Six lectures and examples of an exhibit presented to the Fellows of the Henry Koerner Center for Emeritus Faculty at Yale University by Professor Frank Firk are reproduced here. The lectures were given to colleagues who were experts in fields often far removed from Physics and Mathematics; they are therefore suitable for non-specialist, inquisitive readers. The following topics are covered: 1. Understanding Einstein 2. Nuclear Power and Related Issues 3. The Mysterious Primes 4. New Dimensions - a Tribute to Benoit Mandelbrot 5. Perspective and Beyond 6. E = mc2: a neo-Newtonian Approach 7. Some Examples of Drawings and Paintings from an Exhibition.

Throughout the decade of the 1990's, Professor Firk taught a one-year course of a specialized nature to students who entered Yale College with excellent preparation in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, and who expressed an interest in Physics or a closely related field. The students were required to take the highest level of introductory Mathematics in parallel with the course. The book covers topics taught in the first semester; they include: 1. MATHEMATICAL PRELIMINARIES 2. KINEMATICS: THE GEOMETRY OF MOTION 3. CLASSICAL AND SPECIAL RELATIVITY 4. NEWTONIAN DYNAMICS 5. INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES AND CONSERVATION LAWS 6. EINSTEINIAN DYNAMICS

This book has its origin in a one-year course for non-science majors that Professor Firk taught at Yale throughout the decade of the 1970's. It is intended for the inquisitive reader who wishes to gain an understanding of the immortal work of Einstein, the greatest scientist since Newton. Special Relativity deals with measurements of space, time and motion in inertial (non-accelerating) frames of reference. A popular account of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, a theory of space, time, and motion in the presence of gravity, is given. The contents include: 1. Understanding the physical universe 2. Describing everyday motion; relative motion, Newton's Principle of Relativity, problems with light, 3. Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity simultaneity and synchronizing clocks, length contraction and time dilation, examples of Einstein's world, 4. Newtonian and Einsteinian mass 5. Equivalence of energy and mass, E = mc2 6. Principle of Equivalence 7. Einsteinian gravity; gravity and the bending of light, gravity and the flow of time, and red shifts, blue shifts, and black holes.

Group Theory, with its emphasis on Lie Groups and their application to the study of symmetries of the fundamental constituents of matter is introduced at a level suitable for Seniors and advanced Juniors majoring in the Physical Sciences. The book has its origin in a one-semester course that Professor Firk taught at Yale University for more than ten years. It is not generally appreciated by Physicists that continuous transformation groups (Lie Groups) originated in the Theory of Differential Equations. The infinitesimal generators of Lie Groups therefore have forms that involve differential operators and their commutators, and these operators and their algebraic properties have found, and continue to find, a natural place in the development of Quantum Physics. Topics covered include: Galois Groups Algebraic Invariants