It covers special relativity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics.
The impetus for the project to author the book came from the 1987-1996 Introductory University Physics Project (IUPP), which found that most college texts neglected to teach topics in 20th century physics.
[1] The books opens with 20th century physics, starting with the conservation laws implied by Noether's theorem.
It then proceeds to present Newtonian mechanics and the laws of motion as a consequence of underlying physical symmetry, reversing the chronological order in which the study of physics developed as a scientific discipline.
[2][3][4] First published in 1998, it has been widely adopted[citation needed] and is now in the Fourth edition.