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The Astronomers' Magic Envelope

An Introduction to Astrophysics Emphasizing General Principles and Orders of Magnitude

By: Paul A. Taylor, Prasenjit Saha

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Hardcover | 7 June 2018

At a Glance

Hardcover
132 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
17.8 x 25.4 x 1.3

Hardcover

RRP $120.95

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Working physicists, and especially astrophysicists, value a good `back-of-the-envelope' calculation, meaning a short, elegant computation or argument that starts from general principles and leads to an interesting result. This book guides students on how to understand astrophysics using general principles and concise calculations -- endeavouring to be elegant where possible and using short computer programs where necessary.

The material proceeds in approximate historical order. The book begins with the Enlightenment-era insight that the orbits of the planets is easy, but the orbit of the Moon is a real headache, and continues to deterministic chaos. This is followed by a chapter on spacetime and black holes. Four chapters reveal how microphysics, especially quantum mechanics, allow us to understand how stars work. The last two chapters are about cosmology, bringing us to 21st-century developments on the microwave background and gravitational waves.

Industry Reviews

This is a delightful small book... It will be a good resource for lecturers, showing some nice examples of applications of the physical principles, and of especial interest to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates. The reader is encouraged to write computer codes to find solutions, and the student with a thirst to learn and the motivation to engage fully with the book will be amply rewarded. * Alan Heavens, The Observatory *
Astronomers like the concept of back-of-the-envelope calculations. Such calculations help us get a handle on very complex problems that would otherwise require far more time and effort to solve properly. Prasenjit Saha and Paul A. Taylor build an introductory guide to astronomy on exactly this premise. * Nature Astronomy *
A sophisticated text that will bring physical intuition for astronomy for mathematically able students. The computationally based problems are a welcome addition to better empower student learning. * Brian Schmidt, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 2011, Australian National University *

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