This book is third in a series of textbooks written by Mr.Saad Mohammad Razin on the subject of Applied Physics under the auspices of Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University. A great deal of effort has been taken by the author and editors to ensure easy accessibility for all students and other staff. This book will initially be made available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format and its 400+ pages can be easily viewed, using the full-screen feature of Acrobat Reader, just like a slideshow. This method of publishing cuts down on publication overheads, circumvents the need to re-print update series and simplifies the task of documentation management.

The editing team intends to build a website to ensure ease of access to documents such as this. Since technical publishing naturally follows a pattern similar to the well-known Software Development Life Cycle in Information Technology, it is subject to equally rigorous standards and methodologies. For this reason, students and staff will be able to view selected publications in PDF format on this website, resting assured that any document corrections and updates will be reflected immediately.

William John Reilly

General Editor