Newton to Einstein: the Trail of Light: An Excursion to the Wave-Particle Duality and the Special Theory of Relativity Book

	Preface	xiii
1	How light behaves	1
1.1	First observations	1
1.2	The speed of light in vacuum	13
1.3	White light and colors	15
1.4	Sidedness	18
1.5	Variations in intensity	20
1.6	The rainbow	23
2	Newton's particle theory	33
2.1	Theory building	33
2.2	The particle theory of refraction	35
2.3	Ramifications	40
2.4	A decisive test	43
2.5	Summary	46
2.6	Newton himself	47
3	A wave theory of light	59
3.1	Waves	59
3.2	Some general properties of waves	60
3.3	Light as a wave?	66
3.4	Refraction quantitatively	70
3.5	Waves in perspective	76
4	Interference	80
4.1	Interference defined	80
4.2	Two-source interference	81
4.3	Interference in light?	84
4.4	Measuring the wavelength of light	87
4.5	Color and wavelength	91
4.6	Thomas Young	93
4.7	The single slit	95
4.8	More interference phenomena	99
5	Electromagnetic waves	106
5.1	The electric field	106
5.2	Franklin's clapper	111
5.3	The magnetic field	112
5.4	The entities	116
5.5	Faraday's law	116
5.6	Electromagnetic waves	118
5.7	The electromagnetic spectrum	122
5.8	"Sidedness" explained and explored	126
5.9	Odds and ends	130
6	The photon	141
6.1	Preview	141
6.2	The photoelectric effect	141
6.3	The Compton effect	148
6.4	Einstein's Nobel Prize	154
6.5	The bare essentials	158
7	The wave-particle duality	161
7.1	Hertz revisited	161
7.2	A connection via probability	162
7.3	A trajectory for a photon?	166
7.4	The wave-particle duality	169
7.5	Understanding light: some further help	171
8	Does the speed of light depend on the motion of the source of light?	176
8.1	Transition	176
8.2	The question answered	176
8.3	A few comments	180
8.4	The contrast	181
9	The principles of the Special Theory of Relativity	183
9.1	The big picture	183
9.2	The two principles	183
9.3	The logic of our development	186
9.4	The constancy of the speed of light	188
9.5	Synchronizing clocks within a single reference frame	191
9.6	The relativity of simultaneity	193
9.7	Albert Einstein	195
10	Time dilation and length contraction	211
10.1	Time dilation	211
10.2	Checking a tacit assumption: perpendicular lengths	215
10.3	An interlude on radioactivity	217
10.4	A test of time dilation	223
10.5	Length contraction	226
10.6	The muons revisited	229
10.7	Compendium	230
11	E=mc[superscript 2]	236
11.1	Energy, mass, and momentum reviewed	236
11.2	A thought experiment for [Delta]E=([Delta]m)c[superscript 2]	238
11.3	Conversions and parallel changes	242
11.4	Mass and speed	245
11.5	From [Delta]E=([Delta]m)c[superscript 2] to E=mc[superscript 2]	246
11.6	Nuclear fission	248
11.7	Processes in nuclear physics	252
11.8	Scales of energy release	256
11.9	Leo Szilard	260
11.10	Retrospection	266
12	The twins	274
12.1	Theory	274
12.2	Experimental test	277
12.3	Reflection	281
13	The Lorentz transformations	285
13.1	Deriving the Lorentz transformations	285
13.2	Combining velocities	291
13.3	Trying to beat the speed of light	293
13.4	The chapter in a nutshell	295
14	Space and time	302
	Glossary	306
Appendix A.	Energy	310
Appendix B.	The dependence of mass on speed	315
Appendix C.	More about E=mc[superscript 2]	319
	Index	326