Instant Physics

For all of you who break out in a sweat at the thought of thermodynamics, or freeze up at the mention of quantum mechanics, like a bolt from the blue, INSTANT PHYSICS will zap you through the fascinating history of our most basic, yet baffling, science. From the thousand-year search for proof of the existence of the ever-elusive atom to the varied and heated arguments behind the big bang theory, INSTANT PHYSICS answers all the heavy questions with a light touch. You'll learn:* How the Greek philosophers used the sledgehammer of mathematics to break apart the mysteries of the physical universe.* Why gravity is a "romantic" force.* How to tell the difference between a gluon, a meson, and a quark, even if you can't see them.INSTANT PHYSICS is crammed with special features, including chapter summaries, who's who lists, biographical and historical tidbits, and a host of illustrations, photos, equations, diagrams, and drawings.

Tony Rothman is a physicist and writer. He received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College in 1975, and a Ph.D. from the Center for Relativity at the University of Texas, Austin in 1981. After leaving Texas, he did post-doctoral work at Oxford, Moscow and Cape Town. Rothman’s scientific research has been in cosmology, the study of the early universe, and he has authored approximately sixty scientific papers on that subject. He has taught physics at Princeton, Harvard and elsewhere.

Apart from his scientific work, Rothman is the author of eleven books, both fiction and nonfiction. The most recent is Firebird, a scientific suspense novel concerning a race for nuclear fusion (Wildside Press, 2015). He has also authored seven plays, contributes to a number of national magazines, including Scientific American and Discover, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.