This book is based on a set of 18 class-tested lectures delivered to fourth-year physics undergraduates at Grifi th University in Brisbane, and the book presents new discoveries by the Nobel-prize winning LIGO collaboration. The author begins with a review of special relativity and tensors and then develops the basic elements of general relativity (a beautiful theory that unifies special relativity and gravitation via geometry) with applications to the gravitational deflection of light, global positioning systems, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. The book provides readers with a solid understanding of the underlying physical concepts; an ability to appreciate and in many cases derive important applications of the theory; and a solid grounding for those wishing to pursue their studies further. General Relativity: An Introduction to Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Cosmology also connects general relativity with broader topics. There is no doubt that general relativity is an active and exciting field of physics, and this book successfully transmits that excitement to readers.

This book addresses the analysis of musical sounds from the viewpoint of someone at the intersection between physicists, engineers, piano technicians, and musicians. The study is structured into three parts. The reader is introduced to a variety of waves and a variety of ways of presenting, visualizing, and analyzing them in the first part. A tutorial on the tools used throughout the book accompanies this introduction. The mathematics behind the tools is left to the appendices. Part Two provides a graphical survey of the classical areas of acoustics that pertain to musical instruments: vibrating strings, bars, membranes, and plates. Part Three is devoted almost exclusively to the piano. Several two- and three-dimensional graphical tools are introduced to study various characteristics of pianos: individual notes and interactions among them, the missing fundamental, inharmonicity, tuning visualization, the different distribution of harmonic power for the various zones of the piano keyboard, and potential uses for quality control. These techniques are also briefly applied to other musical instruments studied in earlier parts of the book. For physicists and engineers there are appendices to cover the mathematics lurking beneath the numerous graphs and a brief introduction to Matlab (R) which was used to generate these graphs. A website accompanying the book (https://sites.google.com/site/analysisofsoundsandvibrations/) contains: - Matlab (R) scripts - mp3 files of sounds - references to YouTube videos - and up-to-date results of recent studies

This book provides a comprehensive yet concise presentation of the analysis methods of lightweight engineering in the context of the statics of beam structures and is divided into four sections. Starting from very general remarks on the fundamentals of elasticity theory, the first section also addresses plane problems as well as strength criteria of isotropic materials. The second section is devoted to the analytical treatment of the statics of beam structures, addressing beams under bending, shear and torsion. The third section deals with the work and energy methods in lightweight construction, spanning classical methods and modern computational methods such as the finite element method. Finally, the fourth section addresses more advanced beam models, discussing hybrid structures as well as laminated and sandwich beams, in addition to shear field beams and shear deformable beams. This book is intended for students at technical colleges and universities, as well as for engineers in practice and researchers in engineering.

Instant Physics pulls together all the pivotal physics knowledge and thought into one concise volume. Each page contains a discrete 'cheat sheet', which tells you the most important facts in bite-sized chunks, meaning you can become an expert in an instant. From black holes to black body radiation, telescopes to microscopes, quantum mechanics to general relativity, every key figure, discovery or idea is explained with succinct and lively text and graphics. Perfect for the knowledge hungry and time poor, this collection of graphic-led lessons makes psychology interesting and accessible. Everything you need to know is here.

This book is based on a series of lectures for an Astrophysics of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) master's degree in Astrophysics and Cosmology at Padova University. From the cold molecular phase in which stars and planetary systems form, to the very hot coronal gas that surrounds galaxies and galaxy clusters, the ISM is everywhere. Studying its properties is vital for the exploration of virtually any field in astronomy and cosmology. These notes give the student a coherent and accurate mathematical and physical approach, with continuous references to the real ISM in galaxies. The book is divided into three parts. Part One introduces the equations of fluid dynamics for a system at rest and acoustic waves, and then explores the real ISM through the role of thermal conduction and viscosity, concluding with a discussion of shock waves and turbulence. In Part Two, the electromagnetic field is switched on and its role in modulating shock waves and contrasting gravity is studied. Part Three describes dust and its properties, followed by the main stellar sources of energy. The last two chapters respectively address the various components of the ISM and molecular clouds and star formation.

This book covers different topics of nonlinear mechanics in complex structures, such as the appearance of new nonlinear phenomena and the behavior of finite-dimensional and distributed nonlinear systems, including numerous systems directly connected with important technological problems.

Despite the urgent need for action, there is a widespread lack of understanding of the benefits of using green energy sources for not only reducing carbon emissions and climate change, but also for growing a sustainable economy and society. Future citizens of the world face increasing sustainability issues and need to be better prepared for energy transformation and sustainable future economic development. Cases on Green Energy and Sustainable Development is a critical research book that focuses on the important role renewable energy and energy efficiency play in energy transition and sustainable development and covers economic and promotion policies of major renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as economics, energy storage, and transportation technologies, this book is ideal for environmentalists, academicians, researchers, engineers, policymakers, and students.

'The authors deliver a highly readable text which should assure a continued supply of practitioners of classical mechanics and its applications.'Contemporary PhysicsThis is a book on intermediate classical mechanics. In this book, classical mechanics is presented as a useful tool to analyze the physical universe and also as the base on which the whole pyramid of modern physics has been erected. Various mechanical concepts are developed in a highly logical manner, with relatively thorough treatments on mathematical procedures and many physically interesting applications. Connections to more modern theoretical developments (including statistical physics, relativity, and quantum mechanics) are emphasized.

Composites have been studied for more than 150 years, and interest in their properties has been growing. This classic volume provides the foundations for understanding a broad range of composite properties, including electrical, magnetic, electromagnetic, elastic and viscoelastic, piezoelectric, thermal, fluid flow through porous materials, thermoelectric, pyroelectric, magnetoelectric, and conduction in the presence of a magnetic field (Hall effect). Exact solutions of the PDEs in model geometries provide one avenue of understanding composites; other avenues include microstructure-independent exact relations satisfied by effective moduli, for which the general theory is reviewed; approximation formulae for effective moduli; and series expansions for the fields and effective moduli that are the basis of numerical methods for computing these fields and moduli. The range of properties that composites can exhibit can be explored either through the model geometries or through microstructure-independent bounds on the properties. These bounds are obtained through variational principles, analytic methods, and Hilbert space approaches. Most interesting is when the properties of the composite are unlike those of the constituent materials, and there has been an explosion of interest in such composites, now known as metamaterials. The Theory of Composites surveys these aspects, among others, and complements the new body of literature that has emerged since the book was written. It remains relevant today by providing historical background, a compendium of numerous results, and through elucidating many of the tools still used today in the analysis of composite properties. This book is intended for applied mathematicians, physicists, and electrical and mechanical engineers. It will also be of interest to graduate students.

This book reports on the 13th International Workshop on Railway Noise (IWRN13), held on September 16-20, 2019, in Ghent, Belgium. It gathers original peer-reviewed papers describing the latest developments in railway noise and vibration, as well as state-of-the-art reviews written by authoritative experts in the field. The different papers cover a broad range of railway noise and vibration topics, such as rolling noise, wheel squeal, noise perception, prediction methods, measurements and monitoring, and vehicle interior noise. Further topics include rail roughness, rail corrugation and grinding, high-speed rail and aerodynamic noise, structure-borne noise, ground-borne noise and vibration, and resilient track forms. Policy, criteria and regulation are also discussed. Offering extensive and timely information to both scientists and engineers, this book will help them in their daily efforts to identify, understand and solve problems related to railway noise and vibration, and to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the environmental impact of railway systems.

Externally tunable properties allow for new applications of magnetic hybrid materials containing magnetic micro- and nanoparticles in sensors and actuators in technical and medical applications. By means of easy to generate and control magnetic fields, changes of the internal particle arrangements and the macroscopic properties can be achieved. This monograph delivers the latest insights into multi-scale modelling, experimental characterization, manufacturing and application of those magnetic hybrid materials.

This book is focused on the introduction of the finite difference method based on the classical one-dimensional structural members, i.e., rods/bars and beams. It is the goal to provide a first introduction to the manifold aspects of the finite difference method and to enable the reader to get a methodical understanding of important subject areas in structural mechanics. The reader learns to understand the assumptions and derivations of different structural members. Furthermore, she/he learns to critically evaluate possibilities and limitations of the finite difference method. Additional comprehensive mathematical descriptions, which solely result from advanced illustrations for two- or three-dimensional problems, are omitted. Hence, the mathematical description largely remains simple and clear.