The Physics of War From Arrows to Atoms

331 Pages·2014·3.77 MB·English

by  Barry Parker

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ALSO BY BARRY PARKER
Einstein's Brainchild
Quantum Legacy
Einstein: The Passions of a Scientist
Albert Einstein's Vision
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Published 2014 by Prometheus Books
The Physics of War: From Arrows to Atoms. Copyright © 2014 by Barry Parker. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews.
Interior artwork by Lori Scoffield Beer
Cover image © 2013 Media Bakery and BIGSTOCK
Jacket design by Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger
Inquiries should be addressed to
Prometheus Books
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VOICE: 716–691–0133
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pending
ISBN 978-1-61614-803-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-61614-804-1 (ebook)
Printed in the United States of America
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PREFACE
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Summary of the Book
CHAPTER 2: EARLY WARS AND THE BEGINNING OF PHYSICS
Battle of Kadesh
The Wonder Weapon
Copper, Bronze, and Iron
The Assyrians
Greeks and the Beginning of Physics
The New Wonder Machines
Alexander the Great
Archimedes
CHAPTER 3: BASIC PHYSICS OF EARLY WEAPONS
Velocity and Acceleration
Force and Inertia
Momentum and Impulse
The Effect of Gravity
Energy and Power
Angular Momentum and Torque
Machines
Physics of the Bow and Arrow
Physics of Other Early Weapons
CHAPTER 4: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE
EARLY ENGLISH-FRENCH WARS
The Romans and Their Weapons
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Early English-French Wars
Origin and Physics of the Longbow
CHAPTER 5: GUNPOWDER AND CANNONS: THE DISCOVERIES THAT
CHANGED THE ART OF WAR AND THE WORLD
Roger Bacon
Development of the Cannon
The Hundred Years’ War
The Basilica and the Siege of Constantinople
Cannons in the English-Scottish Wars
The French
Charles VIII and Victory over Naples
CHAPTER 6: THREE MEN AHEAD OF THEIR TIME: DA VINCI,
TARTAGLIA, AND GALILEO
Leonardo and Physics
Leonardo's Military Inventions
Leonardo's Attitude toward War
Tartaglia
Galileo
CHAPTER 7: FROM EARLY GUNS TO TOTAL DESTRUCTION AND
DISCOVERY
The Guns of War
The War at Sea
Henry VIII of England
William Gilbert
The Problem of Longitude
The Thirty Years’ War
Swedish Intervention
A New Era of Discovery: Isaac Newton
CHAPTER 8: THE IMPACT OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
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Introduction
The French Revolution
The English Revolution
James Watt and the Steam Engine
John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson
Benjamin Robins
The Flintlock
Christiaan Huygens
Physics and the Industrial Revolution
CHAPTER 9: NAPOLEON'S WEAPONS AND NEW BREAKTHROUGHS
IN PHYSICS
The French Revolution
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval
Napoleon and His Weapons
Count Rumford
New Breakthroughs in Physics
How This Affected Warfare
CHAPTER 10: THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Development of the Percussion Cap
The Minié Ball
A Revolution in Rifles and Cannons
The War
The Role of the Telegraph
The Dynamo (Generator)
The Gatling Gun
The War at Sea
Physics of the Propeller
“Damn the Torpedoes”
Submarines
Balloons
CHAPTER 11: WHERE DOES THE BULLET GO? BALLISTICS OF RIFLE
BULLETS AND CANNON SHELLS
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Internal Ballistics
Recoil
Transitional Ballistics and the Sonic Boom
External Ballistics
Stability of the Bullet
Terminal Ballistics
CHAPTER 12: HEY, LOOK…IT FLIES! AERODYNAMICS AND THE
FIRST AIRPLANES
Discoveries That Led to the Airplane
The Wright Brothers
What Makes an Airplane Fly?
The Physical, More Exact Explanation of Lift
Details of Drag
Steering and Maneuvering the Airplane
First Use of Airplanes in War
CHAPTER 13: THE MACHINE GUN WAR—WORLD WAR I
Development of the Machine Gun
Other Weapons
How the War Started
The First Warplanes
The War at Sea and the Menace beneath the Sea
The Final Horror—Poisonous Gas
The First Tanks
America Enters the War
CHAPTER 14: THE INVISIBLE RAYS: THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE
OF RADIO AND RADAR IN WAR
The Production and Detection of Electromagnetic Waves
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Radio Waves
X-rays
Light and Infrared
Radar
An Amazing Discovery
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CHAPTER 15: SONAR AND THE SUBMARINE
Archimedes’ Principle
Physics of Submarines
Power for the Propellers
Shape and Periscopes
Navigation
Sonar
Torpedoes
How Torpedoes Work
Submarines in World War II
CHAPTER 16: THE GREAT WAR: WORLD WAR II
How the War Started
Ready for War
The Battle of France, and Dunkirk
The Radar Advantage
The Battle of Britain
American Entry into the War
Advances in Aviation
The First Rockets in War
Other Weapons and Small Arms
Computers and Intelligence
CHAPTER 17: THE ATOMIC BOMB
The Beginning
Einstein's Role
The Italian Breakthrough
Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann
Christmas 1938
A Chain Reaction
The Letter to Roosevelt
The War Begins
Meanwhile in England
Heisenberg and Bohr
The Manhattan Project
The First Reactor
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