Doing Physics

The author of Doing Mathematics explores the concepts of physics by demonstrating how physicists think and approach their work.

Doing Physics makes concepts of physics easier to grasp by relating them to everyday knowledge. Addressing some of the models and metaphors that physicists use to explain the physical world, Martin H. Krieger describes the conceptual world of physics by means of analogies to economics, anthropology, theater, carpentry, mechanical systems, and machine tool design.

Krieger explains the interaction of elementary particles by referring to the theory of kinship: who can marry whom is similar to what can interact with what. Likewise, the description of physical situations in terms of interdependent particles and fields is analogous to the design of a factory with its division of labor among specialists. For this new edition, Krieger has revised the text and added a chapter on the role of mathematics and formal models in physics.

“Krieger . . . excellently tells those in our human society outside the physics world how physicists think, plan, and go about understanding nature.” —Choice