The new edition of the free physics text in pdf format is now online at motionmountain.net The new edition includes many new topics, pictures, puzzles and tables; it keeps the promise to be fascinating and challenging on every page. The text now explains the geometric phase and its uses in optics, the limited, three-dimensional colour space of humans, how artists use it, and the twelve-dimensional colour space of mantis shrimps, the fascinating physics of the human voice, the singing of high-voltage lines, the knots possible in Maxwell's equations, and the reasons not take Descartes' philosophy seriously, following his own advice, because of the finiteness of the speed of light. The text also tells how to build a mirror that moves almost as fast as light itself, explains why the signals between the eye and the brain should be explored further, presents new findings on how birds feel magnetic fields, introduces the the nine mineral classes and the nine chemical elements that make up almost all rocks, shows the shadow produced by a single atom, tells how to measure the air temperature in the summer using a clock and add various topics on forensic physics, especially on the ways to make hidden fingerprints visible. Enjoy the reading! Christoph Schiller
Hello Christoph. I remember reading your paper http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9610066 some years ago. I found Does matter differ from vacuum? very interesting. Thanks. I note the phrase describe particles as knots. See this TQFT webpage? See those blue trefoil knots at the top? Pick one, start at the bottom left, and trace around it anticlockwise calling out the crossing-over directions: up, down, up. Here's a hyperlink to http://motionmountain.net/. Motion is king! Regards John Duffield
