Physics Parts I & II

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Physics is available in a single volume or in two separate parts; Part I includes mechanics, sound and heat, and Part II includes electromagne-tism, optics and quantum physics. The first edition was published in 1960 (Physics for Students of Science and Engineering) and the second in 1966 (Physics).

The text is intended for students studying calculus concurrently, such as students of science and engineering. The emphasis is on build-ing a strong foundation in the principles of classical physics and on solving problems. Attention is given, however, to practical application, to the most modern theories, and to historical and philosophic issues throughout the book. This is accomplished by inclusion of special sec-tions and thought questions, and by the entire manner of presentation of the material. There is a large set of worked-out examples, interspersed throughout the book, and an extensive collection of problems at the end of each chapter. Much care has been given to pedagogic devices that have proved effective for learning.

It has been eleven years since the publication of the second edition of Physics. During that time the book has continued to be well received throughout the world. We have had abundant correspondence with users over those years and concluded that a new edition is now appropriate.

In accordance with the increasing use of metric units in the United States and their general use throughout the world, we have greatly in-creased the emphasis on the metric system, using the Systeme Inter-nationale (SI) units and nomenclature throughout. Where it seems to be sensible, in this transition period for the United States, we retain some features of the British Engineering system. To help the student making the transition to the SI to get a physical feeling for its units, we have stressed equivalencies between the two systems, especially in problems and worked-out examples, by frequently presenting the same data in both systems.

The entire book was carefully reviewed for pedagogic improvement, based chiefly on the experience of users and on the most recent scien-tific literature. As a result, we have rewritten selected areas significantly for improvements in presentation, accuracy, or physics. We have in-cluded new worked-out examples for topics or areas needing them. We have modernized all references, added new ones, and have improved many figures for greater clarity. The tables and the appendices have been expanded and updated to give newer data and more information than before. And we have added a supplementary topic on special rela-tivity.

Major improvements have been made in the questions and problems. Overall in Part I there has been a net increase over the second edition of 35% in their number, with 430 out of the total of 1567 being new. The set of questions, now numbering 611 compared with 413 before, covers a wider range of ideas, puts somewhat more stress on current and ap-plied topics, and contains a large increase in up-to-date useful references to the popular scientific literature. We encourage students and teachers to make use of them. As with the questions, most of the previous prob-lems have been retained, though some have been revised for greater clarity. But 225 new tested problems have been added to Part I to im-prove the coverage of the material and the spread of level for the student and to give the teacher a fresher choice.

To assist students and teachers in organizing and evaluating this large number of problems, 956 now compared with 746 before, we have done several things. First, we have grouped problems within each chapter by section number; namely the first section needed to be covered in order to be able to work out the problem. Then, within each set of section problems, we have arranged the problems in the approximate order of in-creasing difficulty. Naturally, neither the assignment by section nor by difficulty is absolute, given different ways of solving some problems and different pedagogic values and tastes. Finally, we have coded the illus-trations to the problems and have put the answers to the odd-numbered problems right at the end of these problems rather than at the end of the book.

Lastly, we have restyled the physical layout of the book to give it a less crowded appearance than formerly, making it easier now for the student to read the material, to make notations and to differentiate be-tween the various components of each chapter (text, figures, examples, tables, quotes, references, questions, problems, and so forth).

We are grateful to John Wiley and Sons and to Donald Deneck, phy-sics editor, for outstanding cooperation. We acknowledge the valuable assistance of Dr. Edward Derringh with the problem sets and of Mrs. Carolyn Clemente with the wide range of secretarial services required.

We hope that this third edition of Physics will contribute to the im-provement of physics education.