Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
CONTENTS......Page 7
PREFACE......Page 13
1.1 Galileo’s Telescope......Page 17
1.2 The Old Astronomy......Page 18
1.3 Aristotle and Ptolemy: Models and Mathematics......Page 21
1.4 Copernicus: Getting Behind Appearances......Page 25
1.5 Galileo......Page 27
1.6 Kepler: Beyond Circles......Page 30
1.7 Newton......Page 35
1.8 Conclusion......Page 46
2.1 Introduction......Page 48
2.2 Temperature and Thermometers......Page 49
2.3 Energy and Its Conservation......Page 50
2.4 Heat as Energy......Page 58
2.5 Atoms and Molecules......Page 59
2.6 Steam Engines and Entropy......Page 66
2.7 Entropy and Randomness......Page 74
2.8 Chaos......Page 78
2.9 Conclusion......Page 85
3.1 Electric Charges......Page 86
3.2 Magnets......Page 93
3.3 Electric Currents and Magnetism......Page 96
3.4 Faraday and Induction of Electricity by Magnetism......Page 104
3.5 Maxwell’s Synthesis: Electromagnetism......Page 107
3.6 Conclusion......Page 113
4.1 Waves......Page 115
4.2 Sound......Page 118
4.3 Light......Page 120
4.4 The Principle of Least Time......Page 124
4.5 What Is Light?......Page 129
4.6 Light Waves......Page 135
4.7 Waves in What?......Page 143
4.8 Light Is Electromagnetism......Page 145
4.9 Conclusion......Page 152
5.1 Electrons......Page 153
5.2 Is the Speed of Light Always the Same?......Page 155
5.3 The Unity of Space and Time......Page 159
5.4 Space, Time and Motion......Page 160
5.5 The Geometry of Spacetime......Page 163
5.6 Lorentz Transformations......Page 167
5.7 Time Dilation and the “Twin Paradox”......Page 171
5.8 Distances and the Lorentz-Fitzgerald Contraction......Page 174
5.9 How Can We Believe All This?......Page 180
5.11 Momentum and Energy......Page 181
5.12 Electricity and Magnetism in Spacetime......Page 186
5.13 Conclusion......Page 189
6.1 What This Chapter Is About......Page 191
6.2 Action......Page 192
6.3 Minimum or Just Stationary?......Page 194
6.4 Why Is the Action Least?......Page 195
6.5 The Magnetic Action......Page 196
6.6 Time-Varying Fields and Relativity......Page 200
6.7 Action for the Electromagnetic Field......Page 201
6.8 Momentum, Energy and the Uniformity of Spacetime......Page 203
6.9 Angular Momentum......Page 204
6.10 Conclusion......Page 205
7.1 The Problem......Page 207
7.2 Curvature......Page 210
7.3 Gravity as Curvature of Spacetime......Page 215
7.4 Maps and Metrics......Page 217
7.5 The Laws of Einstein’s Theory of Gravity......Page 219
7.6 Newton and Einstein Compared......Page 223
7.7 Weighing Light......Page 225
7.8 Physics and Geometry......Page 227
7.9 General “Relativity”?......Page 228
7.10 Conclusion......Page 229
8.1 The Radiant Heat Crisis......Page 230
8.2 Why Are Atoms Simple?......Page 235
8.3 Niels Bohr Models the Atom......Page 237
8.4 Heisenberg and the Quantum World......Page 242
8.5 Schrödinger Takes Another Tack......Page 244
8.6 Probability and Uncertainty......Page 247
8.7 Spin......Page 250
8.8 Feynman’s All Histories Version of Quantum Theory......Page 255
8.9 Which Way Did It Go?......Page 258
8.10 Einstein’s Revenge: Quantum Entanglement......Page 261
8.11 What Has Happened to Determinism?......Page 265
8.12 What an Electron Knows About Magnetic Fields......Page 269
8.13 Which Electron Is Which?......Page 271
8.14 Conclusion......Page 274
9.1 Einstein Plus Heisenberg......Page 276
9.2 Fields and Oscillators......Page 277
9.3 Lasers and the Indistinguishability of Particles......Page 282
9.4 A Field for Matter......Page 284
9.5 How Can Electrons Be Fermions?......Page 287
9.6 Antiparticles......Page 290
9.7 QED......Page 291
9.8 Feynman’s Wonderful Diagrams......Page 293
9.9 The Perils of Point Charges......Page 298
9.10 The Busy Vacuum......Page 303
9.11 Conclusion......Page 305
10.1 Cooling and Freezing......Page 306
10.2 Refrigeration......Page 308
10.3 Flow without Friction......Page 310
10.4 Superfluid Vortices......Page 314
10.5 Metals......Page 316
10.6 Conduction without Resistance......Page 317
10.7 Conclusion......Page 323
11.1 Seeing the Very Small......Page 325
11.2 Inside the Atomic Nucleus......Page 326
11.3 Quantum Chromodynamics......Page 332
11.4 Conclusion......Page 339
12.1 What Are Weak Forces?......Page 340
12.2 The Looking-Glass World......Page 346
12.3 The Hidden Unity of Weak and Electromagnetic Forces......Page 355
12.4 An Imaginary, Long-Range Electroweak Unification......Page 357
12.5 The Origin of Mass......Page 359
12.6 GUTs......Page 364
12.7 Conclusion......Page 367
13.1 Black Holes......Page 368
13.2 Stars, Dwarves and Pulsars......Page 376
13.3 Unleashing Gravity’s Power: Black Holes at Large......Page 382
13.4 The Crack in Gravity’s Armour......Page 383
13.5 Black Hole Entropy: Gravity and Thermodynamics......Page 387
13.6 Quantum Gravity: The Big Challenge......Page 388
13.7 Something from Nothing......Page 393
13.8 Conclusion......Page 394
14 PARTICLES, SYMMETRIES AND THE UNIVERSE......Page 395
14.1 Cosmology......Page 396
14.2 The Hot Big Bang......Page 404
14.3 The Shape of the Universe in Spacetime......Page 407
14.4 A Simple Recipe for the Universe......Page 411
14.5 Why Is There Any Matter Now?......Page 415
14.6 How Do We Tell the Future from the Past?......Page 418
14.7 Inflation......Page 422
14.8 Conclusion......Page 425
15.1 Hidden Dimensions: Charge as Geometry......Page 426
15.2 Supersymmetry: Marrying Fermions with Bosons......Page 429
15.3 String Theory: Beyond Points......Page 433
15.4 Lumps and Hedgehogs......Page 439
15.5 Gravity Modified – a Radical Proposal......Page 444
APPENDIX A THE INVERSE-SQUARE LAW......Page 447
APPENDIX B VECTORS AND COMPLEX NUMBERS......Page 453
APPENDIX C BROWNIAN MOTION......Page 458
APPENDIX D UNITS......Page 460
GLOSSARY......Page 466
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 493
INDEX......Page 497