Collins Advanced Modular Sciences: Particles, Principles and Possibilities

Abstract

This book is one of the series written to support the Northern Modular Science Scheme. The Physics Core book in the same series was reviewed by Jonathan Allday in the June 1996 issue of this journal, and his remarks about layout and overall approach apply equally here. Roughly speaking, the first half of the book relates to module Ph6 Particle Physics in the Northern scheme, and the second half to module Ph9 Turning Points in Physics. The `particle physics' chapters are concerned as much with nuclear physics as with particle physics, reflecting the content of the Northern syllabus. The book begins with a discussion of nuclear models, then goes on to particle acceleration and detection, the Standard Model (including quarks and exchange forces), radioactivity and some of its uses and hazards, and nuclear fission power generation. I was not quite sure, though, why the various `particles' topics were tackled in the order that they are - the whole business of accelerating particles to high energies, for example, is described several pages before any reason is given why anyone should want to do this. The `turning points' chapters cover the electron-as-particle, the nature of electromagnetic radiation (waves and photons), particle diffraction and tunnelling, thermodynamics and superconductivity, and special relativity, covering the fairly self-contained sections within the Northern syllabus so the order is pretty much immaterial. Each chapter of the Physics Core book began with modern applications as a starting point for developing some related physics principles. I was pleased that David Brodie had not forced every chapter of this book into the same mould. Applications are put up front where they provide some extra motivation for studying the physics (food irradiation for example, or nuclear power generation), but the main motivation for studying particle physics at this level must surely be curiosity about the natural world for its own sake, and these chapters are, sensibly, not forced into an applications-led straitjacket. (It is a pity, though, that the chapter on the Standard Model makes much of `crazy California culture', since this promotes an image of particle physics as being, like, far-out man, and suitable mainly for hippies.) In the `turning points' half of this book, applications are more to the fore. Mostly, this is appropriate (electronic devices and CCDs introduce chapters on electrons and the nature of light, for example), though I was less convinced about the foundation of the USA as a vehicle for introducing thermodynamics and low temperature physics (steam trains and refrigerators...). Throughout the book, most of the discussions and explanations are clear and satisfactory, helped by some clear diagrams that seem to have been drawn on purpose rather than merely recycled from elsewhere. I particularly liked the chapter on relativity. Too many authors make this topic seem mysterious and arbitrary, but David Brodie has provided logical treatments of the popular relativistic effects of time dilation and length contraction, illustrated with some well thought-out diagrams. Buy the book for this chapter alone! This book is supposed to be suitable for students following supported self-study programmes, but if it is to be used in this way, I think there would need to be quite a bit of `support' (in the form of talking through ideas, doing practical work, demonstrations and videos and so on) alongside the `self study'. (I have the same reservation about most so-called supported self-study texts, not just this one.) The book is clearly designed primarily for students following the Northern syllabus and using the rest of the books in the same series. There are frequent references, particularly in early chapters, to the Physics Core book, but there are few cross-references between the `particles' and `turning points' halves of the book. This is sensible, given that not all readers will be studying both modules, but it does mean that important links, such as those between relativity and particle physics, are not brought out. However, students of other courses will probably find the book interesting and useful provided they are already familiar with the relevant `core' material and are aware that the content does not precisely match what they need to study.