The advent of relatively inexpensive but powerful computers is af fecting practically all aspects of our lives, but some of the greatest influence is being felt in the physical sciences. However, university curricula and teaching methods have responded somewhat cautiously, having only recently come to terms with the now omnipresent calcula tor. While many instructors at first feared that the widespread use of pocket calculators would lead to generations of students who could not multiply or perhaps even add, few now seriously lament the disappear ance of slide rules, logarithm tables, and the...

This volume is an outgrowth of the 1995 Summer School on Theoretical Physics of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), held in Banff, Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies, from July 30 to August 12,1995. The chapters, based on lectures given at the School, are designed to be tutorial in nature, and many include exercises to assist the learning process. Most lecturers gave three or four fifty-minute lectures aimed at relative novices in the field. More emphasis is therefore placed on pedagogy and establishing comprehension than on erudition and superior scholarship. Of course, new and...

This volume is an outgrowth of the 1995 Summer School on Theoretical Physics of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), held in Banff, Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies, from July 30 to August 12,1995. The chapters, based on lectures given at the School, are designed to be tutorial in nature, and many include exercises to assist the learning process. Most lecturers gave three or four fifty-minute lectures aimed at relative novices in the field. More emphasis is therefore placed on pedagogy and establishing comprehension than on erudition and superior scholarship. Of course, new and...