Brainteaser Physics: Challenging Physics Puzzlers

Preface

Preface Solving problems and coping with challenges are human traits. Many of us do these things just for fun. Crosswords and chess problems are found virtually everywhere. Recreational mathematics problems is a genre with a vast literature. Much less common are recreational physics problems—the theme of this book. Here I present 57 problems. Some of them are well known in the popular scientific literature. Others are classics that have been treated in the pedagogical physics literature. References to such works are given at the end of the book. Most of the problems have appeared in shorter versions in my weekly column, which has been running for more than 27 years in a Swedish journal for engineers. I am presenting them now for the first time for an international audience. I don’t claim originality for all those problems, but many of them are given a new twist. The problems in this book have two sides. One provides a challenge —just for fun or recreation. The other is more serious—it shows how physicists think and thus offers training that could also be of professional use. So, the level of discussion in the solutions varies. It can be elementary in the simplest problems, which can be solved without much knowledge of physics. In the more difficult problems, though, a certain background in mathematics is assumed . ? ≥ Ω + √ > cm ? π cm ? π < = ≈ ≤ AB = 1 Ω = ? This page intentionally left blank ...