Taking the discovery of the electron, the formulation of Maxwellian electromagnetism and Einstein's elucidation of Brownian motion as its starting point, the text proceeds to a comprehensive presentation of the three seminal ideas of 20th century physics: Special and General Relativity, Quantum Theory and the Nuclear Atom. From here the text moves on to the new discoveries prompted by these ideas, their impact on our understanding of natural phenomena and their application to the development and invention of the devices and technologies that define the 21st century.

Questions, exercises and problems for student assignments are found at the end of each of the six parts into which the text is divided; answers to the numerical questions are at the end of the book. The techniques by which trigonometric functions, phasors (rotating vectors) and complex numbers are employed in the mathematical description of wave motion are summarised in a supplementary section. In consideration of the audience for whom the book is intended, all mathematics other than that required for descriptive or illustrative purposes has been omitted from the main body of the text and incorporated into the 47 worked examples and 11 appendices.