This book presents certain eJements of nuclear physics at a level suitable for undergraduate physics students or for nuclear engineers. The material is also
useful to scientists in other fields who wish to have more than a descriptive
understanding of nuclear physics. The book grew out of a one-quarter course
in nuclear physics for students who had as their physics preparation only a
one-year college course, as well as a survey course in atomic physics, but whose
mathematical preparation included calculus and ordinary differential equations.
The basic approach of the book is to present a limited amount of
experimental information and to give the reader a feeling for its physical implications
with the aid of quantum-mechanical concepts. Wherever possible, a preliminary
discussion on the basis of classical theories is given. Sufficient quantum
mechanics is introduced to permit correct order-of-magnitude estimates of
nuclear quantities.