Table of Contents

Preface.- Introduction: The World according to Physics Levels of the structure of mater.- PART 1: Three key-ideas and a short-cut.- The atomic idea.- The wave-particle duality.- Equilibrium and minimization of total energy.- Dimensional analysis: A short-cut to physics relations.- PART 2: This World, this small World, the great.- From quark and gluons to hadrons.- From protons and neutrons to nuclei.- From nuclei and electrons to atoms.- From atoms to molecules.- From atoms and molecules to solids and liquids.- Planets.- Stars, dead or alive.- Cosmology.- Revisiting photons.

Reviews

From the reviews: "This book is the first volume of a newly inaugurated collection (Springer Briefs in Physics) and is the outcome of several lectures delivered along the years by the author to a broad audience. It aims to cover some of the main chapters of modern physics by combining short expositions of the basic ideas and worked examples that apparently require a minimum background knowledge." (Serban Misicu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1243, 2012)