The Forces of Nature

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Front Jacket
Title Page
CONTENTS
1. IN LIEU OF AN INTRODUCTION
1. A Word About the Word "Force"
2. Forces in Mechanics
3. Is It Always Possible to Describe an Interaction by Force
4. Tho Unity of the Forces of Nature
2. GRAVITATIONAL FORCES
1. From Anaxagoras to Newton
2. The Law of Universal Gravitation
3. Gravitation in Action
4. Geometry and Gravitation
3. ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES
1. What Forces Are Called Electromagnetic?
2. What Is an Electric Charge?
3. The Interaction of Stationary Electric Charges
4. The Interaction of Moving Electric Charges
5. Close-range Action or Action at a Distance?
6. What Is an Electric Field and a Magnetic Field?
7. Relationships Between Electric and Magnetic Fields
8. Electromagnetic Waves
CHAPTER WITH NO NUMBER ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES IN ACTION
1. How Do Electromagnetic Forces Manifest Themselves?
2. Forces, the Structure of Matter, the Equations of Motion
3. Electromagnetic Forces in Electrically Neutral Bodies
4. Free Charges and Currents in Nature
5. Electromagnetic Waves in Nature
6. Why Electromagnetic Interactions Take Up Most of this book?
7. An Insertion with All the Rights of a Real Chapter
4. NUCLEAR FORCES
1. The Nucleus and Elementary Particles
2. Nuclear Interactions and How They Occur
3. The Transformation of Atomic Nuclei
5. WEAK INTERACTIONS
1. The Disintegration of Elementary Particles and the Neutrino
2. The Charge and the Transformations of Elementary Particles
3. The Neutrino and the Evolution of the Universe
An Early Summary of What We have Learned
6. IN LIEU OF AN APPENDIX
1. What Are the Resonance Particles?
2. Systematics of the Elementary Particles
Back Jacket
Back Cover

Citation preview

ABOUT THE BOOK This book is a popular description of the unity of the forces of nature for the general reader. At present, all interactions between bodies in nature are thought to be ultimately due to the interaction of elementary particles and involve only four types of forces: universal gravitation, or gravitational forces, electromagnetic forces, nuclear forces and the socalled weak interactions. This book describes the principal properties of these four types of force and their “sphere of action”, that is, the part they play in diverse natural processes that range from galaxies to the atomic nucleus and the mutual transformations of elementary particles. It includes the latest achievements of physics and gives a picture of the unresolved problems that confront science today.

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MIR PUBLISHERS

FOK.C ES • NATU RE Translated from the Rus.'liao by

Ccorge Yankonky

MJR PUBLISHERS

• MOSCOW 1971

UDC 530.1 (0.23)

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