The fundaments contain material that is underpins the main text. They are intended to “fill the gaps” in a reader's background or else to provide generalizations of simplified presentations in the main text. The 47 fundaments are grouped into seven appendices according to general topic, including:

These fundaments are not meant to be read in sequence, but rather to be read or referred to as the need arises; most have pointers from the main text provided via footnotes. Most of the fundaments are “stand-alone” summaries, with the exception of those dealing with thermodynamics, which are necessarily somewhat interdependent.