Fly by Night Physics: How Physicists Use the Backs of Envelopes

Product Description

The essential primer for physics students who want to build their physical intuitionPresented in A. Zee’s incomparably engaging style, this book introduces physics students to the practice of using physical reasoning and judicious guesses to get at the crux of a problem. An essential primer for advanced undergraduates and beyond, Fly by Night Physics reveals the simple and effective techniques that researchers use to think through a problem to its solution―or failing that, to smartly guess the answer―before starting any calculations.In typical physics classrooms, students seek to master an enormous toolbox of mathematical methods, which are necessary to do the precise calculations used in physics. Consequently, students often develop the unfortunate impression that physics consists of well-defined problems that can be solved with tightly reasoned and logical steps. Idealized textbook exercises and homework problems reinforce this erroneous impression. As a result, even the best students can find themselves completely unprepared for the challenges of doing actual research.In reality, physics is replete with back of the envelope estimates, order of magnitude guesses, and fly by night leaps of logic. Including exciting problems related to cutting-edge topics in physics, from Hawking radiation to gravity waves, this indispensable book will help students more deeply understand the equations they have learned and develop the confidence to start flying by night to arrive at the answers they seek. For instructors, a solutions manual is available upon request.

Review

“This profound, subversive, and inspiring book teaches a style of thinking and problem-solving that leads to the kind of intuition that is often sorely missing in the traditional path through the physics curriculum. Those who know Zee’s other creative and insightful works will be delighted to find that, simply put, Zee has done it again.”
―Rob Phillips, California Institute of Technology

“From the self-deprecating wit that sparkles on almost every page, to the breadth of topics, to the polished avoidance of rigor mortis, this book will bring you joy. Every physicist and advanced student of physics will find seams of gold here.”
―Sanjoy Mahajan, author of Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving

“A terrifically witty and well-written book that belongs on every physicist’s shelf. A course based on fly by night physics should be offered in the curriculum of every physics department, and this book is an excellent textbook for such a course.”
―Grzegorz M. Madejski, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University

“The book is stated to be intended for advanced undergraduates, but an audience just as appropriate would be physics instructors―anyone teaching electromagnetism, quantum and statistical mechanics, or particle physics who wants to convey the power and joy of exercising one’s physical intuition.”
―Eugene Chiang, University of California, Berkeley

”
Fly by Night Physics is a delightful romp through a remarkable range of fascinating physics topics, using straightforward tools and intuition to understand problems without deriving or relying on complicated equations.”
―Lawrence Weinstein, author of Guesstimation 2.0: Solving Today’s Problems on the Back of a Napkin

”
Fly by Night Physics contains a lot of wisdom, and lots of examples.”
―Francis Nimmo, University of California, Santa Cruz

About the Author

A. Zee is professor of physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His many books include
On Gravity,
Group Theory in a Nutshell for Physicists,
Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell,
Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, and
Fearful Symmetry (all Princeton).