PREFACE ........................................................ 13
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................ 15
Summary of the Book ............................................ 16
CHAPTER 2. EARLY WARS AND THE BEGINNING OF PHYSICS ............. 19
Battle of Kadesh ............................................... 19
The Wonder Weapon .............................................. 22
Copper, Bronze, and Iron ....................................... 23
The Assyrians .................................................. 24
Greeks and the Beginning of Physics ............................ 28
The New Wonder Machines ........................................ 30
Alexander the Great ............................................ 33
Archimedes ..................................................... 33
CHAPTER 3. BASIC PHYSICS OF EARLY WEAPONS ...................... 35
Velocity and Acceleration ...................................... 35
Force and Inertia .............................................. 36
Momentum and Impulse ........................................... 37
The Effect of Gravity .......................................... 38
Energy and Power ............................................... 39
Angular Momentum and Torque .................................... 40
Machines ....................................................... 41
Physics of the Bow and Arrow ................................... 42
Physics of Other Early Weapons ................................. 45
CHAPTER 4. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE
EARLY ENGLISH-FRENCH WARS ...................................... 47
The Romans and Their Weapons ................................... 47
Early English-French Wars ...................................... 50
Origin and Physics of the Longbow .............................. 54
CHAPTER 5. GUNPOWDER AND CANNONS: THE DISCOVERIES THAT
CHANGED THE ART OF WAR AND THE WORLD ........................... 59
Roger Bacon .................................................... 61
Development of the Cannon ...................................... 62
The Hundred Years' War ......................................... 63
The Basilica and the Siege of Constantinople ................... 64
Cannons in the English-Scottish Wars ........................... 66
The French ..................................................... 66
Charles VIII and Victory over Naples ........................... 67
CHAPTER 6. THREE MEN AHEAD OF THEIR TIME: DA VINCI,
TARTAGLIA, AND GALILEO ......................................... 69
Leonardo and Physics ........................................... 71
Leonardo's Military Inventions ................................. 72
Leonardo's Attitude toward War ................................. 77
Tartaglia ...................................................... 78
Galileo ........................................................ 80
CHAPTER 7. FROM EARLY GUNS TO TOTAL DESTRUCTION AND DISCOVERY .. 87
The Guns of War ................................................ 87
The War at Sea ................................................. 90
Henry VIII of England .......................................... 92
William Gilbert ................................................ 93
The Problem of Longitude ....................................... 96
The Thirty Years' War .......................................... 98
Swedish Intervention ........................................... 99
A New Era of Discovery: Isaac Newton .......................... 100
CHAPTER 8. THE IMPACT OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ............ 105
Introduction .................................................. 105
The French Revolution ......................................... 106
The English Revolution ........................................ 107
James Watt and the Steam Engine ............................... 108
John "Iron Mad" Wilkinson ..................................... 109
Benjamin Robins ............................................... 110
The Flintlock ................................................. 112
Christiaan Huygens ............................................ 114
Physics and the Industrial Revolution ......................... 115
CHAPTER 9. NAPOLEON'S WEAPONS AND NEW BREAKTHROUGHS IN
PHYSICS ....................................................... 117
The French Revolution ......................................... 117
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval .......................... 118
Napoleon and His Weapons ...................................... 119
Count Rumford ................................................. 122
New Breakthroughs in Physics .................................. 123
How This Affected Warfare ..................................... 128
CHAPTER 10. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR ............................ 131
Development of the Percussion Cap ............................. 131
The Minie Ball ................................................ 133
A Revolution in Rifles and Cannons ............................ 135
The War ....................................................... 137
The Role of the Telegraph ..................................... 139
The Dynamo (Generator) ........................................ 142
The Gatling Gun ............................................... 143
The War at Sea ................................................ 144
Physics of the Propeller ...................................... 146
"Damn the Torpedoes" .......................................... 146
Submarines .................................................... 148
Balloons ...................................................... 149
CHAPTER 11. WHERE DOES THE BULLET GO? BALLISTICS OF RIFLE
BULLETS AND CANNON SHELLS ..................................... 151
Internal Ballistics ........................................... 152
Recoil ........................................................ 154
Transitional Ballistics and the Sonic Boom .................... 155
External Ballistics ........................................... 157
Stability of the Bullet ....................................... 161
Terminal Ballistics ........................................... 163
CHAPTER 12. HEY, LOOK ... IT FLIES! AERODYNAMICS AND
THE FIRST AIRPLANES ........................................... 165
Discoveries That Led to the Airplane .......................... 165
The Wright Brothers ........................................... 167
What Makes an Airplane Fly? ................................... 172
The Physical, More Exact Explanation of Lift .................. 174
Details of Drag ............................................... 176
Steering and Maneuvering the Airplane ......................... 176
First Use of Airplanes in War ................................. 179
CHAPTER 13. THE MACHINE GUN WARWORLD WAR I .................... 181
Development of the Machine Gun ................................ 181
Other Weapons ................................................. 183
How the War Started ........................................... 185
The First Warplanes ........................................... 186
The War at Sea and the Menace beneath the Sea ................. 189
The Final Horror—Poisonous Gas ................................ 191
The First Tanks ............................................... 193
America Enters the War ........................................ 195
CHAPTER 14. THE INVISIBLE RAYS: THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF
RADIO AND RADAR IN WAR ........................................ 197
The Production and Detection of Electromagnetic Waves ......... 197
The Electromagnetic Spectrum .................................. 199
Radio Waves ................................................... 200
X-rays ........................................................ 202
Light and Infrared ............................................ 203
Radar ......................................................... 204
An Amazing Discovery .......................................... 208
CHAPTER 15. SONAR AND THE SUBMARINE ........................... 211
Archimedes'Principle .......................................... 211
Physics of Submarines ......................................... 212
Power for the Propellers ...................................... 213
Shape and Periscopes .......................................... 214
Navigation .................................................... 215
Sonar ......................................................... 216
Torpedoes ..................................................... 217
How Torpedoes Work ............................................ 218
Submarines in World War II .................................... 219
CHAPTER 16. THE GREAT WAR: WORLD WAR II ....................... 223
How the War Started ........................................... 224
Ready for War ................................................. 224
The Battle of France, and Dunkirk ............................. 226
The Radar Advantage ........................................... 227
The Battle of Britain ......................................... 229
American Entry into the War ................................... 231
Advances in Aviation .......................................... 234
The First Rockets in War ...................................... 236
Other Weapons and Small Arms .................................. 240
Computers and Intelligence .................................... 243
CHAPTER 17. THE ATOMIC BOMB ................................... 245
The Beginning ................................................. 245
Einstein's Role ............................................... 246
The Italian Breakthrough ...................................... 247
Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann ................................. 249
Christmas 1938 ................................................ 250
A Chain Reaction .............................................. 252
The Letter to Roosevelt ....................................... 255
The War Begins ................................................ 257
Meanwhile in England .......................................... 258
Heisenberg and Bohr ........................................... 260
The Manhattan Project ......................................... 261
The First Reactor ............................................. 264
The Continuing Manhattan Project .............................. 265
Trinity ....................................................... 267
The German Bomb ............................................... 269
Decision to Use the Bomb on Japan ............................. 270
CHAPTER 18. THE HYDROGEN BOMB INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILES,
LASERS, AND THE FUTURE ........................................ 273
Development of the Hydrogen Bomb .............................. 273
The Ulam-Teller Breakthrough .................................. 275
The First Test: Mike .......................................... 276
Physics of the Hydrogen Bomb .................................. 277
Long-Range Missiles ........................................... 280
Other Weapons: Lasers ......................................... 282
Transistors, Microchips, and Computers ........................ 287
Satellites and Drones ......................................... 291
Futuristic Weapons of War ..................................... 294
NOTES ......................................................... 297
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 309
INDEX ......................................................... 311
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