Errata for Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 3^rd edition

Stephen T. Thornton and Andrew Rex

These errata are for the first printing of the textbook.

p. 79 For Problem 6, 5^th line, replace the word “upper” by “lower”. The last phrase now reads …what lower limit did the null experiment place on the…

p. 100 The discussion on this page may be a little misleading. The Rayleigh – Jeans formula was not presented until 1905 and did not play a prominent role in Max Planck’s thinking towards his famous result in 1900. See http://www.physicsweb.org/articles/world/13/12/8/1 for an interesting discussion.

p. 126 For Problem 52, 3^rd line, insert the word “kinetic” in front of “energy of the scattered electron”. The second sentence should read: Find the energy of the photon scattered at 110⁰, the kinetic energy of the scattered electron, and the recoil angle of the electron.

p. 147 For Equation 4.34 change to h in the denominator.

p.176 Equation 5.21 should be

(5.21)

p.177 The first full sentence in the text on this page would be improved by reading as follows:

The envelope is described by the first cosine factor of Equation (5.21), which has the

wave number and angular …

p. 257 In Equation (7.34b) the vector should be replaced by the vector in both places.

p. 286 In the second line of the regular text under Figure 8.11 on the right side, the line should read: …we have values of J = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. That is, the 0 should be added.

p. 290 In Figure 8.16 the 6^th transition from the right hand side (or the 8^th transition from the left hand side) is shown in error. Instead of the transition from the states, the transition should be to the m_J = -1/2 state or

p. 361 In Example 10.6 on the right side, in the solution for part (b), the equation at the top on the right side has a typographical error. A β has been used instead of a B. The equation should read

p. 450 The figure caption for Figure B should have the words “alpha particles” replaced by “two gamma rays”. The figure caption should read: An antineutrino from the reactor scatters from a proton to create a neutron and a β⁺ that eventually produces two gamma rays detected in coincidence in the two scintillators S2 and S3.

p. 517 Table 14.3 was badly messed up in the final printing. It was correct in an earlier proof of this chapter. The correct Table is shown below.