Physics For The Technician | L. Zhdanov

This physics course is intended for students of technical junior colleges and gives an adequate coverage of physics at the high-school level. The aim is to provide a survey of those basics that are essential for the specialized courses that a future technician takes at college. The Soviet pro­ gramme in physics for technical colleges does not include mechanics because this section of physics is studied in secondary school. But since there are many courses in me­chanics, brief and extended, the teacher can always select a book that is best suited for his or her purposes. One book that we find especially useful is Theoretical Mechanics by E. M. Nikitin (Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1980).

The physics course that follows starts with a brief intro­ duction about physical quantities and their measurement, the International System of Units, and the approximations that any scientist makes when measuring or calculating a quantity. It then goes on to the subject of heat and molec­ ular physics. The other parts deal with electricity and magnetism, oscillations and waves, optics and special rel­ ativity, and nuclear physics and, finally, there is a brief survey of astronomical facts. The International System of Units is used throughout the book. However, since other systems of units are used in physics, the author has found it expedient to provide basic information about these, espe­ cially in electricity (Sections 16-9 and 16-10). To this end the book includes an appendix whose first section is devoted to the base and derived units of the SI system.

The author, Leonid Zhdanov, wrote all the parts of the book except Part 6, which was written by Evghenii Traut. The author’s son, Grigorii Zhdanov, participated in the pre­ paration of the book for press.