MOTION MOUNTAIN

Contents
15 1 Liquid electricity, invisible fields and maximum speed
Fields: amber, lodestone and mobile phones 16 • How can one make lightning? 19
• Electric charge 22 • Electric field strength 24 • Pumping charge 28 • What
is electricity? 28 • Can we detect the inertia of electricity? 28 • Feeling electric
fields 31 • Magnets and other magnetic materials 35 • How do animals feel magnetic
fields? 37 • Magnetism and electricity 40 • How can one make a motor? 41
• Which currents flow inside magnets? 43 • Describing magnetic fields 44 • Electromagnetism
46 • The invariants and the Lagrangian of electromagnetic fields 48
• The uses of electromagnetic effects 49 • How do nerves work? 50 • How motors
prove relativity to be right 52 • Curiosities and fun challenges about things
electric and magnetic 54 • A summary: three basic facts about electricity 73
74 2 The description of electromagnetic field evolution
The first field equation of electrodynamics 74 • The second field equation of electrodynamics
75 • The validity and the essence of Maxwell’s field equations 77 •
Colliding charged particles 78 • The gauge field – the electromagnetic vector potential
79 • Energy and momenta of the electromagnetic field 83 • The Lagrangian
of electromagnetism 84 • The energy–momentum tensor and its symmetries of
motion 85 • What is a mirror? Is nature parity-invariant? 86 • What is the difference
between electric and magnetic fields? 88 • Could electrodynamics be different?
89 • The brain: the toughest challenge for electrodynamics 90 • Challenges
and fun curiosities about electrodynamics 91 • Summary on electromagnetic field
motion 92
94 3 What is light?
What are electromagnetic waves? 95 • Light as a wave 98 • Light and other electromagnetic
waves 102 • Polarization of electromagnetic waves 107 • The range
of electromagnetic radiation 111 • The slowness of progress in physics – and relativity
114 • How does the world look when riding on a light beam? 115 • Can we
touch light? 116 • War, light and lies 120 • What is colour? 121 • Fun with rainbows
126 • What is the speed of light? What is signal speed? 129 • Signals and
predictions 132 • Aether good-bye 132 • Challenges and fun curiosities about
light, polarization and the geometric phase 134 • Summary on light 139
140 4 Images and the eye – optics
Ways to acquire images 140
142 Lightsources
Why can we see each other? Black bodies and the temperature of light 142 • Limits
to the concentration of light 145 • Measuring light intensity 147 • Other light and
radiation sources 148 • Radiation as weapon 150
150 Images–transportinglight
Making images with mirrors 150 • Does light always travel in a straight line? –
Refraction 152 • Bending light with tubes – fibre optics 159 • 200 years too late
– negative refraction indices 160 • Metamaterials 161 • Light around corners –
diffraction 162 • Beating the diffraction limit 164 • Other ways to bend light 165
• Using interference for imaging 167 • How does one make holograms and other
three-dimensional images? 167 • Images through scanning 172 • Tomography 175
177 Theeyeandthebrain:biologicalimageacquisitionandprocessing
Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net