Science of Radio

From the reviews: "... The notes and problems at the end of each chapter are very helpful. There are many quotable passages ... In the final analysis, the book is definitely worth owning ... It is an extremely well written - but unusual - book that I highly recommend for all physicists." The Physics Teacher FROM THE REVIEWS: ELECTRONIC DESIGN NEWS "Even though this 296-page textbook targets sophomore EE students, it has a place in the libraries of experienced Electrical Engineers. It does a good job not only of teaching the underlying theory of radio, but also of entertaining readers." CHOICE MAGAZINE "Intended as a companion for students familiar with college physics and calculus and studying electrical engineering using AM radio theory, Nahin's work takes a unique teaching approach. The 21 chapters are divided into four sections, sprinkled with humorous cartoons to pique reader interest...The work contains many fascinating ideas...Upper-division undergraduate; faculty; professional." THE PHYSICS TEACHER "The book is unorthodox in many ways, from its presentation of the sophisticated mathematics of radio within the general chronology of the discovery and advance of radio art and technology to the inclusion of problems at the end of the appendices (I'm not certain I've ever seen that before!)...He never talks down to the reader (an elegant vocabulary is used) and seldom will a reader be bored. The notes and problems at the end of each chapter are very helpful. There are many quotable passages...In the final analysis, the book is definitely worth owning...It is an extremely well written - but unusual - book that I highly recommend for all physicists."

• Section I Mostly History and a Little Math.- 1 Solution to an Old Problem.- 2 Preradio History of Radio Waves.- 3 Antennas as Launchers and Interceptors of Electromagnetic Waves.- 4 Early Radio.- 5 Receiving Spark Transmitter Signals.- 6 Mathematics of AM Sidebands.- 7 First Continuous Waves, Negative Resistance Oscillators and the Van der Pol Equation, and the Heterodyne Concept.- 8 Birth of Electronics.- Section II Mostly Math and a Little History.- 9 Fourier Series and Their Physical Meaning.- 10 Convergence in Energy of the Fourier Series.- 11 Radio Spectrum of a Spark-Gap Transmitter.- 12 Fourier Integral Theorem and the Continuous Spectrum of a Nonperiodic Time Signal.- 13 Physical Meaning of the Fourier Transform.- 14 Impulse “Functions”.- 15 Convolution Theorems, Frequency Shifts, and Causal Time Signals.- Section III Nonlinear Circuits for Multiplication.- 16 Multiplying by Squaring and Filtering.- 17 Squaring and Multiplying with Matched Nonlinearities.- 18 Multiplying by “Sampling and Filtering”.- Section IV Mathematics of “Unmultiplying”.- 19 Synchronous Demodulation and its Problems.- 20 Analytic Signals and Single-Sideband Radio.- 21 Denouement.- 22 Epilogue.- Technical Appendices.- Appendix A Complex Exponentials.- Appendix B What Is (and Is Not) a Linear Time-Invariant System (Superposition).- Appendix C Two-Terminal Components, Kirchhoff’s Circuit Laws, Magnetic Coupling, Complex Impedances, ac Amplitude and Phase Responses, Power, Energy, and Initial Conditions.- Appendix D Thévenin’s and Norton’s Theorems.- Appendix E Resonance in Electrical Circuits.- Appendix F Differential and Operational Amplifiers.