Fundamental principles of modern theoretical physics,

Fundamental principles of modern theoretical physics,

Book Reviews method. Various mechanisms of recombination are taken up and the microwave, optical and mass spectrometric techniques are described. Afte...

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Book Reviews method. Various mechanisms of recombination are taken up and the microwave, optical and mass spectrometric techniques are described. After a beautifully written introduction, the final chapter by Kerwin, Marmet and Carette on high-resolution electron beams is a bit disappoint,ing. Their survey of electrostatic selectors is merely descriptive and not so much &s a single equation on the theory of their operation appears. They do, however, present the construction details of the widely copied 127” electrostatic selector developed by Marmet and Kerwin. Technically, when they say (p. 531) that the first such instrument was developed by Clarke they may be correct since the many earlier 127” instruments were, strictly speaking, analyzers rather than selectors although the construction and theoretical bases are essentiitlly the same. The same technicality rescues their statement (p. 539) that no results of investigations using the cyhndrical mirror device have been reported. Mehlhorn, for example, has been using such an instrument for years but again as a spectrometer. Reading this book might be likened to making a series of visits to the offices and laboratories of the various authors. You come away feeling you have learned something about the work of each one and perhaps also some of his frustrations and his hopes. Although this book contains a wealth of material not readily found elsewhere, one could always quibble about the choice of topics. But since a second volume is forthcoming, one can hope that his favorite subject then gets the thorough treatment these nine have in this volume. M. EUGENE RUDD Behlen Laboratory of Physics University of Nebraska Lincoln. Nebraska

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF MODERN THEORETICALPHYSICS, by R. H. Furth. v.p., diagrams, 6 x 9 in. Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press, 1970. The basic concepts of quantum theory, relativity and statistical mechanics are

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examined. Those who would glance quickly through it and say: “Here is a book which gives many st.andard derivations and has some problems in it” would be only half correct. Indeed, it also contains some excellent interpretations and comments on familiar material. The discussion of stationary states in quantum mechanics is an example. Because of the great variation in sophistication of the topics discussed, the mathematical completeness of the treatments is quite variable. The author communicates most effectively when the mathematics are at a minimum. This reviewer found the section on general relativity illuminating. The approach to problems in this book is good. They follow directly from the text material. Many contain additional points of interest which cannot be overlooked, for solutions are given in an appendix. Also of pedagogical merit is the list of references to appropriate original publications. There are some minor defects which tarnish the image of this book. The M&sbauer effect is mentioned twice, but it is never adequately explained. There are only 32 figures; more would be helpful. A more serious objection is to the literary style of the text. Many sentences are just too long to be effective. This leads to many one-sentence paragraphs. These are somewhat difficult to digest. However, on balance, this book has merit and should be made available to students at all educational institutions to provide good supplementary material in the important areas it discusses. KEITH C. RICHARDS Bartol Research Foundation of The Franklin Institute Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

DISCRETE-DATA CONTROL SYSTEMS, by Benjamin C. Kuo. 399 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall Inc., 1970. Price, $15.00. Professor Kuo has made a further contribution to the growing list of volumes treating “Discrete-data control systems”

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