If you have any comments or questions on these lecture notes, please email them to takeuchiatvtdotedu. General relativity generalises special relativity and newtons law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. If the book could extend a bit more in fourvectors, that would be great. It truly teaches the reader where all the ideas from special relativity come from. Rindler is the classic intro to special relativity. Speckled with illuminating examples, this book is the best out there. Special relativity is a featured book on wikibooks because it contains substantial content. This book presents special relativity sr from first principles and logically arrives at the conclusions. An introduction with 200 problems and solutions by michael tsamparlis. So i was wondering what are the best books you know of regarding special relativity for undergraduates. Mcdonald joseph henry laboratories, princeton university, princeton, nj 08544 may 26, 2014.
A walk on the train, relativistic dynamics, mass and energy, energy and momentum in lorentz transformations, transforming energy into mass and how. One of the best recommended books to begin learning the subject. Special relativityintroduction wikibooks, open books. Max born succeeds one of the best popular books on relativity. A listing of technical books for general relativity. Whats a good beginners book for learning special and general relativity. My daughter read this book and when i asked her about it, she said the story was good and was intrigued to find that general relativity was special and special relativity was general. Whats a good beginners book for learning special and. The special and general theory dover books on physics. As a matter of fact, the last chapter is the most interesting. The author spends incredible time trying to explain difficult ideas in a fashion that is as clear as possible. He begins by sharing an overview of special relativity, including its history, principles, and. This popular book is downloaded over 40 000 times per year and guarantees to be captivating and surprising on every page. Special relativity is a featured book on wikibooks because it contains substantial content, it is wellformatted, and the wikibooks community has decided to feature it on the main page or in other places.
The main characters of this science, non fiction story are. For a fun, easy nonmathematical read that will give you an intuitive grasp of special relativity, i would recommend mr. Spacetime physics introduction to special relativity. Discover the best relativity physics in best sellers. There will be simple diagrams and some thought experiments. But sadly im not too big a fan of the book we are using for the course. Max borns book is a gem and if you can get around the mild distractions and focus on the ideas then you may even get around the paradoxes in relatively, where common sense is a distraction. The general theory is principally concerned with the largescale effects of gravitation and therefore is an essential ingredient in theories of the.
Notes on special relativity pdf 78p this note covers the following topics. By far the best introductory text on special relativity has to be spacetime physics by taylor and wheeler. Most modern books include it as a subset of general relativity. Hello everyone, im studying physics as an undergraduate and im currently taking the course special relativity. Introduction to special relativity low level but good for conceptual understanding woodhouse special relativity nice brisk mathematical treatment of sr. It might look a bit hokey, but its full of fabulous insights. Everything is very carefully and clearly derived and a lot of advanced topics are also included. The best books on albert einstein five books expert. The best book on special relativity that i have read is by a. Theory of relativity, theories of science, books barnes.
The geometry of special relativity by tevian dray then there are more advanced books like special relativity. Introduction to special relativity, by wolfgang rindler, oxford u. A lot of very nice material is touched on in its pages, presented in natural sequence consonant with history, and is not improperly belabored. This book quickly gets to the issue of why there even needs to be a theory of special relativity.
See also woodhouses general relativity book for a continuation wolfgang rindler introduction to special relativity. Please continue to improve it and thanks for the great work. Motion mountain relativity of the adventure of physics. General relativity fall, 2012 the theoretical minimum.
The first edition of the novel was published in 1916, and was written by albert einstein. Frames of reference and newtons laws, the speed of light, michelsonmorley experiment, special relativity, the lorentz transformations, time dilation, adding velocities. He wanted to provide an introduction to the ideas that even. This is the most important finding not just one of the most in the history of human beings. Im not a total beginner, i have a degree in math and used to be a high school math and physics tutor, but ideally i would want to read a book that explains the concept as intuitively as possible, even if that means taking out most of the math. What are good books for special relativity physics stack exchange. The 17 best special relativity books recommended by phil plait, such as geometry, why does emc2 and special relativity. They both require a nonbasic knowledge of linear algebra.
A fine, physicallybased introduction to many of the details of special relativity. Special relativity practice problems a textbook based on this website is now available from cambridge university press. Which is the best special relativity book with proper mathematical. The authors are best known for their book gravitation which is. While lorentz failed to discover this relativity due to his belief in newtons. General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by albert einstein in 1916 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics. This is a book with great quantities of words, and figures, trying to explain. Relativity is generally regarded as his greatest achievement and it comes in two forms. Maxwell and special relativity princeton university. For the man on the street, einstein and relativity are prob ably epitomized by this result. I will begin with saying that this book deserves its spot on the list of top 25 science books of all time. My favourite books on special relativity, both advanced and with a strong geometric flavour, are. This is reflected in the book in the large number of examples and exercises, ranging from the rather simple through to.
System upgrade on tue, may 19th, 2020 at 2am et during this period, ecommerce and registration of new users may not be available for up to 12 hours. Some gifted people can write and explain well the most complex ideas some cannot. Special relativity is loosely based on the tried and tested course at oxford, where extensive tutorials and problem classes support the lecture course. The first completely geometric approach to relativity theory, based on the spacetime geometries of loedel and brehme. The following edition is a good translation with the diagrams included. Has the best answer to the title question ive seen in any generalaudience book on relativity. First, the book introduces special relativity in a simple way. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of pages and is available in paperback format. Woodhouses comparatively short special relativity is a pleasure to read and therefore qualifies right off as a good source to use for learning about special relativity on your own. As one of the great physicist, lorentz deducted the lorentz factor by which time, length and relativistic mass change for an object while the object is moving.
There are a lot of good books about relativity, but most have been targeted at a high level of understanding, bennett told. It really brings electrical field and magnetic field together, and this is the very purpose of me looking into special relativity. Topics include time, space, lorentz transformation, electricity and magnetism, form invariance, experimental evidence, much more. Einstein does a reasonably good job of communicating the postulates and impacts of special and general relativity. This is the best book on special relativity that i have ever come across. A hundred years of relativity that was republished this year to coincide with the centenary of the theory of general relativity. Find the top 100 most popular items in amazon books best sellers. Although the final form of the theory came to use minkowski spaces and metric tensors, it is possible to discuss sr using nothing more than high school algebra.
Quantum field theory and the hunt for an orderly universe by frank close another historical book about the development of the standard model. Written in the late 1930s, it explores the life of mr. Einstein explained that when two objects are moving at a constant speed as the relative motion between the two. Frey leads readers on a fascinating journey in this book that seeks to prove that albert einsteins theory of special relativity is all wrong. Tapei cheng 2015 a college course on relativity and cosmology oxford university press. It clearly explains what postulates are unwavering and why and then proceeds to show how the other generally accepted physics concepts, which appear at first to be at odds with each other, can in fact coexist. The aim of this book is to introduce people without a strong physics or even scientific background to the special and general theories of relativity and now i want to read other similar scientific books. So i was wondering what are the best books you know of regarding special. A first course in special relativity there are tons with that name e. In 1905, albert einstein published the theory of special relativity, which explains how to interpret motion between different inertial frames of reference that is, places that are moving at constant speeds relative to each other.
This maybe makes it lose points from the standpoint of brevity and aesthetics. Wolfgang rindler, introduction to special relativity. This will help you make the connection between sr and gr tensor notations, etc since deeper then. This is an introduction to einsteins theories of special and general relativity. Isbn 97818996304 the book walks the reader through the development of the special and general theories of relativity and the supporting theories they were built upon. The ground that albert einstein gained in relativity is well demonstrated in this book. The special and the general theory by albert einstein, einstein.
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