Overview

The volume introduces electric and magnetic fields, Maxwell's description of their motion, shows how animals, from sharks to people, make use of them in their senses and brains, and explains modern optical technologies. The working of the eye, the infrared pits of snakes, the many types of rainbows, the various types of mirages, the working of a needle compass, the appearance of lightning, the working of computers and mobile phones, and the making of X-ray images are all shown to be effects of electricity and magnetism. The meaning of Maxwell's equations is made as clear as possible, with as little math as possible. The types of lights and the electromagnetic effects in matter are also presented. This is the third volume (386 pages, of December 2013) of the Motion Mountain physics text: it introduces electricity, magnetism, optics and the human brain. It is explained how nature builds brains and what people can do with them. How do we form physical concepts? What can we observe? How much of the future can we predict? How can one use electrodynamics to find out the number you are thinking of? To make every page surprising and fascinating, the volume also describes the numerous optical fibers in your eyes, explains the three international light bulb scams of the past 20 years, introduces the tricky sides of three-dimensional interferometers, explores the Poynting vector field for a cable and a transformer, tells the story of the biggest disappointment of the television industry in the twentieth century, describes how yellow light improves tomato sales and pink light reduces crime, explains why wearing sunglasses can transform humans into apes, it gives details about the solar spectrum, it presents the 'floating bed' puzzle, it explains how to measure the power of the Sun with closed eyes, shows how the human eye can invent colours that are not there, presents the many types of rainbows, shows an electric effect observed on many playgrounds, tells how to build the simplest possible radio control system, explains how to observe the polarization of light with the unaided human eye in the same way as honey bees do, poses the polarized car headlight problem, and much more. Enjoy the reading!

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9781494419448

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Christoph Schiller, PhD Universite Libre de Bruxelles, is a physicist with more than 25 years of experience in the presentation of physics, the science of motion. His six volumes on physics, written for readers between 16 and 106 years of age, are captivating and thought-provoking on every page.

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