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The matter of everything : twelve experiments that changed our world / Suzie Sheehy.

Van Pelt Library QC7 .S48 2022
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Sheehy, Suzie, author.
Contributor:
Rosengarten Family Fund.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Physics--Experiments--History--20th century--Case studies.
Physics.
Physics--Experiments.
Genre:
Case studies.
History.
Physical Description:
313 pages ; 23 cm
Place of Publication:
London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.
Summary:
The Matter of Everything, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged the ground-breaking experiments of the twentieth century that changed the course of history. From the serendipitous discovery of X-rays in a German laboratory, to the scientists trying to prove Einstein wrong (and inadvertently proving him right), to the race to split open the atom, Sheehy shows how our most brilliant, practical physicists have shaped innumerable aspects of how we live today. Radio, TV, the chips in our smartphones, MRI scanners, radar equipment and microwaves, to name a few: these were all made possible by their determination to understand, and control, the microscopic.
Contents:
Part 1. Dismantling classical physics
Cathode ray tube: X-rays and the electron
The gold foil experiment: the structure of the atom
The photoelectric effect: the light quantum
Part 2. Matter beyond atoms
Cloud chambers: cosmic rays and a shower of new particles
The first particle accelerators: splitting the atom
Cyclotron: artificial production of radioactivity
Synchrotron radiation: an unexpected light emerges
Part 3. The standard model and beyond
Particle physics goes large: the strange resonances
Mega-detectors: finding the elusive neutrino
Linear accelerators: the discovery of quarks
The tevatron: a third generation of matter
The Large Hadron Collider: the Higgs Boson and beyond
Future experiments.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Local Notes:
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.
Other Format:
ebook version :
ISBN:
9781526618955
1526618958
9781526618962
1526618966
OCLC:
1303074917

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