文档介绍：i
APPLICATIONS OF
CLASSICAL PHYSICS
Roger D. Blandford and Kip S. Thorne
version , January 28, 2013
Preface
Please ments, suggestions, and errata via email to ******@, or on paper to
Kip Thorne, 350-17 Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125
This book is an introduction to the fundamentals and 21st-century applications of all the
major branches of classical physics except classical mechanics, ic theory, and
elementary thermodynamics (which we assume the reader has already learned elsewhere).
Classical physics and this book deal with physical phenomena on macroscopic scales:
scales where the particulate natures of matter and radiation are secondary to the behavior
of particles in bulk; scales where particles’ statistical as opposed to individual properties are
important, and where matter’s inherent graininess can be smoothed over. In this book, we
shall take a journey through spacetime and phase space, through statistical and continuum
mechanics (including solids, fluids, and plasmas), and through optics and relativity, both
special and general. In our journey, we shall seek prehend the fundamental laws
of classical physics in their own terms, and also in relation to quantum physics. Using
carefully chosen examples, we shall show how the classical laws are applied to important,
contemporary, 21st-century problems and to everyday phenomena, and we shall uncover
some deep connections among the various fundamental laws, and connections among the
practical techniques that are used in different subfields of physics.
Many of the most important recent developments in physics—and more generally in
science and engineering—involve classical subjects such as optics, fluids, plasmas, random
processes, and curved spacetime. Unfortunately, many physicists today have little under-
standing of these subjects and their applications. Our goal, in writing this book, is to rectify
that. More specifically:
• We believe that every masters-level or Ph