A classroom textbook covering the physical sciences discusses such topics as matter, the atom, motion and forces, and the universe.

This textbook, now in its third edition, provides a formative introduction to the structure of matter that will serve as a sound basis for students proceeding to more complex courses, thus bridging the gap between elementary physics and topics pertaining to research activities. The focus is deliberately limited to key concepts of atoms, molecules and solids, examining the basic structural aspects without paying detailed attention to the related properties. For many topics the aim has been to start from the beginning and to guide the reader to the threshold of advanced research. This edition includes four new chapters dealing with relevant phases of solid matter (magnetic, electric and superconductive) and the related phase transitions. The book is based on a mixture of theory and solved problems that are integrated into the formal presentation of the arguments. Readers will find it invaluable in enabling them to acquire basic knowledge in the wide and wonderful field of condensed matter and to understand how phenomenological properties originate from the microscopic, quantum features of nature.

Understanding the Properties of Matter: 2nd Edition takes a unique phenomenological approach to the presentation of matter, materials, and solid-state physics. After an overview of basic ideas and a reminder of the importance of measurement, the author considers in turn gases, solids, liquids, and phase changes. For each topic, the focus is on "what happens." After a preliminary examination of data on the properties of matter, the author raises, then addresses a series of questions concerning the data. It is only in answering these questions that he adopts the theoretical approach to the properties of matter. This approach can reawaken in readers the fascination for the subject that inspired some of the greatest physicists of our age. Examples and extensive exercises reinforce the concepts. A supporting Web site furnishes for free download a plethora of additional materials, including: " Supplementary chapters on the band theory of solids and the magnetic properties of solids " Copies of all the data talbes used in the book, in PDF and spreadsheet formats " Enlarged copies of all figures " A simple molecular dynamics simulation " Animations uillustrating important featrues of key equations " Answers to the end-of-chapter exercises Understanding the Properties of Matter is an entertaining and innovative text accessible at the undergraduate level.