Waubonsee Community College

At the root of things, the subatomic world, Palash B. Pal ; translated from Bengali by Sushan Konar

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-187) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

At the root of things

bibliography

890434061

Palash B. Pal ; translated from Bengali by Sushan Konar

the subatomic world

"At the Root of Things: The Subatomic World is a journey into the world of elementary particles--the basic constituents of all matter in the universe--and the nature of the interactions among them. The book begins with a summary of pre-quantum physics and later tackles quantum physics, which is essential for the study of elementary particles. The book discusses the emergence of quantum theory from studies in heat radiation and the photoelectric effect as well as developments that led to the concept of duality between particles and waves. Also discussed is how quantum theory helped to better understand the structure of atoms and the discovery of particles that were not constituents of atoms, such as the positron and the muon. Dozens of particles that were discovered experimentally in the 1950s and the 1960s are described along with fundamental particles--quarks and leptons. The book concludes with a discussion on fundamental interactions, the basic nature of quantum theories surrounding these interactions, and a discussion of how these interactions might be unified."--Back cover

1. Conservation laws -- Preamble -- Conservation of momentum -- Conservation of angular momentum -- Conservation electric charge -- The beginning of chemistry -- Conservation of energy -- The danger -- The synthesis -- Relativity -- Noether's theorem -- 2. Waves and particles -- From Democritus to Dalton -- Newton, Huygens -- Young, Fresnel -- Maxwell -- Hertz, Lenard -- Planck -- Einstein -- Bose, Bohr -- De Broglie -- Jekyll, Hyde -- 3. Insider's story of the atomland -- Dalton -- Mendeleev -- Thomson -- Rutherford -- Mosley -- Bohr -- Heisenberg -- Schrödinger -- Pauli -- In short -- 4. Smaller than the atom -- Preamble -- Dirac -- Pauli -- Yukawa -- Rabi's question -- Lawrence's legacy -- Gell-Mann, Zweig -- Feynman -- Richter, Ting, Lederman -- An elementary consideration -- 5. Destination unification -- Behind the apparent -- Beyond the apparent -- Give and take -- the symmetries -- Old wine in a new bottle -- The "colors" -- The pictorial description -- Subtle is the Lord -- The unifying hand -- Untied knots, unexplored horizons