Books

L. Marchildon, From Thales to Gravitational Waves: The Scientific Perspective (World Scientific, 2021), 168 p.

The life style that industrialized countries enjoy today is inextricably linked to the progress of science. But science is challenged by economic interests, politicians, intellectuals and ordinary people. This book is based on the idea that in order to fully understand science and appreciate it, it is essential to put it in context, as regards history as well as all human concerns. After tracing the origin of science among the Greeks, I point out a few great ideas that led to contemporary science and its methodology. Science comes from human curiosity, and certain questions have accompanied humans for millennia. I outline, from Antiquity to the present day, the answers that science gives to questions of origin, of the infinitely large and the infinitely small. I also explore the links between science and other human activities such as art and religion, before closing on a few questions to which we do not yet have answers.

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L. Marchildon, Quantum Mechanics:  From Basic Principles to Numerical Methods and Applications (Springer-Verlag, 2002), 576 p.

The equations, formatted in pdf for projection on a screen, can be accessed by clicking on chapter numbers.  One can also find a list of errata.