Book:Allan M. Munn/From Nought to Relativity

Subject Matter

 * Physics

Contents

 * Preface
 * List of Symbols
 * 1 Introduction
 * 2 The primary experience that is to be modelled by the physical world picture
 * 3 Primary experience is chopped up into percepts, and these are assembled into concepts and things
 * 4 The concept of number is brought into the picture
 * 5 The game of numbers
 * 6 The essential structural form of any world picture
 * 7 Time and distance numbers
 * 8 The game of kinematics
 * 9 The game is applied: How to snowball an author. The cathode ray tube and the glow on the TV screen
 * 10 The concepts of mass and force are brought into the picture. The game of dynamics
 * 11 The force of gravity is deduced
 * 12 The force of friction is deduced. The game is applied to studying the motion of a toboggan
 * 13 The game is applied to studying the motion of a rocket. The solution is not aesthetically satisfying
 * 14 The Laws of Conservation of Energy and Conservation of Momentum are deduced. The laws are successfully applied to the problems of the falling body, and the ballistic pendulum
 * 15 The Law of Conservation of Energy is disobeyed. The lost energy is accounted for ad hoc by introducing the concept of coefficient of elasticity
 * 16 The Law of Conservation of Energy is properly restored to grace by defining the new concepts of temperature and heat energy.
 * 17 The game of Mathematics is extended to differential and integral calculus
 * 18 The more comprehensive world picture is applied to the operation of the heat engine. The Carnot cycle. Entropy, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
 * 19 The Theory of Theories. Empirical and metaphysical theories
 * 20 Electromagnetic phenomena
 * 21 The new experience is quantitatively structured by the theory of electromagnetism and integrated into the evolving world picture
 * 22 The game is applied to ammeters, electric motors and generators
 * 23 The Law of Conservation of Energy is once more disobeyed, and once more it is restored to grace: this time by introducing the concept of energy transmission by invisible waves
 * 24 The game of mathematics is extended to trigonometry
 * 25 The theory is applied to the problem of the vibrating string
 * 26 Light phenomena
 * 27 Light is shown to be a wave
 * 28 The electromagnetic wave is deduced from the world picture
 * 29 The corpuscles of micro-experience: electrons and protons
 * 30 The attempt to deduce a model for atomic structure from the world picture fails
 * 31 The photoelectric effect. The Compton effect. The dichotomy of complementary wave and corpuscle
 * 32 The world picture is modified and a satisfactory model for the hydrogen atom is now deduced. A look at the structures of some multi-electron atoms
 * 33 A closer look at the question of measurement leads to the Uncertainty Principle
 * 34 The world picture is restructured to incorporate the Uncertainty Principle. Quantum mechanics. The new game is applied to the problem of a micro-entity trapped in a well.
 * 35 The null result obtained in the Michelson-Morley experiment leads to the death of the absolute
 * 36 The world picture is further modified. Relativistic mechanics. The new theory is confirmed by experience. Atomic energy
 * 37 Space-time and General relativity. The geometrizing of the force of gravity
 * 38 An attempt to deduce a model for nuclear structure
 * 39 Fundamental forces and more fundamental micro-entities. Quarks?
 * Index