Understanding Physics Today

by W. H. Watson

Overview

Within this 1963 text, Professor Watson writes as a physicist seeking to understand how it is that physics goes on at an ever increasing pace to reveal new structure in the world, matching the achievements in chemistry, biology and applied science, but exposing us to philosophical confusion about our pictures of microphysical phenomena and how we speak of them. Watson's basic quest was for an intuitive grasp of atomic existence. He discusses atomicity in relation to the physics of his day, showing how to disengage our thinking from habits associated with continuity, in order to put our philosophical difficulties behind us. Nearly half a century after the work's original publication, this paperback edition of Understanding Physics Today will provide readers with fresh opportunities to engage with this historically valuable text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521181266
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2011
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

1. Philosophising about physics; 2. Imagining what is going on; 3. Our metaphysical dependence on language; 4. The interferometer and the counter; 5. Motion; 6. Atomic existence; 7. The continuum and the lattice; 8. Interference and atomic connexion; 9. The new aether; 10. Accounting operators; 9. Mathematical invention and physical reality; 12. A view of atomicity; Index.