{pdf} Man’s physical universe. A survey of physical science for colleges Arthur Talbot Bawden

General education seeks to push forward the development of a good
life. The educational experience which it provides is rich to the extent
that it deals with the problems of life today.
Briefly, this course is designed to bring from the archives of physical
science the most important facts and generalizations which have any
bearing on these problems. I have attempted to survey the phenomena
of the physical universe with particular reference to man’s immediate
environment, to present a knowledge of the vast and only partially
explored setting of our civilization, to envisage the great problems
of the origin and evolution of the universe and the relation of man to
the universe, to review briefly the present status of the nature and
distribution of the resources which supply human needs and man’s ability
to utilize them, and to show how man is gaining control over the forces
of nature and harnessing them to do his work.
I have attempted to explain the more important principles and the
relationships which have been found to aid in an understanding of
them. Continuity and panoramic completeness have been attempted
by integrating the material both with problems and principles, as
well as by the historical approach. Breadth is striven for, rather
than depth. I have attempted to present much more than mere
“tidbits” of knowledge.