Footnote:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description:
Introduction -- Gravity and precession of the earth -- Thermodynamics of the earth's atmosphere -- Loss of planetary atmosphere -- Liquid drop physics -- Coriolis effects in the earth's atmosphere -- Thermal properties and radiation at the earth's surface -- Thermal properties of the ocean -- Gravity waves -- Tide physics -- General properties of earthquakes -- Seismic waves and seismology -- Surface seismic waves and oscillations of the earth -- Radioactivity and the earth's interior -- The physics of heat flow in the earth -- Earth magnetism -- Atmospheric electricity -- Waves and plasma in the earth's high atmosphere.
"Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) is known for his work on experimental particle physics, quantum theory, and statistical mechanics; his contributions to the Manhattan Project during World War II; and for his particular ability to condense complicated problems into approximations for understanding and testing theory in a variety of scientific disciplines. This book is unusual for two reasons; first it is essentially a reconstructed course book from Fermi's notes by two physics professors, Gino Segrè and John Stack, including photographic facsimiles of Fermi's handwritten calculations. Second, it is on a topic, geophysics, that we do not usually associate with Fermi"--