Hi, I don't mean that the textbook is poorly written, but there are multiple listed textbooks for the class that the professor says are meant to be supplementary, so I'd like to know if there are other textbooks out there on the topic.Vanadium 50 said:What book did they recommend? And what is "not very good" about it?
French's Vibrations and Waves, Pedrotti's Intro to Optics, and Pain's The physics of vibrations and wavesVanadium 50 said:What books did they recommend?
Students aren't expected to have a great thermodynamics background in the coursejasonRF said:I took a class that partially used an earlier edition of Pain's book - it was just okay. One free resource is the book by Georgi, at about the same level as the books you are listing. It looks pretty good to me:
https://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi/new.htm
French's book is well written but doesn't cover all of the material, of course.
For thermodynamics it depends a lot on what the course covers. Did prior courses already cover the thermodynamics chapters in your intro physics textbook? If not, that would be the place to start.
jason
Light and heat are both forms of energy, but they differ in how they are produced and how they affect objects. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that can be seen by the human eye, while heat is a form of thermal energy that is felt as warmth. Light is produced by the vibrations of electrically charged particles, while heat is produced by the movement of atoms and molecules.
Waves transfer energy by oscillating, or moving back and forth, in a medium. This can be a solid, liquid, or gas. As the wave moves, it transfers energy from one particle to the next, causing them to vibrate. The amplitude, or height, of the wave determines the amount of energy being transferred.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. This includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Each type of radiation has a different wavelength and energy level, and they all travel at the speed of light.
Light can interact with matter in several ways. It can be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. When light hits an object, some of it may bounce off (reflection), some may be absorbed and converted into heat (absorption), and some may pass through (transmission). The way light interacts with matter depends on the properties of both the light and the object it is hitting.
The three types of heat transfer are conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is the transfer of heat through direct contact between particles, such as in a metal pan on a stove. Convection is the transfer of heat through the movement of fluids, such as in boiling water. Radiation is the transfer of heat through electromagnetic waves, such as the heat we feel from the sun.