Physics for geologists

About this book

All geologists need a broad understanding of science to understand the processes they are studying and the analytical techniques they use. In particular, geology students need to grasp the basic physics that lies behind these processes, which this book provides in plain language and simple mathematics. It also gives the reader enough background physics to allow them to make up their own minds about the validity of what they read in the scientific literature or hear. There is an emphasis on water, an essential component of geology, on which there is much published error that is indiscernible without the background provided by this book. This up-dated and revised edition of Richard Chapman's Physics for Geologists discusses a wide range of forces at work in geology against the background of Kepler's and Newton's laws; electromagnetic radiation from optics to gamma rays, atomic structure and age-dating, heat and heat flow, electricity and magnetism, stress and strain, sea waves, acoustics, and fluids and fluid flow. The book give basic definitions and dimensions and also some warnings about mis-understanding of mathematical statistics, particularly of linear regression analysis, and unenlightened computation.