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PHY 241: Introduction to Modern Physics: Popular Works on Modern Physics
This guide will help you locate popular books and movies about modern physics.
Movies
The libraries provides access to an education-film streaming service called Films on Demand. You can browse movies related to modern physics through the following links and watch them anytime.
Other great DVDs on modern physics can be found at the science library. Some highlighted selections are:
- The Elegant UniverseCall Number: Science Media QC794.6.S85 G75 2003Physicist Brian Greene's bestselling book comes to the small screen in this stimulating look at a complicated topic: the search for order in the universe. Is a revolutionary proposal--"string theory"--the answer scientists have been seeking for centuries? Greene tackles the mind-boggling complexity of the theory with vivid, clear images, and calmly points the way to the answer. 180 minutes on 2 Discs
- Einstein's Big IdeaCall Number: Science Media QC73.8.C6 E56 2005Everyone's heard of it, but what does E=mc2, the world's most famous equation, really mean? And why did it change the world? An accessible, suspenseful epic, Einstein's Big Idea reveals the roots of his astonishing breakthrough in the human stories of men and women whose innovative thinking across four centuries helped lead to E=mc2, and ultimately unleashed the power of the atom. 112 minutes on 1 Disc.
- CopenhagenCall Number: Gen Media PN1997 .C663 2002Copenhagen is about Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, two of the great scientific minds of the 20th Century, trying to make sense of a meeting they had in September 1941, while World War II raged around them. 117 minutes on 1 Disc
- The Fabric of the CosmosCall Number: Science Media QB981 .F33 2011The Fabric of the Cosmos, based on the book by physicist and author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time and the universe. With each step, audiences will discover that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world we'd hardly recognize, a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected. 4 Programs - 240 minutes on 2 Discs
Streaming versions and transcripts are available on the Nova/PBS website.
Popular and Scholarly Works in Physics
The Little Book of String Theory by Call Number: Science QC794.6.S85 G83 2010The Little Book of String Theoryoffers a short, accessible, and entertaining introduction to one of the most talked-about areas of physics today. String theory has been called the "theory of everything." It seeks to describe all the fundamental forces of nature. It encompasses gravity and quantum mechanics in one unifying theory. But it is unproven and fraught with controversy. After reading this book, you'll be able to draw your own conclusions about string theory.
The Grand DesignCall Number: Science QC794.6.G7 H385 2010The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, once the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet--if only to disagree. Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. A succinct, startling, and lavishly illustrated guide to discoveries that are altering our understanding and threatening some of our most cherished belief systems, this is a book that will inform--and provoke--like no other.
Copenhagen by Call Number: General Coll PR6056.R3 C64 2000In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since. In Michael Frayn's play Heisenberg and Bohr meet once again to discuss the intricacies of physics and to ponder the metaphysical--the very essence of human motivation.
RelativityCall Number: Science QC173.55 .E384513 2005Robert Geroch builds on Einstein's work with commentary that addresses the ideas at the heart of the theory, bringing a modern understanding of relativity to the text. He elucidates how special relativity is a reconciliation of the contradictions between the nature of light and the principle of relativity; he expands on Einstein's treatment of the geometry of space-time and the fundamental notion of an "event"; he explains in detail, but without technical language, the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass, a cornerstone of general relativity.
Search the Catalog
Finding books, DVDs, and more from the Furman University Libraries is easier than ever. Just use the search box below to find reference sources, scholarly books, media, and more on your topic.
You can also browse relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings through these pre-searched subject heading links for ebooks, journals, and print books:
Q: Science (General)
- QC: Physics
- QC 1-75: General Physics
- QC 221-246: Acoustics
- QC 350-467: Optics
- QC 501-766: Electricity ALSO Magnetism
- QC 770-798: Nuclear Physics ALSO Particle Physics
- QC 801-809: Geophysics
- QC 851-999: Meteorology ALSO Climatology
- QD: Chemistry