Campus News

Book makes modern physics accessible

Atoms and Photons and Quanta, Oh My! Ask the Physicist About Atomic, Nuclear, and Quantum Physics
By F. Todd Baker
IOP Concise Physics
Paperback: $20 Ebook: $16

Atoms, Photons and Quanta, Oh My! is the second book in the Ask the Physicist series by F. Todd Baker, UGA professor emeritus of nuclear physics. The main emphasis of this volume is providing an accessible introduction to “modern physics,” including quantum physics, atomic physics and nuclear physics to anyone with at least high-school physics knowledge.

The book is based on the author’s website, http://www.askthephysicist.com, which is aimed at general readers who are curious about how physics explains the workings of the world. The answers emphasize concepts over formalism, and the mathematics is kept to a minimum.

The book begins with an introduction to the nature of light to provide a foundation to understand quanta, photons and atoms.