THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER.

ByProfs. Robert W. Christy and AgnarPytte. New York: W. A. Benjamin, Inc.,1965. 545 pp. $10.75.

This book was written as the text for a two-semester course in contemporary physics that has been developed at Dartmouth over the past ten years. The course follows a standard general physics course and is required of all physics and engineering science majors in the sophomore year. Many chemistry and some mathematics and geology majors take it in their sophomore, junior, or senior year. A good grounding in calculus is assumed.

The organizing principle of the book is the structure of matter; the aim is to understand the observable properties of matter in terms of the interactions of its microscopic constituents. The authors say in their preface, "We feel that it is extremely important to introduce students to contemporary microscopic physics as early in the curriculum as this can be done without limiting the introduction to a purely descriptive approach. Contact with areas of current research interest is essential for the appreciation of physics as a vital and creative intellectual activity. For prospective physics students, this contact should, if possible, precede the final choosing of their major field of study. For many engineering and chemistry students this course is their last course in physics; for them it gives a rigorous foundation for material which will underlie much of their future work. To both groups we hope to convey what makes physics exciting for contemporary physicists."

Part I of the book is a review of classical mechanics, including a chapter on special relativity. Part II deals with those properties of gases and solids that involve interactions of entire atoms and that can be understood on the basis of classical physics. The principles of quantum mechanics are introduced in Part III and subatomic phenomena are treated in Parts IV and V.

The long experience of the authors in developing and teaching the course is evident throughout. The style is informal but there is no attempt to "talk down" to the reader. A valuable feature is the short introduction at the beginning of each chapter describing in general terms what is to be discussed and how the material is correlated with the aims of the course and with historical development of the subject. Each chapter in- cludes an ample number of non-trivial problems in many of which the necessary numerical data have been intentionally omitted so that the student is forced to look up the data in other references and thus acquire some experience in the techniques of information retrieval.

In the opinion of the reviewer this book is a valuable addition to the currently available introductory texts in modern physics. It is to be hoped that in future editions dangling participles will be eliminated and equations properly punctuated.

Apple ton Professor of NaturalPhilosophy Emeritus