Paul J. Nahin is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of 21 books on mathematics, physics, and the history of science, published by Springer, and the university presses of Princeton and Johns Hopkins. He received the 2017 Chandler Davis Prize for Excellence in Expository Writing in Mathematics (for his paper "The Mysterious Mr. Graham," The Mathematical Intelligencer, Spring 2016). He gave the invited 2011 Sampson Lectures in Mathematics at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.

By focusing specifically on AM radio, THE SCIENCE OF RADIO offers both a fascinating history of radio as an information and entertainment medium and a practical, applications-oriented introduction to electrical engineering. A number of challenging problems are in the book. It is an excellent text for intermediate engineering students familar with freshman calculus and physics.

Section I Mostly History and a Little Math.- 1 Solution to an Old Problem.- 2 Preradio History of Radio Waves.- 3 Antennas as Launchers and Interceptors of Electromagnetic Waves.- 4 Early Radio.- 5 Receiving Spark Transmitter Signals.- 6 Mathematics of AM Sidebands.- 7 First Continuous Waves, Negative Resistance Oscillators and the Van der Pol Equation, and the Heterodyne Concept.- 8 Birth of Electronics.- Section II Mostly Math and a Little History.- 9 Fourier Series and Their Physical Meaning.- 10 Convergence in Energy of the Fourier Series.- 11 Radio Spectrum of a Spark-Gap Transmitter.- 12 Fourier Integral Theorem and the Continuous Spectrum of a Nonperiodic Time Signal.- 13 Physical Meaning of the Fourier Transform.- 14 Impulse "Functions".- 15 Convolution Theorems, Frequency Shifts, and Causal Time Signals.- Section III Nonlinear Circuits for Multiplication.- 16 Multiplying by Squaring and Filtering.- 17 Squaring and Multiplying with Matched Nonlinearities.- 18 Multiplying by "Sampling and Filtering".- Section IV Mathematics of "Unmultiplying".- 19 Synchronous Demodulation and its Problems.- 20 Analytic Signals and Single-Sideband Radio.- 21 Denouement.- 22 Epilogue.- Technical Appendices.- Appendix A Complex Exponentials.- Appendix B What Is (and Is Not) a Linear Time-Invariant System (Superposition).- Appendix C Two-Terminal Components, Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws, Magnetic Coupling, Complex Impedances, ac Amplitude and Phase Responses, Power, Energy, and Initial Conditions.- Appendix D Thévenin's and Norton's Theorems.- Appendix E Resonance in Electrical Circuits.- Appendix F Differential and Operational Amplifiers.