Physics for Poets Author:Robert H. March From the Preface: — This book is the outgrowth of a course at the University of Wisconsin for students in the humanities and social sciences. No attempt is made to give a complete or balanced picture of physics as a body of knowledge. Instead, I hope to convey some sense of physics as a human activity, in the profound conviction that, viewed as... more » such, it is neither as incomprehensible nor as removed from the general culture as is commonly thought.
Contents:
1 Falling Bodies and the Birth of Mechanics
2 Toward a Science of Mechanics
3 The Denouement: Newton's Laws
4 Vectors, Circles, and the Problem of Direction
5 The Moon is Falling
6 Energy--What is It?
7 Completing the Job: The Classical Physicist's "World View"
8 Waves
9 Surprise!--The Earth Doesn't Move
10 Origins of Relativity: How Long is a Moving Train?