I – THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

II – CLASSICAL MECHANICS

III – THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF GRAVITATION AND ASTRONOMY

IV – FLUIDS AND TRANSPORT PHENOMENA

V – THE OPTICS

VI – WAVES AND S CILLATORY PHENOMENA

VII – THERMODYNAMICS AND HEAT TRANSMISSION

VIII – STATISTICAL PHYSICS

IX – ELECTROMAGNETISM

X – THE CRISIS OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

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In this handbook a clear and concise overview of the fields of interest of modern physics will be given, having as reference the precise points corresponding to the beginning and end of this path.

Modern physics originated from the introduction of the scientific method, first on a philosophical level, then on an experimental and practical level. When the scientific method entered the practice of reasoning on which to base assumptions and deductions, there was an enormous leap in quality compared to all previous knowledge.

We can say that all the discoveries and applications that took place in the past with respect to that event are actually the result of semi-empirical approaches and not exactly of science as we understand it today. That point of no return was such as to determine a historical watershed, in the same way as we are used to considering events of the caliber of the French Revolution, the fall of the Roman Empire or the discovery of America.

Since that time, scientific investigation has had an impressive acceleration, ranging in every field of knowledge and has impressed on society, in terms of applications and daily consequences, a decidedly different imprint than in the past, coming to create those conditions and those prerequisites necessary for the Industrial Revolution, which occurred only less than two centuries after those first scientific stirrings.

The end of the path of modern physics coincides with the end of the nineteenth century and with the acknowledgment that, in the range of knowledge in all sectors, such contradictions had been reached that the previous theoretical schemes had to be completely revised. From that period, historically known as the crisis of classical physics, came the two revolutionary theories of the twentieth century which are the basis of contemporary physics, the one we use today to describe Nature and what surrounds us.

In this period of time, which lasted a good two centuries, physics has managed to scientifically explore various disciplines such as mechanics in all its forms (static, dynamic and kinematic), astronomy, the theory of gravitation, optics, the phenomena and oscillatory ones, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, heat transmission, statistics applied to physics, electric and magnetic phenomena.

As can be seen from this small list, the elaboration of theories that predict and explain the experimental results has been so pervasive as to have left nothing unexplored, with the limitations that the equipment of the time could have (it is obvious that it was completely beyond place to think of probing the characteristics of the atom and of the atomic nucleus, not having at one's disposal the suitable material means to detect the essential experimental data).

To deal comprehensively with all these fields and all these physics disciplines would require several books, each of which focuses on a particular aspect. You can find thousands of publications for electromagnetism alone, and the same goes for thermodynamics or mechanics.

This handbook, on the other hand, has a completely different characteristic which is linked to the conciseness in the exposition of the topics, without neglecting the fundamental equations and the mathematical, physical and philosophical implications of what we are going to explain.

An essential role in this book will be given by the mathematical formalism, which will not be hidden, but highlighted, precisely because, only by "looking in the eye" at the constitutive equations, can one have a real idea of the physical theory and the link with the experimental part.

By doing so, the manual is suitable for those who already have previous mathematical knowledge, especially as regards mathematical analysis.

The list of disciplines mentioned above is a mirror of the index of this book with a logic in the exposition of the topics resulting from a mix between a chronological description and one typically linked to the topics.

For example, the treatment of thermodynamics will be postponed with respect to what relates to mechanics. This has a chronological connection due to the fact that mechanics developed, in its fullness, long before thermodynamics.

At the same time, however, the individual physics disciplines evolve within them, discovering parallelisms and connections centuries after the enunciation of the basic theory. This means that, in the paragraph relating to mechanics, there will also be equations relating to formalisms, such as those of Lagrange and Hamilton, later than many other physical theories.

Each paragraph is therefore a "story within a story" having within it a chronology which, at times, overrides that of the book as a whole.

One might wonder what interest it has in probing these physical theories today if then contemporary physics has extended and, at times, refuted them.

The interest in modern physics is actually threefold.

Firstly, it is the basis of contemporary physics and therefore, without these assumptions, it is very difficult to understand subsequent evolutions.

Furthermore, contemporary physics has generalized many aspects of modern physics. By studying the latter, therefore, one has privileged points of view for understanding the mechanisms of unification of theories, after centuries of attempts to study sectors as diverse as possible.

Finally, modern physics is still applicable in many concrete and experimental aspects. In everyday science and technology we often come across those approximations in which modern physics is still valid. Speaking of industrial mechanics or electrical engineering or raw materials industry, the theories of mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics are applicable without any limitation. Therefore, part of today's technology can be designed, understood and implemented with the formulas in this manual.

The main tendency of modern physics has been to apply the scientific method in every sector of Nature that can be probed by experiments that could disprove or confirm a given theory.

Therefore modern physics is a real "encyclopaedia", i.e. a sum of various knowledge enclosed in the same descriptive plot, given by the scientific method and the necessary mathematical formalism.

The legacies of this encyclopedia in today's society are evident and there for all to see, having characterized our history in a decisive way.