## What Quarks, Spacetime, and the Big Bang Isn't

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The level of scientific literacy among college-educated young adults in the United States always ranks among the top two or three among all nations of the world. This research has been done over decades by  Jon Miller of originally, Northwestern University and Michigan State University, and now the University of Michigan. In an article for the Association of American Colleges & Universities ("What Colleges and Universities Need to Do to Advance Civic Scientific Literacy and Preserve American Democracy" https://www.aacu.org/node/2139) he explains why U.S. results are so positive: "The answer is college science courses." He goes on to note that "The United States is the only country that requires all college students to take one or more science courses as a part of a general education requirement. In a series of statistical analyses using structural equation analyses of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, I have shown that exposure to college science courses is a strong predictor of civic scientific literacy in young adults and in adults of all ages..."

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This book is not a comprehensive survey of all of physics. You'll not be expected to solve many of the standard "physics class" problems---*Quarks, Spacetime, and the Big Bang* is  mostly conceptual. Many topics which would be in  a conventional course are not covered here. For example, there is no chapter on thermodynamics, nor rotational dynamics, nor energy production, or climate. Motion and forces are only considered for one-dimensional situations and only in enough detail in order to appreciate Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. Electricity and magnetism are covered in a descriptive way, with only a few quantitative examples. "How things work" is sometimes touched, but  less so than from the usual survey course.

We cut a strategic path through "classical" areas of physics in order to accumulate the concepts, quantities, and vocabulary that would apply to a conceptual appreciation of relativity and quantum mechanics, both of which are the jumping-off points to our two main topics.

> **Wait.** Einstein’s theory? Quantum Mechanics? <br><br>
> **Glad you asked.** Sure. You'll be surprised at how much relativity and quantum mechanics we can do with very simple mathematics. It will be challenging for you in the same way that's it's challenging for us – it kind of stresses your common sense. But not your mathematical skills.