The Physical World offers a grand vision of the essential unity of physics that will enable the reader to see the world through the eyes of a physicist and understand their thinking. The text follows Einstein's dictum that 'explanations should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler', to give an honest account of how modern physicists understand their subject, including the shortcomings of current theory. The result is an up-to-date and engaging portrait of physics that contains concise derivations of the important results in a style where every step in a derivation is clearly explained, so that anyone with the appropriate mathematical skills will find the text easy to digest. It is over half a century since The Feynman Lectures in Physics were published. A new authoritative account of fundamental physics covering all branches of the subject is now well overdue. The Physical World has been written to satisfy this need. The book concentrates on the conceptual principles of each branch of physics and shows how they fit together to form a coherent whole. Emphasis is placed on the use of variational principles in physics, and in particular the principle of least action, an approach that lies at the heart of modern theoretical physics, but has been neglected in most introductory accounts of the subject.

"The historical background is woven neatly into the discourse, and there are lots of clever insights and details." - David Bailin, Contemporary Physics

"This is an excellent survey text that should be on the shelf of all university libraries. Students with a serious interest in modern physics but without the time to take the required courses will find this to be a very welcome resource... Highly recommended." - CHOICE

"The Physical World guides the reader through an impressive array of physical phenomena with an engaging and entertaining style. This book goes beyond a popular science account by providing insightful mathematical explanations that are accessible with only high school level mathematics. Perfect summer reading for any pre-university physics student." - Paul Sutcliffe, Durham University, UK