Vibrations and Waves in Physics / Edition 1

by Iain G. Main

Overview

This book is designed as a text for an undergraduate course on vibrations and waves. The overall objectives of the book are to lead the student through the basic physical concepts of vibrations and waves and to demonstrate how these concepts unify a wide variety of familiar physics. This new edition contains an elementary, descriptive introduction to the important ideas of chaos. The author has also taken pains to update the applications. As with previous editions, the book contains numerous problems with hints and numerical solutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521447010
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/30/1993
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	380
Sales rank:	1,167,829
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

1. Free vibrations; 2. Free vibrations in physics; 3. Damping; 4. Damping in physics; 5. Forced vibrations; 6. Forced vibrations in physics; 7. Anharmonic vibrations; 8. Two-coordinate vibrations; 9. Non-dispersive waves; 10. Non-dispersive waves in physics; 11. Fourier theory; 12. Dispersion; 13. Water waves; 14. Electromagnetic waves; 15. De Broglie waves; 16. Solitary waves; 17. Plane waves at boundaries; 18. Diffraction; Answers to problems, and hints for solution; Constants and units; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...an excellent book which can be thoroughly recommended either for use as a text for an undergraduate course introducing the student to many of the widely-pervading notions connected with vibrations and waves, or indeed for anyone who feels the need to broaden his knowledge in this sphere." Nature

"This second edition is undeniably even better and should become a standard text for waves courses in many disciplines, in addition to its original home in a physics department." Physics Education

"...A masterful accomplishment." American Journal of Physics

"...[has] gone beyond the diet of springs and strings that dominates the traditional, unimaginative waves-and-oscillations course....[brings] in plenty of real-world applications such as transmission of electromagnetic waves, and lead[s] the reader to quantum theory in a mainly painless introduction." Tania Monteiro, New Scientist

From the Publisher