Though they deal with subtle concepts, the discussions use little mathematics, and anyone with a little college physics will be able to read the book with pleasure.Silverman's researches deal with in quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, electromagnetism and optics, gravity, thermodynamics, and the physics of fluids, and these essays address .such questions as: How does one know that atomic electrons move? Would an "anti-atom" fall upward? How is it possible for randomly emitted particles to arrive at a detector preferentially in pairs? Can one influence electrons in London by not watching them in New York? Can a particle be influenced by a magnetic field through which it does not pass? A basketball is not changed by turning it once around its axis, but what about an electron? Can more light reflect from a surface than is incident upon it? "A Universe of Atoms" is the second edition of Silverman's "And Yet It Moves"; each essay in the earlier collection has been revised and updated, and some new essays on the uncommon physics of common objects have been added

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction: The Fire Within 1
Ch. 1 The Wirbelrohr's Roar 7
Ch. 2 Musical Bottles, Flying Balloons, and Hot Stoves: The Uncommon Physics of Common Things 30
Ch. 3 The Unimaginably Strange Behavior of Free Electrons 63
Ch. 4 Quantum Beats and Giant Atoms 127
Ch. 5 And Yet It Moves: Exotic Atoms and the Invariance of Charge 181
Ch. 6 Reflections on Light 203
Ch. 7 Two Worlds, Large and Small: Earth and Atom 245
Ch. 8 Computers, Coins, and Quanta: Unexpected Outcomes of Random Events 279
Ch. 9 A Universe of Atoms: Symmetry, Unity, Gravity, and the Problem of "Missing Mass" 325
Ch. 10 Science and Wonder 386
Selected Papers by the Author 396
About the Author 409
Index 411