200 Puzzling Physics Problems
With Hints and Solutions

This book contains instructive, challenging and fun physics problems for students at all levels.

P. Gnädig (Author), G. Honyek (Author), K. F. Riley (Author)

9780521774802, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 August 2001

272 pages, 270 b/w illus.
24.5 x 16.1 x 1.3 cm, 0.54 kg

'… a source of inspiration not only to exceptional school students and good undergraduates, but also to academics … buy this book even if you are not under the shadow of a 'general paper' - it is a lot of fun.' Trevor Bacon, The Times Higher Education Supplement

This book will strengthen a student's grasp of the laws of physics by applying them to practical situations, and problems that yield more easily to intuitive insight than brute-force methods and complex mathematics. These intriguing problems, chosen almost exclusively from classical (non-quantum) physics, are posed in accessible non-technical language requiring the student to select the right framework in which to analyse the situation and decide which branches of physics are involved. The level of sophistication needed to tackle most of the two hundred problems is that of the exceptional school student, the good undergraduate, or competent graduate student. The book will be valuable to undergraduates preparing for 'general physics' papers. It is hoped that even some physics professors will find the more difficult questions challenging. By contrast, mathematical demands are minimal, and do not go beyond elementary calculus. This intriguing book of physics problems should prove instructive, challenging and fun.

1. Introduction
2. Problems
3. Hints
4. Solutions.

Subject Areas: Physics [PH]