"An unabridged republication of the first edition with corrections and a new reading list prepared by the authors." Includes bibliographical references (pages 529-533) and index.

The meaning of a physical theory -- Space and time in physics -- The foundations of mechanics -- Probability and some of its applications -- The statistical point of view -- The physics of continua -- The electron theory and special relativity -- Quantum mechanics -- The problem of causality. A bridge between semipopular works for the general reader and technical treatises written for specialists, this excellent work discusses the foundational ideas and background of modern physics. It is not a text on theoretical physics, but a discussion of the methods of physic description and construction of theory. As such, it is especially valuable for the physicist with a background in elementary calculus who is interested in the ideas which give meaning to the data and tools of modern physics.