Daniel J. Graham - Böcker

The only significant road pricing scheme in the UK is that introduced by Ken Livingstone in London. But the technology now exists to develop a nationwide scheme of road user charging, with prices to road users varying with the level of congestion in a given area at a given time. The only obstacles to implementing road user charging would seem to be political. Stephen Glaister and Daniel Graham have used sophisticated geographical and economic modelling to examine the potential effects of different types of road user charging schemes. The results of the modelling are explained lucidly and clearly. Using the results of the authors' models, policymakers should be able to find an approach which is acceptable given the practical realities they face. The authors also look carefully at the implications of road user charging and identify other policy areas that policymakers would need to consider.

Thermodynamics is the physical science surrounding work, heat, and relationships across fundamental quantities, and situates itself near the center of multiple disciplines through its generality and timelessness. Its laws required no rewriting after the twentieth century revolutions of quantum mechanics, relativity, and solid state physics, just to name three subjects. The nine chapters of this book make appeal to thermodynamic notions and laws to get under the hood of mathematics—the language of the physical sciences—without just echoing things best said and written in math books. It takes a system to learn about another system—we all need thermometers, voltmeters, and other gadgets to get to know objects of interest. But just as critical are the numbers and functions we put to the task, however relegated they are to computers in the modern day for the heavy lifting. To be sure, mathematical representations like x = ½, 5.2, π, e, etc., and f(x) = x2, sin(x), etc., are never in physical contact with the solids, liquids, and gases that draw our attention, but they are as impacted by the same natural laws as the lab apparatus itself.This book shows how the thermodynamic laws impact our number systems. The laws affirm that we have direct access to a vanishingly small fraction of the real numbers. They further establish that the real numbers present a maximum-evolved system impacting all matters of computation, graphing, differentiation, and integration. For completeness, one of the chapters includes cases where the thermodynamic laws have little, if anything, constructive to say about representations in mathematics.This book presents a novel perspective to students and teachers in the physical sciences, biology, and mathematics, with the goal of enriching classroom and seminar hours. The chapters are self-contained and written informally, and readers with rudimentary knowledge of energy, numbers, and functions should handle the material well.

Thermodynamics and information touch theory every facet of chemistry. However, the physical chemistry curriculum digested by students worldwide is still heavily skewed toward heat/work principles established more than a century ago. Rectifying this situation, Chemical Thermodynamics and Information Theory with Applications explores applications drawn from the intersection of thermodynamics and information theory—two mature and far-reaching fields.In an approach that intertwines information science and chemistry, this book covers: The informational aspects of thermodynamic state equationsThe algorithmic aspects of transformations—compression, expansion, cyclic, and more The principles of best-practice programmingHow molecules transmit and modify information via collisions and chemical reactionsUsing examples from physical and organic chemistry, this book demonstrates how the disciplines of thermodynamics and information theory are intertwined. Accessible to curiosity-driven chemists with knowledge of basic calculus, probability, and statistics, the book provides a fresh perspective on time-honored subjects such as state transformations, heat and work exchanges, and chemical reactions.