Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena

High temperatures elicit a variety of reactions in gases, including increased molecular vibrations, dissociation, chemical reactions, ionization, and radiation of light. In addition to affecting the motion of the gas, these processes can lead to changes of composition and electrical properties, as well as optical phenomena.
These and other processes of extreme conditions -- such as occur in explosions, in supersonic flight, in very strong electrical discharges, and in other cases -- are the focus of this outstanding text by two leading physicists of the former Soviet Union. The authors deal thoroughly with all the essential physical influences on the dynamics and thermodynamics of continuous media, weaving together material from such disciplines as gas dynamics, shock-wave theory, thermodynamics and statistical physics, molecular physics, spectroscopy, radiation theory, astrophysics, solid-state physics, and other fields.
This volume, uniquely comprehensive in the field of high-temperature gas physics and gas dynamics, was edited and annotated by Wallace D. Hayes and Ronald F. Probstein, leading authorities on the flow of gases at very high speeds. It is exceptionally well suited to the needs of graduate students in physics, as well as professors, engineers, and researchers.

Son of a Gambling Man
Ronald F. Probstein, Ford Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has had a long career in engineering research and has made significant contributions in many areas from ballistic missile design, to hypersonic flight theory, to the field of synthetic fuels, a subject of obvious importance to everyone. His 1959 book, Hypersonic Flow Theory, co-authored with Wallace D. Hayes, and reprinted by Dover in 2004 as Hypersonic Inviscid Flow, is still the basic book on this subject. Synthetic Fuels, written with R. Edwin Hicks, is certainly one of the most important and timely engineering texts ever reprinted by Dover.

In addition to their own writings, Probstein and Hayes edited the English translation of a major text by two distinguished Russian physicists, Ya. B. Zel'dovich and Yu. P. Raizer, Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena. 　

However, Dr. Probstein's literary legacy isn't all about hard science. In 2009 he published an evocatively entertaining memoir of his father and their life in Depression-era New York, Honest Sid: Memoir of a Gambling Man. Even though not a Dover book, it is certainly highly recommended.

Critical Acclaim for Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena:
The republication by Dover Publications of this masterwork by Ya. B. Zel'dovich and Yu. P. Raizer will be welcomed by all workers dealing with high-temperature (radiating) flows. This book is a virtual 'bible' for studies of shocks and radiation fronts in high speed aeronautics, astronautics (re-entry), astrophysics, fireballs, shock tubes, and very intense explosions.

Zel'dovich was a physicist of extraordinary breadth of interests. The style of this book is to give heuristic explanations followed by rigorous analysis. It is insightful for both beginning students and researchers in the field. This book is an ABSOLUTE MUST for anyone working on the subjects listed above.

I URGE anyone working in astrophysics and high-temperature flow physics to buy, read, enjoy, and be enlightened by this masterpiece. -- Dimitri Mihalas, co-author of Foundations of Radiation Hydrodynamics


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