Introduction to Modern Physics

Abstract

This chapter is dedicated to a review of modern physics required for understanding of radiation physics applied to medicine. The review starts with a discussion of important physical constants, introduces the important milestones in the history of radiation physics, presents the classification of ionizing radiation, states the rules that govern physical quantities and units, and defines the most important radiation quantities and units. The latter sections of this chapter cover the fundamentals of electromagnetism, special relativity, atomic and nuclear structure, quantum mechanics, and radiation physics. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the normal probability distribution described by the continuous probability density function.