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Mad about Modern Physics By Franklin Potter and Christopher Jargodzki free download



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Potter, Frank, date
Mad about modern physics : braintwisters, paradoxes and curiosities / Franklin Potter and
Christopher Jargodzki.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-44855-9
1. Physics--Popular works. I. Jargodzki, Christopher II. Title
QC24.5.P68 2004
530—dc22
2004014941
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1




Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
To the Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1 The Heat Is On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2 Does Anybody Really Know What
Time It Is?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 3 Crazy Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 4 Fly Me to the Moon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 5 Go Ask Alice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 6 Start Me Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 7 A Whole New World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 8 Chances Are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 9 Can This Be Real? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 10 Over My Head. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 11 Crystal Blue Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 7
The Heat Is On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Does Anybody Really Know What
Time It Is? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Crazy Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Fly Me to the Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Go Ask Alice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Start Me Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
A Whole New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Chances Are. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Can This Be Real? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Over My Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Crystal Blue Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287








Preface 

This book of almost 250 puzzles begins where our first book, Mad
About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (2001)
ended—with the physics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887, the
challenges posed by atomic spectra and blackbody radiation, the
unexpected discoveries of X-rays in 1895, radioactivity in 1896, and
the electron in 1897 all loosened the protective belt of ad hoc hypotheses
around the mechanistic physics the nineteenth century had so
laboriously built. Anomalies and paradoxes abounded, ultimately
necessitating a radical rethinking of the very foundations of physics
and culminating in the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Numerous applications of these new and strange concepts followed
very quickly as atomic and nuclear physics led to semiconductor
devices on the small scale and nuclear energy on the large scale. Therefore
we have developed a whole new set of challenges to tickle the
minds of our scientifically literate readers, from science students to
engineers to professionals in the sciences.
The challenges begin with the classical problem of getting a cooked
egg into a bottle through a narrow bottleneck and back out again and
progress gradually to the famous aging-twin paradox of the theory of
special relativity and eventually reach problems dealing with the largescale
universe. In between, we explore the nature of time and of space
as well as how the world of films and television tends to sacrifice
physics for the sake of entertainment. We also consider some of the
more startling questions in relativity. For example, we ask whether a
person can go on a space journey out to a star 7,000 light-years distant
and return while aging only 40 years! And we certainly want to
emphasize the practical applications of microphysics through an examination
of some properties of exotic fluids, unusual motors running on
air or on random motion, as well as thermal, electrical, and photonic
properties of materials in a challenging journey into the atomic world.





Particularly important microworld challenges include: What happened
to Schrödinger’s cat? Can a cup of coffee be the ultimate quantum
computer? Why is a Bose-Einstein condensate a new state of matter?
Why is quantum mechanical coherent scattering so important in developing
new detectors for neutrinos and gravitational waves? When we
reach the nucleus, there are challenges about the accuracy of carbon-14
dating, the reason for neutron decay, and the amount of human
radioactivity. Then our journey reverses as we reach for the stars to consider
Olbers’ paradox about why the night sky is dark instead of bursting
with light, how gravitational lensing by galaxies works, and what
the total energy in the universe might be. This book finishes with a potpourri
of challenges from all categories that ranges from using bicycle
tracks in the mud to determine the direction of travel, to analyzing
water-spouting alligators, and ending with a space-crawling mechanical
invention that seems to defy the laws of physics.
The puzzles range in difficulty from simple questions (e.g., “Will
an old mechanical watch run faster or slower when taken to the
mountains?”) to subtle problems requiring more analysis (e.g., “Is the
Bragg scattering of X-rays from an ideal crystal a coherent scattering
process?”) Solutions and more than 300 references are provided, and
they constitute about two-thirds of the book.
As these examples demonstrate, most of the puzzles contain an element
of surprise. Indeed, one finds that commonsense conjecture and
proper physical reasoning often clash throughout this volume. Einstein
characterized common sense as the collection of prejudices
acquired by age eighteen, and we agree: at least in science, common
sense is to be refined and often transcended rather than venerated.
Many of the challenges were devised to undermine physical preconceptions
by employing paradoxes (from the Greek para and doxos,
meaning “beyond belief”) to create cognitive dissonance. Far from
being simply amusing, paradoxes are uniquely effective in addressing
specific deficiencies in understanding. Usually the contradiction
between gut instinct and physical reasoning for some people will be so
painful that they will go to great lengths to escape it even if it means
having to learn some physics in the process.
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein considered paradoxes to be an
embodiment of disquietude, and as we have learned, these disquietudes
often foreshadow revolutionary developments in our thinking about the natural world.






The counterintuitive upheavals resulting
from relativity theory and quantum mechanics in the twentieth century
only enhanced the reputation of the paradox as an agent for
change in our understanding of physical reality.
Such disquietudes, rather than unexplained experimental facts,
writes Gerald Holton in Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought, were
what led Einstein to rethink the foundations of physics in his three
papers of 1905. Each begins with the statement of formal asymmetries
of a predominantly aesthetic nature, then proposes a general postulate,
not derivable directly from experience, that removes the asymmetries.
For example, in the paper on the quantum theory of light,
formal asymmetry existed between the discontinuous nature of particles
and the continuous functions used to describe electromagnetic
radiation. As Holton notes, “The discussion of the photoelectric
effect, for which this paper is mostly remembered, occurs toward the
end, in a little over two pages out of the total sixteen.” Consistent
with this approach is Einstein’s statement in Physics and Reality
(1936), “We now realize . . . how much in error are those theorists
who believe that theory comes inductively from experience,” and later
in The Evolution of Physics (1938), coauthored with the Polish physicist
Leopold Infeld, “Physical concepts are free creations of the human
mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the
external world.”
As another sore point, the term “quantum mechanics” is really a
misnomer: quantum systems cannot be regarded as made up of separate
building blocks. In the helium atom, for instance, we do not have
electron A and electron B but simply a two-electron pattern in which
all separate identity is lost. This indivisible unity of the quantum world
is paralleled by another kind of unity—between subject and object. Is
light a wave or a particle? The answer seems to depend on the experimental
setup. In the double-slit experiment, the observations of light
yield characteristics of the box and its slits as much as of light itself.
Is reality then observer-dependent? And would this justify Einstein’s
insistence on the power of pure thought in the construction of physical
reality? Modern physics seems particularly adept at generating such
disquietudes. If that’s the case, then perhaps the word Mad in the title
of our book should not be construed as a mere metaphor!




Nuclear and Particle Physics By B. R. Martin


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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, B. R. (Brian Robert)
Nuclear and particle physics/B. R. Martin.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-01999-3 (HB)
ISBN-10: 0-470-01999-9 (HB)
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-02532-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-470-02532-8 (pbk.)
1. Nuclear physics–Textbooks. 2. Particle physics–Textbooks. I. Title.
QC776.M34 2006
539.702–dc22
2005036437
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13 978-0 470 01999 9 (HB) ISBN-10 0 470 01999 9 (HB)
978-0 470 02532 8 (PB) 0 470 02532 8 (PB)








Contents
Preface xi
Notes xiii
Physical Constants and Conversion Factors xv
1 Basic Concepts 1
1.1 History 1
1.1.1 The origins of nuclear physics 1
1.1.2 The emergence of particle physics: the standard model and hadrons 4
1.2 Relativity and antiparticles 7
1.3 Symmetries and conservation laws 9
1.3.1 Parity 10
1.3.2 Charge conjugation 12
1.4 Interactions and Feynman diagrams 13
1.4.1 Interactions 13
1.4.2 Feynman diagrams 15
1.5 Particle exchange: forces and potentials 17
1.5.1 Range of forces 17
1.5.2 The Yukawa potential 19
1.6 Observable quantities: cross sections and decay rates 20
1.6.1 Amplitudes 21
1.6.2 Cross-sections 23
1.6.3 Unstable states 27
1.7 Units: length, mass and energy 29
Problems 30
2 Nuclear Phenomenology 33
2.1 Mass spectroscopy and binding energies 33
2.2 Nuclear shapes and sizes 37
2.2.1 Charge distribution 37
2.2.2 Matter distribution 42
2.3 Nuclear instability 45
2.4 Radioactive decay 47
2.5 Semi-empirical mass formula: the liquid drop model 50
2.6 -decay phenomenology 55
2.6.1 Odd-mass nuclei 55
2.6.2 Even-mass nuclei 58







2.7 Fission 59
2.8 -decays 62
2.9 Nuclear reactions 62
Problems 67
3 Particle Phenomenology 71
3.1 Leptons 71
3.1.1 Lepton multiplets and lepton numbers 71
3.1.2 Neutrinos 74
3.1.3 Neutrino mixing and oscillations 76
3.1.4 Neutrino masses 79
3.1.5 Universal lepton interactions – the number of neutrinos 84
3.2 Quarks 86
3.2.1 Evidence for quarks 86
3.2.2 Quark generations and quark numbers 89
3.3 Hadrons 92
3.3.1 Flavour independence and charge multiplets 92
3.3.2 Quark model spectroscopy 96
3.3.3 Hadron masses and magnetic moments 102
Problems 108
4 Experimental Methods 111
4.1 Overview 111
4.2 Accelerators and beams 113
4.2.1 DC accelerators 113
4.2.2 AC accelerators 115
4.2.3 Neutral and unstable particle beams 122
4.3 Particle interactions with matter 123
4.3.1 Short-range interactions with nuclei 123
4.3.2 Ionization energy losses 125
4.3.3 Radiation energy losses 128
4.3.4 Interactions of photons in matter 129
4.4 Particle detectors 131
4.4.1 Gas detectors 131
4.4.2 Scintillation counters 137
4.4.3 Semiconductor detectors 138
4.4.4 Particle identification 139
4.4.5 Calorimeters 142
4.5 Layered detectors 145
Problems 148
5 Quark Dynamics: the Strong Interaction 151
5.1 Colour 151
5.2 Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) 153
5.3 Heavy quark bound states 156
5.4 The strong coupling constant and asymptotic freedom 160
5.5 Jets and gluons 164
5.6 Colour counting 166



5.7 Deep inelastic scattering and nucleon structure 168
Problems 177
6 Electroweak Interactions 181
6.1 Charged and neutral currents 181
6.2 Symmetries of the weak interaction 182
6.3 Spin structure of the weak interactions 186
6.3.1 Neutrinos 187
6.3.2 Particles with mass: chirality 189
6.4 W and Z0 bosons 192
6.5 Weak interactions of hadrons 194
6.5.1 Semileptonic decays 194
6.5.2 Neutrino scattering 198
6.6 Neutral meson decays 201
6.6.1 CP violation 202
6.6.2 Flavour oscillations 206
6.7 Neutral currents and the unified theory 208
Problems 213
7 Models and Theories of Nuclear Physics 217
7.1 The nucleon – nucleon potential 217
7.2 Fermi gas model 220
7.3 Shell model 223
7.3.1 Shell structure of atoms 223
7.3.2 Nuclear magic numbers 225
7.3.3 Spins, parities and magnetic dipole moments 228
7.3.4 Excited states 230
7.4 Non-spherical nuclei 232
7.4.1 Electric quadrupole moments 232
7.4.2 Collective model 236
7.5 Summary of nuclear structure models 236
7.6 -decay 238
7.7 -decay 242
7.7.1 Fermi theory 242
7.7.2 Electron momentum distribution 244
7.7.3 Kurie plots and the neutrino mass 246
7.8 -emission and internal conversion 248
7.8.1 Selection rules 248
7.8.2 Transition rates 250
Problems 252
8 Applications of Nuclear Physics 255
8.1 Fission 255
8.1.1 Induced fission – fissile materials 255
8.1.2 Fission chain reactions 258
8.1.3 Nuclear power reactors 260
8.2 Fusion 266
8.2.1 Coulomb barrier 266


8.2.2 Stellar fusion 267
8.2.3 Fusion reaction rates 270
8.2.4 Fusion reactors 273
8.3 Biomedical applications 278
8.3.1 Biological effects of radiation: radiation therapy 278
8.3.2 Medical imaging using radiation 282
8.3.3 Magnetic resonance imaging 290
Problems 294
9 Outstanding Questions and Future Prospects 297
9.1 Particle physics 297
9.1.1 The Higgs boson 297
9.1.2 Grand unification 300
9.1.3 Supersymmetry 304
9.1.4 Particle astrophysics 307
9.2 Nuclear physics 315
9.2.1 The structure of hadrons and nuclei 316
9.2.2 Quark–gluon plasma, astrophysics and cosmology 320
9.2.3 Symmetries and the standard model 323
9.2.4 Nuclear medicine 324
9.2.5 Power production and nuclear waste 326
Appendix A: Some Results in Quantum Mechanics 331
A.1 Barrier penetration 331
A.2 Density of states 333
A.3 Perturbation theory and the Second Golden Rule 335
Appendix B: Relativistic Kinematics 339
B.1 Lorentz transformations and four-vectors 339
B.2 Frames of reference 341
B.3 Invariants 344
Problems 345
Appendix C: Rutherford Scattering 349
C.1 Classical physics 349
C.2 Quantum mechanics 352
Problems 354
Appendix D: Solutions to Problems 355
References 393
Bibliography 397
Index 401




Preface

It is common practice to teach nuclear physics and particle physics together in an
introductory course and it is for such a course that this book has been written. The
material is presented so that different selections can be made for a short course of
about 25–30 lectures depending on the lecturer’s preferences and the students’
backgrounds. On the latter, students should have taken a first course in quantum
physics, covering the traditional topics in non-relativistic quantum mechanics and
atomic physics. A few lectures on relativistic kinematics would also be useful, but
this is not essential as the necessary background is given in appendix B and is only
used in a few places in the book. I have not tried to be rigorous, or present proofs
of all the statements in the text. Rather, I have taken the view that it is more
important that students see an overview of the subject which for many – possibly
the majority – will be the only time they study nuclear and particle physics. For
future specialists, the details will form part of more advanced courses. Nevertheless,
space restrictions have still meant that it has been necessary to make a
choice of topics covered and doubtless other, equally valid, choices could have
been made. This is particularly true in Chapter 8, which deals with applications of
nuclear physics, where I have chosen just three major areas to discuss. Nuclear and
particle physics have been, and still are, very important parts of the entire subject
of physics and its practitioners have won an impressive number of Nobel Prizes.
For historical interest, I have noted in the footnotes many of the awards for work
related to the field.
Some parts of the book dealing with particle physics owe much to a previous book,
Particle Physics, written with Graham Shaw of Manchester University, and I am
grateful to him and the publisher, JohnWiley and Sons, for permission to adapt some
of thatmaterial for use here. I also thankColinWilkin for comments on all the chapters
of the book, David Miller and Peter Hobson for comments on Chapter 4 and Bob
Speller for comments on the medical physics section of Chapter 8. If errors or
misunderstandings still remain (and any such are of course due tomealone) Iwould be
grateful to hear about them. I have set up a website (www.hep.ucl.ac.uk/ brm/
npbook.html) where I will post any corrections and comments.


Brian R. Martin
January 2006





How to Solve Physics Problems by Robert Oman and Daniel Oman free download


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Radical Enlightenment By Jonathan I. israle


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The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think By George G. Szpiro


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Contents

PART I
HISTORICAL TIDBITS
1 Lopping Leap Years 3
2 Is the World Coming to an End Soon? 6
3 Cozy Zurich 8
4 Daniel Bernoulli and His Difficult Family 11
PART II
UNSOLVED CONJECTURES
5 The Mathematicians’ Million Dollar Baby 17
6 A Puzzle by Any Other Name 20
7 Twins, Cousins, and Sexy Primes 24
8 Hilbert’s Elusive Problem Number 16 27
PART III
SOLVED PROBLEMS
9 The Tile Layer’s Efficiency Problem 33
10 The Catalanian Rabbi’s Problem37
11 Even Infinite Series End Sometimes40
12 Proving the Proof43
13 Has Poincaré’s Conjecture Finally Been Solved?48
PART IV
PERSONALITIES
14 Late Tribute to a Tragic Hero55
15 The Unpaid Professor59
16 Genius from a Different Planet61
17 The Resurrection of Geometry66
18 God’s Gift to Science?69
19 Vice-President of Imagineering75
20 The Demoted Pensioner 80
21 A Grand Master Becomes Permanent Visiting
Professor 85
PART V
CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT MATTERS
22 Knots and “Unknots”93
23 Knots and Tangles with Real Ropes97
24 Small Mistakes May Have Large Consequences102
25 Ignorant Gamblers106
26 Tetris Is Hard109
27 Groups, Monster Groups, and Baby Monsters112
28 Fermat’s Incorrect Conjecture116
29 The Crash of Catastrophe Theory119
30 Deceptive Simplicity122
31 The Beauty of Dissymmetry125
32 Random and Not So Random128
33 How Can One Be Sure It’s Prime?132
PART VI
INTERDISCIPLINARY POTPOURRI
34 A Mathematician Judges the Judges (Law) 137
35 Elections Aren’t Decided by the Voters Alone
(Political Science) 140
36 A Dollar Isn’t Always Worth a Dollar
(Insurance) 146
37 Compressing the Divine Comedy (Linguistics)149
38 Nature’s Fundamental Formula (Botany)155
39 Stacking Words Like Oranges and Tomatoes
(Computer Science) 158
40 The Fractal Dimension of Israel’s Security
Barrier (Geography) 161
41 Calculated in Cold Ice (Physics)164
42 Built on Sand (Physics)167
43 Buzzing Around Corners (Biology)170


44 Inexperienced Traders Make the Market Efficient
(Economics) 172
45 The Waggle Dance of Internet Servers (Computer
Science, Biology) 175
46 Turbulent Liquids and Stock Markets (Finance,
Economics) 178
47 Encrypting Messages with Candles and Hot Plates
(Cryptography) 180
48 Fighting for Survival (Evolutionary Theory,
Finance) 184
49 Insults Stink (Neurosciences, Economics)187
50 Bible Codes: The Not So Final Report
(Theology) 190
References 195
Index 199


Preface

Whenever a socialite shows off his flair at a cocktail party
by reciting a stanza from an obscure poem, he is considered
well-read and full of wit. Not much ado can be made
with the recitation of a mathematical formula, however.
At most, one may expect a few pitying glances and the
title “party’s most nerdy guest.” To the concurring nods
of the cocktail crowd, most bystanders will admit that
they are no good at math, never have been, and never
will be.
Actually, this is quite astonishing. Imagine your lawyer
telling you that he is no good at spelling, your dentist
proudly proclaiming that she speaks no foreign language,
and your financial advisor admitting with glee that he
always mixes up Voltaire and Molière. With ample reason
one would consider such people as ignorant. Not so
with mathematics. Shortcomings in this intellectual discipline
are met with understanding by everyone.
I have set myself the task of trying to remedy this
state of affairs somewhat. The present book contains articles
that I wrote on mathematics during the past three
years for the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung
and its Sunday edition NZZ am Sonntag. It was, and is,
my wish to give readers an understanding not only of the
importance but also of the beauty and elegance of the
subject. Anecdotes and biographical details of the oftentimes
quirky actors are not neglected, but, whenever possible, I
give an idea of the theories and proofs. The complexity of
mathematics should neither be hidden nor overrated.
Neither this book nor, indeed, my career as a mathematics
journalist evolved in a linear fashion. After studies
of mathematics and physics at the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Zurich and a few career changes, I
became the Jerusalem correspondent for the Neue Zürcher
Zeitung. My job was to report about the goings-on in the
Middle East. But my initial love for mathematics never 

waned, and when a conference about symmetry was to be
held in Haifa, I convinced my editor to send me to this
city in northern Israel in order to cover the gathering.
It turned out to be one of the best assignments I ever did
for the paper. (It was nearly as good as the cruise on a
luxury liner down the Danube to Budapest, but that is
another story.) From then on I wrote, on and off, about
mathematical themes.
In March 2002 I had the opportunity to make use of
my mathematical interests in a more regular fashion. The
NZZ am Sonntag launched the monthly feature “George
Szpiro’s little multiplication table.” I soon found out the
hard way that the reception by the readers was better
than expected: The incorrect birth date of a mathematician
in one of the early columns led to nearly two dozen
readers’ letters ranging in tone from the ironic to the
angry. A year later I received a special honor when the
Swiss Academy of Sciences awarded the column its Media
Prize for 2003. In December 2005, at a ceremony at
the Royal Society in London, I was named a finalist for
the European Commissionís Descartes Prize for Science
Communication.
I would like to thank my editors in Zurich—Kathrin
Meier-Rust, Andreas Hirstein, Christian Speicher, and Stefan
Betschon—for their patient and knowledgeable editorial
work, my sister Eva Burke in London for diligently translating
the articles, and Jeffrey Robbins of the Joseph Henry
Press in Washington, D.C,. for turning the manuscript
into what I hope has become an enjoyable book on a
subject commonly thought of as dry as a bone.

George G. Szpiro
Jerusalem, Spring 2006