Exercises in Environmental Physics

Exercises in Environmental Physics Synopsis

The study of environmental physics requires understanding topics from many di?erent areas of physics as well as comprehension of phy- cal aspects of the world around us. Several excellent textbooks are available covering most aspects of environmental physics and of appli- tions of physics to the natural environment from various points of view. However, while teaching environmental physics to university students, I sorelymissedabookspeci?callydevotedtoexercisesfortheenvironm- tal science student. Thus, the motivation for this book came about as in physics, as well as in many other disciplines, satisfactory knowledge of a subject cannot be acquired without practice. Usually students are not familiar with the various areas of physics that are required to describe both the environment and the human impact upon it. At the same time, students need to develop skills in the manipulation of the ideas and c- cepts learned in class. Therefore, this exercise book is addressed to all levels of university students in environmental sciences. Because of the wide range of potential users this book contains both calculus-based and algebra-based problems ranging from very simple to advanced ones. Multiple solutions at di?erent levels are presented for certainproblems-thestudentwhoisjustbeginningtolearncalculuswill bene?t from the comparison of the di?erent methods of solution. The material is also useful for courses in atmospheric physics, environmental aspects of energy generation and transport, groundwater hydrology, soil physics,andoceanphysics,andselectedpartsmayevenbeusedforbasic undergraduate physics courses. This collection of exercises is based on courses taught at the University of Northern British Columbia and at the University of Victoria, Canada.