College Physics: A Modern Primer

This book is a physics textbook aimed at non-physics majors in science and engineering and general readers, offering a comprehensive overview from classical to modern physics. It provides a solid grounding in classical physics while focusing on the latest developments in modern physics. The content is streamlined for better learning efficiency, preserving the core structure of both classical and modern physics. It covers the theoretical foundations of relativity and quantum mechanics, then expands into advanced topics like quantum information, quantum optics, and condensed matter physics. Readers will gain a clear understanding of classical principles while becoming familiar with frontier concepts such as quantum entanglement, qubits, Bose-Einstein condensation, and superconductivity.In an era of rapidly expanding information and data, quantum information is widely regarded as an important new carrier of future information technologies. Concepts such as quantum entanglement and superconducting quantum computing now appear frequently in media reports and public discourse, yet the underlying physical principles are not easy to grasp. In fact, many central topics in modern physics—ranging from quantum information technologies to the evolution of the Universe—are fundamentally built upon the theoretical foundations of quantum mechanics and relativity. This naturally raises a key question: is it possible to start from classical physics and, by following a clear and compact professional logical pathway, progressively enter the core ideas of modern physics and further understand its cutting-edge developments?