Modern Physics for Engineers Lecture slides 01b – The background to modern physics

This lecture part summarizes the background to modern physics. It starts with early ideas of matter, through the development of the scientific method and its consequences for understanding of matter, and continues with the development of laws of motion. It then introduces the development of physical concepts of light and electromagnetism through to Maxwell's equations. Finally, it summarizes the history of the understanding of heat and thermodynamics, up to the ideas of the second law of thermodynamics and entropy. (slides)