Physics and Measurement 物理与测量第八版.pdf

P U Z Z L E R P U Z Z L E R For thousands of years the spinning Earth provided a natural standard for our measurements of time. However, since 1972 we have added more than 20 “leap seconds” to our clocks to keep them synchronized to the Earth. Why are such adjustments needed? What does it take to be a good standard? (Don Mason/The Stock Market and NASA) c h a p t e r Physics and Measurement C h a p t e r O u t l i n e 1.1 Standards of Length, Mass, and 1.5 Conversion of Units Time 1.6 Estimates and Order-of-Magnitude 1.2 The Building Blocks of Matter Calculations 1.3 Density 1.7 Significant Figures 1.4 Dimensional Analysis 2 ike all other sciences, physics is based on experimental observations and quan- titative measurements. The main objective of physics is to find the limited num- Lber of fundamental laws that govern natural phenomena and to use them to develop theories that can predict the results of future experiments. The funda- mental laws used in developing theories are expressed in the language of mathe- matics, the tool that provides a bridge between theory and experiment. When a discrepancy between theory and experiment arises, new theories must be formulated to remove the discrepancy. Many times a theory is satisfactory only under limited conditions; a more general theory might be satisfactory without such limitations. For example, the laws of motion discovered by Isaac Newton (1642–1727) in the 17th century accurately describe the motion of bodies at nor- mal speeds but do not apply to objects moving at speeds comparable with the speed of light. In contrast, the special theory of relativity developed by Albert Ein- stein (1879–1955) in the early 1900s gives the same results as Newton’s laws at low speeds but also correctly describes motion at speeds approaching the speed of light. Hence, Einstein’s is a more general theory of motion. Classical physics, which means all of the physics developed before 1900, in- cludes the theories, concepts, laws, and expe