Great Ideas in Physics

Described by one reviewer as a future literary rival to Sagan and Hawkins, Alan Lightman has written a text for liberal arts students that promises to have a far reaching effect on the way the course is taught. The book is intended for the freshman-/sophomore- level course at liberal arts schools. Lightman presents four ideas of physics: The Conservation of Energy, The Second Law of Thermodynamics, The Relativity of Time, and the Wave-Particle Duality of Nature (Quantum Theory). The two basic aims of this book are to provide a grasp of the nature of science and to explore the connections between science and the humanities.