CHAPTERS AND PARTS

These are the summaries of the chapters found in the six part files and the links to download them. If you can, it is best to download the full book as a single file from the download page, because there are many clickable cross-links between the parts that work only in the single-file version.
 

FIRST PART - FALL, FLOW AND HEAT (c. 370 pages, 27 MB) Table of contents, preface and appetizer. Chapter I (sections 1-2): Galilean physics, including the description of all motions of the floor, the seas and the Earth, the relation between conservation and the lack of surprises, curiosities about falling and travelling, and numerous puzzles from everyday life. (Sections 3-4): Global descriptions of motion, including the importance of measuring change with action and the power of symmetries. What noise, the lack of giants and temperature tell us about atoms, why entropy is useful but limited, and many puzzles. Excursion A: 3000 years of mathematical notation.

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SECOND PART - RELATIVITY (c. 270 pages, 12 MB) Chapter II (section 5): Special relativity with all its fun and paradoxes, the experimental data, relativistic photographs and movies, and Einstein's predecessor Olinto de Pretto. Chapter III (section 6): Maximum force: a simple principle encompassing general relativity. The theory of special relativity is based on the existence of a maximum speed in nature, and all its results can be deduced from this principle. In a similar way, general relativity, including the cosmological constant, can be based on the existence of a maximum force (or power) in nature. Its value is given by c^4/4G. This approach makes general relativity accessible to secondary-school students. The conditions for the validity of the limit are specified. It is shown that it is impossible to exceed the limit in nature. It is further shown that the maximum force is reached only on horizons. This connection allows us to deduce all of general relativity from the force (or power) limit value and suggests new tests of the theory. (Sections 7-12): Gravitation and general relativity: motion of the vacuum, maximum force and maximum power, curvature of space-time, gravitational waves, black holes, the history of the universe and the reasons that we can see the stars.

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THIRD PART - LIGHT, CHARGES AND BRAINS (c. 295 pages, 13 MB) Chapter IV (sections 13-17): Classical electrodynamics, including liquid electricity, light, levitation and puzzles. Includes a summary of classical physics and the future of planet Earth. Chapter V (sections 18-20): The brain and language: Why and how humans can talk about nature, including information on memory, lies, sets, surreal numbers and infinity. Includes the linguistic proof that every person is born a physicist and explores the fun of talking with precision, in particular on creation, on the existence of the universe and on apes' views of the anthropic principle. Excursions B, C and D: Numbers and spaces: quizzes, fun and information on quaternions, other number systems, algebras, Lie groups and topology. Information sources and websites on motion. Measurements, units and constants from the French Revolution to the drive for more digits. The various units used in the physical sciences, the official and the unofficial SI prefixes (xenno, weko, vendeko, udeko, Xenta, Wekta, Vendekta, Udekta), and all physical constants necessary for mountain ascents.

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FOURTH PART - QUANTUM THEORY: THE SMALLEST CHANGE (c. 140 pages, 5 MB) Chapter VI (sections 21-24): Quanta of light and matter. The essence of the quantum world. How to understand quantum theory as a result of the smallest action in nature. Chapter VII (sections 25-26): Permutation of particles: what they have in common with gloves, cups and belts. Chapter VIII (section 27): Understanding quantum mechanics: superposition and probabilities - quantum theory without ideology.

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FIFTH PART - PLEASURE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE STARS (c. 230 pages, 11 MB) Chapter IX (sections 28-30) Applications of quantum theory to biology, pleasure increase and material science: how the senses work and how we can look through mountains. An introduction to quantum electrodynamics and the quantum theory of gravity, and an explanation of the relation between ships and vacuum energy, between gravity and temperature, as well as a proposal for the ultimate physics exam. Chapter X (sections 31-36) Inside the nucleus: why surgeons like it, how it interacts, why stars shine and why nuclear reactors are so expensive. Chapter XI: Quantum physics in a nutshell, including all the open questions of modern physics on one page, a discussion of the anthropic principle and everything that apes and humans have in common. Chapter XII: Bacteria, flies, knots and clouds: what they tell about motion. Excursion E: Tables of elementary particles, mesons, baryons and many of their composites, including the periodic table of the elements and a table of the elements' use, history and properties.

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SIXTH PART - MOTION WITHOUT MOTION - What Are Space, Time and Particles? (c. 215 pages, 7 MB) Chapter XIII (section 37) General relativity versus quantum mechanics: Does vacuum differ from matter? No! A discussion of the implications at Planck scales of combining quantum theory and general relativity, with experimental predictions. (Section 38) Nature at large scales: Is the universe something or nothing? General points about the answer, information about duality, and a solution to Hilbert's sixth problem. (Section 39) The physics of love - a summary of the first two and a half parts. (Section 40) Physics in limit statements - how to summarize most of modern physics in a handful of statements and explain quantum theory and general relativity to secondary-school students. The statements imply a bound for every physical observable, from acceleration to size; the precise limit values differ from the usual Planck values by a numerical factor. A minimum length implies that measurement precision is limited and that the non-continuity of space-time is an inevitable result of the unification of quantum theory and relativity. A minimum length also implies the non-existence of point particles, the impossibility of describing nature as a set, and the solution of Hilbert's sixth problem. Then, lower and upper limits for all physical quantities in nature are deduced - extending the entropy bound of Bekenstein to all other observables. Among others, the lowest power, the lowest force, the highest acceleration and the highest angular momentum are presented. We also deduce criteria for the correct unified description of nature. (Section 41) The shape of points: arguing that space is not made of points and that elementary particles are not point-like. First hints for an improved description of matter and space-time. Chapter XIV (not yet available) Unification: extension, strings and more. Chapter XV (not yet available) The top of Motion Mountain Postface Name Index and Subject Index - fully clickable only in the full-book pdf file available from the download page.

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