Physics for the Inquiring Mind: The Methods, Nature, and Philosophy of Physical Science
Language: English
Pages: 792
ISBN: 069108016X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In our scientific age an understanding of physics is part of a liberal education. Lawyers, bankers, governors, business heads, administrators, all wise educated people need a lasting understanding of physics so that they can enjoy those contacts with science and scientists that are part of our civilization both materially and intellectually. They need knowledge and understanding instead of the feelings, all too common, that physics is dark and mysterious and that physicists are a strange people with incomprehensible interests. Such a sense of understanding science and scientists can be gained neither from sermons on the beauty of science nor from the rigorous courses that colleges have offered for generations; when the headache clears away it leaves little but a confused sense of mystery. Nor is the need met by survey courses that offer a smorgasbord of tidbit--they give science a bad name as a compendium of information or formulas.
The non-scientist needs a course of study that enables him to learn real science and make its own--with delight. For lasting benefits the intelligent non-scientist needs a course of study that enables him to learn genuine science carefully and then encourages him to think about it and use it. He needs a carefully selected framework of topics--not so many that learning becomes superficial and hurried; not so few that he misses the connected nature of scientific work and thinking. He must see how scientific knowledge is built up by building some scientific knowledge of his own, by reading and discussing and if possible by doing experiments himself. He must think his own way through some scientific arguments. He must form his own opinion, with guidance, concerning the parts played by experiment and theory; and he must be shown how to develop a taste for good theory. He must see several varieties of scientific method at work. And above all, he must think about science for himself and enjoy that. These are the things that this book encourages readers to gain, by their own study and thinking.
Physics for the Inquiring Mind is a book for the inquiring mind of students in college and for other readers who want to grow in scientific wisdom, who want to know what physics really is.
Arc welding control (Series in Welding and Other Joining Technologies)
The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics (Theoretical Minimum, Book 1)
Aspects of Brownian Motion (Universitext)
What is Relativity? An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein's Ideas, and Why They Matter
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
Vibrations and Waves (The M.I.T. Introductory Physics Series)
this manner: suppose a rope 1 inch in diameter can just support 3 tons. Then a rope of double diameter, 2 inches, has four times the cross-section area ( ?Tr2) and therefore four times C H APTER 1 as many fibers. Therefore,the rope of double diame ter has four times the strength-it should support 12 tons. In general, STRENGTH must increase as DIAMETER2• Galileo gave this argument and extended it to wooden beams,pillars,and bones of animals.10 Some thought-experiments deal with simplified or
have spread its chapter, which could easily be omitted, over many pages, not to show practical uses but to show scientific explanation at work. Starting with paradoxes of attracting funnels and curved flight, each of which seems to need a special, private demon to explain it, we end with a single PART O N E 168 • M AT T E R , M O T I O N , A N D F O R C E principle to explain those paradoxes and predict new ones. At first our knowledge is "empiricaf' (= straight from experiment ) , a mere
to the finish point. in every second ball gains in downward velocity by To = -10 ft/sec . Ball falling for 3 sees with this steady average velocity would travel (a) Acceleration 32 ft/sec per sec down means that (b) +$4o attach + signs to all downward velocities and Then average velocity is given by v the vertex, then the trip down, avoid such methods -- see the discussion below. ) +$35 +$30 accelerations, but call the upward velocity at the start ycu mAy have been shown methods
yourself learning what you learn in lab with a fuller sense of understanding. In that way laboratory provides a valuable sense of understand ing the information of science. However, laboratory can provide much more im portant gains if it can teach you scientific ways and give you a more general understanding of science. For that you must make your experiments your own work, work that you like and regard as part of your present life and future hopes. If you work as a scientist yourself, you are
private letters; and there was still danger that when one revealed a discovery others would jump up and say, "Oh, we found that long ago." So Hooke gave his law of springs as an anagram: c e i iin o s s s ttuv This was like patenting his discovery. He gave his rivals two years in which to claim their discoveries about springs; then he translated his puzzle: "ut tensio, sic vis," or "as the stretch, so the force."2 1 You are advised to postpone the reading of this chapter until you have finished
