States of Matter

In this enlightening and highly rewarding hardcover text, David L. Goodstein, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, offers serious students a much needed "overview of the study of matter, and a feeling for those concepts that are applied with more or less success in all the various fields" of science. Focusing his survey on "the macroscopic world, from the atom up rather than the nucleus down," the author consistently emphasizes areas where the fruits of research are likely to be applicable in other disciplines. This broad orientation makes States of Matter a valuable adjunct to the study of chemistry, geology, engineering and applied mathematics, as well as physics. Beginning with a chapter covering thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, Dr. Goodstein then proceeds to an in-depth discussion of the three basic states--gases, solids and liquids--a few special states and, finally, phase transitions. Perfect gases are discussed in terms of the ideal gas, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, slightly degenerate perfect gases, electrons in metals and the Bose condensation. Coverage on solids includes heat capacity, normal modes, crystal structures, crystal space and electrons in crystals. Additional chapters describe the structure of a fluid, potential energy, interacting gases and liquids; superfluidity, superconductivity and magnetism; Weiss molecular field theory, the van der Waals equation, scaling laws and other pertinent aspects of phase transitions. Many helpful, illustrative problems appear at the end of each chapter; annotated bibliographies further guide the student who wishes to delve more deeply into the subject. Unabridged, corrected Dover republication of the edition first published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975. Preface. Annotated bibliography and problems at end of each chapter. 154 figures. 4 tables. Preface