finelybook
From Integers to the Big Bang: The Historical Development of Mathematical Physics
Author(s): Roscoe White (Author)
- Publisher finelybook 出版社: World Scientific Publishing Company
- Publication Date 出版日期: December 28, 2025
- Language 语言: English
- Print length 页数: 220 pages
- ISBN-10: 9819821320
- ISBN-13: 9789819821327
Book Description
This book offers a concise catalogue of the mathematical subjects underpinning modern theoretical physics. It traces the logical progression of ideas from the primitive beginnings of our earliest number systems to the calculation of the transcendental numbers e and π and their uses in complex analysis. What took the human race thousands of years to accomplish is here presented in a coherent, intuitive sequence. Along the way, the book introduces core topics in mathematical physics, including electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, relativity, and nuclear fission and fusion, breakthroughs that have been foundational to the sophisticated scientific landscape in which we find ourselves.
Topics that are often taught in isolation, at scattered intervals, are here woven into a unified narrative that prioritises the logical development of ideas, offering an approach grounded in intuitive reasoning. Whether encountering these subjects for the first time or seeking to consolidate earlier learning, readers will benefit from the book’s unique perspective on the underlying structure of mathematics and physics, and how these disciplines have guided humanity from its early agrarian roots to the intricate, technologically advanced world of today.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Roscoe White, now retired, was a senior researcher and head of the Theory Division at the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he spent 47 years as a theoretical physicist working on controlled thermonuclear fusion for energy production. Raised in Minnesota, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in physics with high honors from the University of Minnesota in 1959. He completed a PhD in physics at Princeton University, before spending a year at the Lebedev Institute in Moscow on the first year of the Academy of Science exchange program. After two years at the Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste and six years teaching at UCLA, he returned to Princeton. Prof. White has authored over 350 articles and two graduate-level textbooks, The Theory of Toroidally Confined Plasmas and Asymptotic Analysis of Differential Equations, both published by World Scientific.
下载地址
PDF | 81 MB | 2026-01-13
