ABC of Physics : A Very Brief Guide
"This book of interesting ideas is addressed to young faculty teaching modern physics and contemplating the creation of new physics textbooks." -- Professor Yuri A Kamyshkov, University of Tennessee"Can the universe and everything in it be explained in a compact book that fits in your pocket? Professor Okun shows that it can. In doing so, he illustrates the beauty and the power of the fundamental concepts of physics." -- Michael E Peskin, SLAC National Accelerator Lab"It is like using Google Earth to zoom in on the complex metropolis that is quantum theory, providing a delightful and often surprising overview." -- Physics World"This little book is concise and a very useful guide to the fundamental concepts of subatomic physics in general and elementary particle physics in particular. Without going into technicalities, it aims to familiarize the reader with the language of relativity and of quantum mechanics." -- Marek Karliner, Tel Aviv University"Fundamental physics is an important part of general culture and the book is an excellent guide to it." -- Alexander Dolgov, University of Ferrara and INFN, Italy"As the author of one of the first and most comprehensible textbooks on the weak interactions of elementary particles, Okun is particularly well-equipped to address such a task. His little book, just over a hundred pages, is directed at the young professional physicists who might write such material." -- Contemporary Physics"People who happen upon this work will read it quickly and with enjoyment."--CHOICE"Understanding of organization of the universe as well as other concepts of the modern physics became an indispensable component of the education of any civilized contemporary person. Rapidly growing new scientific data require a new approach to the teaching of physics concepts. What should be a content of the textbook of the modern physics? How to explain mathematically intensive concepts at the reasonably necessary level? How to communicate to students the excitement and fascination of exploration of a hidden new truth of Nature? Initial steps in this direction are made in the new book of L.B. Okun "ABC of Physics". This book of interesting ideas is addressed to young faculties who teach modern physics and might like to write a new physics textbooks. "--Yuri A. Kamyshkov, University of Tennessee, Knoxville"I'm fond of quick, no-frills handbooks. The best recent one is Lev Okun's ABC of Physics: a Very Brief Guide (2012). Our current picture of the world, Okun writes, has a "solid quantum and relativistic foundation" that is easier to grasp in outline than many people think, and that should be made accessible even to those who will not become physicists. Okun aims his book at dedicated readers equipped with high-school mathematics. Barely more than 100 pages, it uses virtually no metaphors and consists of short, paragraph-long sections on key topics ("matrices", "action", "the Lamb shift" and the like) that will be helpful review material even for those in the field. It is like using Google Earth to zoom in on the complex metropolis that is quantum theory, providing a delightful and often surprising overview."--Robert P Crease, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, Physics World