Physics of Societal Issues: Calculations on National Security, Environment, and Energy

Capa
Springer Science & Business Media, 10/08/2007 - 487 páginas

Physics of Societal Issues is a textbook for all those who wish to discuss the fundamental issues of energy use, nuclear weapons, and the environment using facts and figures instead of slogans and postures. It will provide the reader with the tools and insights needed to analyze many complex issues with insights gained from informed estimates and simple calculations. Taking his inspiration from Fermi's famous "back of the envelope" calculations, Hafemeister shows how to capture the essence of a problem in rough estimates of the important parameters and then to use those estimates to gauge the effects of policy decisions. Hafemeister draws on dozens of years of experience working on just these issues in the US Senate, the national Academy of Sciences, and several Federal agencies, as well as the Lawrence-Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Argonne national laboratories to provide details and examples as well as insight into the issues needed to plan public policy. The book is divided into three parts, each treating an area in which physics plays a major role: - National security: nuclear weapons and their effects, missile defenses, arms control and verification, and nuclear proliferation and terrorism - The environment: pollution dispersal and control, radioactive pollution, climate change, and the epidemiology of electromagnetic radiation - Energy: estimating energy resources and use, use of energy in buildings and for transportation, renewable energy sources, and the economics of energy use. Each chapter includes numerous problems to challenge the reader and to extend the discussion.

It is the only equation-oriented book for physics seniors and gradutate students that covers the three main physics and society issues.

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Índice

Nuclear Weapons
3
Missiles and War 2 1 RocketEquation 2 2 ICBMTrajectories
31
6
48
Verification and Arms Control
77
9
92
55
100
Nuclear
105
Baruch to Iraq 5 2 UraniumEnrichment 5 3 SeparativeWorkUnits 5 4 Nonproliferation in the Former USSR
116
Energy
247
Energy
249
11
269
Energy
276
Solar 12 1 Solar 12 2 Solar
283
119
376
A Nuclear Arms Chronology
431
B EnergyEnvironment Chronology
446

Environment
135
105
159
Nuclear
163
116
175
Renewable
229
Epidemiology
233
Units
454
Websites
460
F Glossary
469
G Index
483
Direitos de autor

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Palavras e frases frequentes

Passagens conhecidas

Página 111 - Treaty is not an end in itself but a step towards disarmament, each of the parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.
Página 105 - We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead. That is our business. Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work our salvation. If we fail, then we have damned every man to be the slave of Fear. Let us not deceive ourselves: We must elect World Peace or World Destruction.
Página 316 - Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
Página 108 - The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the impounding, storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.
Página 3 - it . . . suddenly occurred to me that if we could find an element which is split by neutrons and which would emit two neutrons when it absorbs one neutron, such an element, if assembled in sufficiently large mass, could sustain a nuclear chain reaction.
Página 78 - What do we mean by effective verification? We mean that we want to be sure that, if the other side moves beyond the limits of the Treaty in any militarily significant way, we would be able to detect such violation in time to respond effectively and thereby deny the other side the benefit of the violation.
Página 105 - Science has torn from nature a secret so vast in its potentialities that our minds cower from the terror it creates. Yet terror is not enough to inhibit the use of the atomic bomb. The terror created by weapons has never stopped man from employing them, for each new weapon a defense has been produced, in time. But now we face the condition in which adequate defense does not exist.
Página 115 - While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of selfdefense by acting preemptively against such terrorists, to prevent them from doing harm against our people and our country; and • denying further sponsorship, support, and sanctuary to terrorists by convincing or compelling states to accept their sovereign responsibilities.
Página 56 - Each Party undertakes not to deploy ABM systems for a defense of the territory of its country and not to provide a base for such a defense...

Acerca do autor (2007)

David Hafemeister is Professor (emeritus) of Physics at California Polytechnic State University. He has also had an impressive career in Washington as a Professional Staff Member:

Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Governmental Affairs (1990-93 on arms control treaties at the end of the Cold War)

Science Advisor to Senator John Glenn (19775-77)

Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State Benson and Deputy Under-Secretary Nye (1977-78)

Visiting Scientist in the State Department’s Office of Nuclear Proliferation Policy (1979)

Office of Strategic Nuclear Policy (1987)

Study Director at the National Academy of Sciences (2000-02)

He has edited nine books, published more than 140 articles and was awarded the APS Szilard award in 1996.

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