Rohrlich F. From Paradox to Reality. Our Basic Concepts of the Physical World

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. — x+ 227 p.Come, join me on an adventure of the mind. The going will be a little demanding at times but there will be rich rewards. The new vistas are spectacular. Come with me, I am an experienced guide! I am offering the reader a guided tour to the two new fundamental conceptual structures of twentieth-century physical science: relativity and quantum mechanics. This is not a physics text; nor is it an account of the latest discoveries intended to dazzle the public. It is a basis for discussion of surprising new concepts and of the necessities that led to them.
This book developed from my lecture notes for a one-semester course that I have been offering to undergraduates at Syracuse University for a number of years. The course is entitled 'Concepts in Contemporary Physics'. While I have taught almost every branch of theoretical physics, I find this course to be by far the most demanding. One reason is that the course is intended for non-science majors; a serious interest in the subject matter is the only prerequisite. Consequently, the students have widely varying backgrounds and range from freshmen to seniors. Another reason is the lack of a suitable text. A reading list pulling together bits and pieces from a variety of sources does not replace an integrated text. The present book is expected to fill this need. However, the book is not restricted to use by college students. It is intended to attract a much wider audience: the intellectually interested and more sophisticated of the general public. And I hope it will serve another goal: to correct widespread misrepresentations of science. While there exist many excellent popular presentations of various fields of science, the public has in recent years also been exposed to a large number of books on various pseudo-sciences. Since these range widely from there also resulted a great deal of confusion and concerning the basic physical sciences. The present book, limited in its scope, is expected to help dispel misunderstandings at least two frequently misunderstood topics: relativity and quantum mechanics.