Summary

Interweaving modern and classical ideas of physics, Eugene Hecht offers students a fresh, narratively compelling presentation that emphasizes ''how things work.'' Unlike other texts for the course, Hecht uses the connection between symmetry principles and conservation law as a unifying theme to order the subject of physics and to help students understand physics as more than just a series of topics. Hecht draws from the ideas of biology, medicine, geology, astronomy, meteorology, and architecture to offer students a text that is both pragmatic and interdisciplinary.