Download or read book Back of the Envelope Physics written by Clifford Swartz and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an award-winning teacher, “a delightful and instructive accessory to an introductory physics course” (Physics World). Physicists use “back-of-the-envelope” estimates to check whether or not an idea could possibly be right. In many cases, the approximate solution is all that is needed. This compilation of 101 examples of back-of-the-envelope calculations celebrates a quantitative approach to solving physics problems. Drawing on a lifetime of physics research and nearly three decades as the editor of The Physics Teacher, Clifford Swartz—a winner of two awards from the American Association of Physics Teachers—provides simple, approximate solutions to physics problems that span a broad range of topics. What note do you get when you blow across the top of a Coke bottle? Could you lose weight on a diet of ice cubes? How can a fakir lie on a bed of nails without getting hurt? Does draining water in the northern hemisphere really swirl in a different direction than its counterpart below the equator? In each case, only a few lines of arithmetic and a few natural constants solve a problem to within a few percent. Covering such subjects as astronomy, magnetism, optics, sound, heat, mechanics, waves, and electricity, this book provides a rich source of material for teachers and anyone interested in the physics of everyday life. “This is a book that will help make the study of physics fun and relevant.” —Mark P. Silverman, author of Waves and Grains: Reflections on Light and Learning

Download or read book Fly By Night Physics written by A. Zee and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essential primer for physics students who want to build their physical intuition Presented in A. Zee's incomparably engaging style, this book introduces physics students to the practice of using physical reasoning and judicious guesses to get at the crux of a problem. An essential primer for advanced undergraduates and beyond, Fly by Night Physics reveals the simple and effective techniques that researchers use to think through a problem to its solution—or failing that, to smartly guess the answer—before starting any calculations. In typical physics classrooms, students seek to master an enormous toolbox of mathematical methods, which are necessary to do the precise calculations used in physics. Consequently, students often develop the unfortunate impression that physics consists of well-defined problems that can be solved with tightly reasoned and logical steps. Idealized textbook exercises and homework problems reinforce this erroneous impression. As a result, even the best students can find themselves completely unprepared for the challenges of doing actual research. In reality, physics is replete with back of the envelope estimates, order of magnitude guesses, and fly by night leaps of logic. Including exciting problems related to cutting-edge topics in physics, from Hawking radiation to gravity waves, this indispensable book will help students more deeply understand the equations they have learned and develop the confidence to start flying by night to arrive at the answers they seek. For instructors, a solutions manual is available upon request.

Download or read book Aerospace Engineering on the Back of an Envelope written by Irwin E. Alber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engineers need to acquire “Back-of-the-Envelope” survival skills to obtain rough quantitative answers to real-world problems, particularly when working on projects with enormous complexity and very limited resources. In the case studies treated in this book, we show step-by-step examples of the physical arguments and the resulting calculations obtained using the quick-fire method. We also demonstrate the estimation improvements that can be obtained through the use of more detailed physics-based Back-of-the-Envelope engineering models. These different methods are used to obtain the solutions to a number of design and performance estimation problems arising from two of the most complex real-world engineering projects: the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope satellite.

Download or read book The Astronomers Magic Envelope written by Prasenjit Saha and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working physicists, and especially astrophysicists, value a good `back-of-the-envelope' calculation, meaning a short, elegant computation or argument that starts from general principles and leads to an interesting result. This book guides students on how to understand astrophysics using general principles and concise calculations -- endeavouring to be elegant where possible and using short computer programs where necessary. The material proceeds in approximate historical order. The book begins with the Enlightenment-era insight that the orbits of the planets is easy, but the orbit of the Moon is a real headache, and continues to deterministic chaos. This is followed by a chapter on spacetime and black holes. Four chapters reveal how microphysics, especially quantum mechanics, allow us to understand how stars work. The last two chapters are about cosmology, bringing us to 21st-century developments on the microwave background and gravitational waves.

Download or read book Everyday Physics written by Jo Hermans and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-02 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fascinating, fun and friendly, this physics book is perfect for anyone with a healthy dose of curiosity. How can you tell where a sound is coming from? What is the human energy equivalent of a vacuum cleaner? How does GPS work? Why do eggs explode in the microwave? Is there a vacuum inside double-glazed windows? Can you get less wet by cycling faster? With clear explanations and hundreds of colourful photos and diagrams, Everyday Physics is an engaging physics book accessible for all ages. You can read this brilliant book in whatever order you want, dipping in and out of the different sections. Based on Hermans' Everyday physics lecture series, it combines deep physical insights with back-of-the-envelope calculations, relating abstract physics concepts to the real world, often in a surprising way. Everyday Physics also features lots of intriguing home experiments to further demonstrate the explanations. Most of these can be done using simple items from the kitchen, such as using a glass of water, a torch, and a few drops of milk to understand why the sky is blue and the setting sun red. If you want to dig a bit deeper, there are extra resources in the shaded boxes throughout. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, college student or just have a healthy interest in the world around you, this book will bring the magic of physics to your everyday life. Once you discover the beauty of science, ordinary things will become extraordinary.

Download or read book Guesstimation written by Lawrence Weinstein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic. Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly simple to quite sophisticated and from serious real-world concerns to downright silly ones. How long would it take a running faucet to fill the inverted dome of the Capitol? What is the total length of all the pickles consumed in the US in one year? What are the relative merits of internal-combustion and electric cars, of coal and nuclear energy? The problems are marvelously diverse, yet the skills to solve them are the same. The authors show how easy it is to derive useful ballpark estimates by breaking complex problems into simpler, more manageable ones--and how there can be many paths to the right answer. The book is written in a question-and-answer format with lots of hints along the way. It includes a handy appendix summarizing the few formulas and basic science concepts needed, and its small size and French-fold design make it conveniently portable. Illustrated with humorous pen-and-ink sketches, Guesstimation will delight popular-math enthusiasts and is ideal for the classroom.

Download or read book Maths on the Back of an Envelope Clever ways to roughly calculate anything written by Rob Eastaway and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-09-19 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Another terrific book by Rob Eastaway’ SIMON SINGH ‘A delightfully accessible guide to how to play with numbers’ HANNAH FRY

Download or read book Unifying Physics of Accelerators Lasers and Plasma written by Andrei Seryi and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-04-30 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unifying Physics of Accelerators, Lasers and Plasma introduces the physics of accelerators, lasers and plasma in tandem with the industrial methodology of inventiveness, a technique that teaches that similar problems and solutions appear again and again in seemingly dissimilar disciplines. This unique approach builds bridges and enhances connections between the three aforementioned areas of physics that are essential for developing the next generation of accelerators. A Breakthrough by Design approach, introduced in the book as an amalgam of TRIZ inventive principles and laws of technical system evolution with the art of back-of-the-envelope estimations, via numerous examples and exercises discussed in the solution manual, will make you destined to invent. Unifying Physics of Accelerators, Lasers and Plasma outlines a path from idea to practical implementation of scientific and technological innovation. This second edition has been updated throughout, with new content on superconducting technology, energy recovery, polarization, various topics of advanced technology, etc., making it relevant for the Electron-Ion Collider project, as well as for advanced lights sources, including Free Electron Lasers with energy recovery. The book is suitable for students at the senior undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as for scientists and engineers interested in enhancing their abilities to work successfully on the development of the next generation of facilities, devices and scientific instruments manufactured from the synergy of accelerators, lasers and plasma. Key Features: Introduces the physics of accelerators, lasers, and plasma in tandem with the industrial methodology of inventiveness. Outlines a path from idea to practical implementation of scientific and technological innovation. Contains more than 380 illustrations and numerous end-of-chapter exercises. Solutions manual is included into the book. Boasting more than 380 illustrations, this highly visual text: Employs TRIZ to amalgamate and link different areas of science Avoids heavy mathematics, using back-of-the-envelope calculations to convey key principles Introduces the Innovation by Design approach based an amalgam of TRIZ inventive principles and laws of technical system evolution with the art of back-of-the-envelope estimations – developing and applying this methodology, you will be destined to invent Includes updated materials for all eleven chapters of the first edition, e.g., the FEL invention path analysis, etc. The second edition includes new chapters: Beam Cooling and Final Focusing, Beam Stability and Energy Recovery, Advanced Technologies The new chapters add topics such as superconducting magnets and accelerating cavities, polarized beams, energy recovery – themes relevant for new projects such as Electron-Ion Collider, or Free Electron Laser based on energy recovery for science or industry The second edition also includes a new chapter with illustrations of 40 inventive principles of TRIZ based on the areas of accelerator, laser and plasma technology Every chapter includes invention case studies, often making important connections to adjacent areas of technologies, illustrated by the case of EUV light generation invention for semiconductor lithography, etc. Includes end-of-chapter exercises focusing on physics and on applications of the inventiveness method, on reinventing technical systems and on practicing back-of-the-envelope estimations; and also includes mini-projects, suitable for exercises by teams of students Includes a detailed Guide to solutions of the exercises, discussing the inventions and highlighting the relevant inventive principles, as well as directions of mini-projects Includes discussion of the TRIZ laws of evolution of technical systems and makes bold predictions for the Year 2050 for accelerator, laser and plasma technology Praise for the first edition "...Unifying Physics of Accelerators, Lasers and Plasma is a must-have for every student and practitioner of accelerator science. It is a quick reference guide and provides solid, intuitive discussions of what are often quite erudite concepts. I enthusiastically applaud this outstanding book." Sekazi Mtingwa in Physics Today, August 2016

Download or read book The Physics of Superheroes written by James Kakalios and published by Avery. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an exploration of the science behind the powers of popular comic superheroes revealing the real physics at work in comic books.

Download or read book Project Hail Mary written by Andy Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Download or read book The Physics of Rugby written by T. Lipscombe and published by Nottingham University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending simple physics with anecdotes from the world of rugby, this informative reference demonstrates how to improve rugby techniques. Tackling, passing, running, and kicking are analyzed from a scientific perspective, incorporating Newton’s Laws, and then discussed in the wider context of the game. This valuable guide will not only instruct but also entertain sports-oriented students of all levels.

Download or read book Back of the envelope Quantum Mechanics With Extensions To Many body Systems Integrable Pdes And Rare And Exotic Methods Second Edition written by Maxim Olchanyi (Olshanii) and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-01-10 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dimensional and order-of-magnitude estimates are practiced by almost everybody but taught almost nowhere. When physics students engage in their first theoretical research project, they soon learn that exactly solvable problems belong only to textbooks, that numerical models are long and resource consuming, and that 'something else' is needed to quickly gain insight into the system they are going to study. Qualitative methods are this 'something else', but typically, students have never heard of them before.The aim of this book is to teach the craft of qualitative analysis using a set of problems, some with solutions and some without, in advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate Quantum Mechanics. Examples include a dimensional analysis solution for the spectrum of a quartic oscillator, simple WKB formulas for the matrix elements of a coordinate in a gravitational well, and a three-line-long estimate for the ionization energy of atoms uniformly valid across the whole periodic table. The pièce de résistance in the collection is a series of dimensional analysis questions in Integrable Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations with no dimensions existing a priori. Solved problems include the relationship between the size and the speed of solitons of the Korteweg-de Vries equation and an expression for the oscillation period of a Nonlinear Schrödinger breather as a function of its width.A new theme that appears in the second edition are the rare and exotic methods in elementary quantum mechanics. The new chapter covers quantum-mechanical supersymmetry, power index method, scale invariance, self-similarity, and circle inversion.

Download or read book Qualitative Representations written by Kenneth D. Forbus and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that qualitative representations—symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units—are central to human cognition. In this book, Kenneth Forbus proposes that qualitative representations hold the key to one of the deepest mysteries of cognitive science: how we reason and learn about the continuous phenomena surrounding us. Forbus argues that qualitative representations—symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units—are central to human cognition. Qualitative representations provide a basis for commonsense reasoning, because they enable practical reasoning with very little data; this makes qualitative representations a useful component of natural language semantics. Qualitative representations also provide a foundation for expert reasoning in science and engineering by making explicit the broad categories of things that might happen and enabling causal models that help guide the application of more quantitative knowledge as needed. Qualitative representations are important for creating more human-like artificial intelligence systems with capabilities for spatial reasoning, vision, question answering, and understanding natural language. Forbus discusses, among other topics, basic ideas of knowledge representation and reasoning; qualitative process theory; qualitative simulation and reasoning about change; compositional modeling; qualitative spatial reasoning; and learning and conceptual change. His argument is notable both for presenting an approach to qualitative reasoning in which analogical reasoning and learning play crucial roles and for marshaling a wide variety of evidence, including the performance of AI systems. Cognitive scientists will find Forbus's account of qualitative representations illuminating; AI scientists will value Forbus's new approach to qualitative representations and the overview he offers.

Download or read book Building Physics of the Envelope written by Ulrich Knaack and published by Birkhäuser. This book was released on 2018-05-07 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The facade is the building’s interface with its environment. It is here that building physics parameters such as heat, humidity, sound and light interact with the building. All these influences need to be controlled by the building envelope in order to ensure the comfort of the user and the functional performance of the architecture. This introduction explains the most important phenomena and then relates them to design and building practice – which materials react in which way to these factors? How do facade systems deal with heat, humidity, sound and light? This practice-oriented book, which is the result of cooperation between an architect and a structural engineer, describes the most important facade materials and constructions under the aspect of their building physics performance.

Download or read book Data Analysis with Open Source Tools written by Philipp K. Janert and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collecting data is relatively easy, but turning raw information into something useful requires that you know how to extract precisely what you need. With this insightful book, intermediate to experienced programmers interested in data analysis will learn techniques for working with data in a business environment. You'll learn how to look at data to discover what it contains, how to capture those ideas in conceptual models, and then feed your understanding back into the organization through business plans, metrics dashboards, and other applications. Along the way, you'll experiment with concepts through hands-on workshops at the end of each chapter. Above all, you'll learn how to think about the results you want to achieve -- rather than rely on tools to think for you. Use graphics to describe data with one, two, or dozens of variables Develop conceptual models using back-of-the-envelope calculations, as well asscaling and probability arguments Mine data with computationally intensive methods such as simulation and clustering Make your conclusions understandable through reports, dashboards, and other metrics programs Understand financial calculations, including the time-value of money Use dimensionality reduction techniques or predictive analytics to conquer challenging data analysis situations Become familiar with different open source programming environments for data analysis "Finally, a concise reference for understanding how to conquer piles of data."--Austin King, Senior Web Developer, Mozilla "An indispensable text for aspiring data scientists."--Michael E. Driscoll, CEO/Founder, Dataspora

Download or read book How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe Enhanced Edition written by Charles Yu and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enhanced eBook includes video, audio, photographic, and linked content, as well as a bonus short story. Hear TAMMY talk. Learn the origins of Minor Universe 31. See the TM-31. Take a trip in it. Photos and illustrations appear as hyperlinked endnotes. Video and audio are embedded directly in text. *Video and audio may not play on all readers. Check your user manual for details. National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award winner Charles Yu delivers his debut novel, a razor-sharp, ridiculously funny, and utterly touching story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space–time. Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life. Wildly new and adventurous, Yu’s debut is certain to send shock waves of wonder through literary space–time.

Download or read book Statistical Physics written by Gregory H. Wannier and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic text combines thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory in one unified presentation. Topics include equilibrium statistics of special systems, kinetic theory, transport coefficients, and fluctuations. Problems with solutions. 1966 edition.