Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #645794 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 394 pages

Synopsis
Relativity theory has become one of the icons of Twentieth Century science. It's reckoned to be a difficult subject, taught as a layered series of increasingly difficult mathematics and increasingly abstract concepts. We're told that relativity theory is supposed to be this complicated and counter-intuitive. But how much of this historical complexity is really necessary? Can we bypass the interpretations and paradoxes and pseudoparadoxes of Einstein's special theory and jump directly to a deeper and more intuitive description of reality? What if curvature is a fundamental part of physics, and a final theory of relativity shouldn't reduce to Einstein's "flat" 1905 theory //on principle//? "Relativity..." takes us on a whistlestop tour of Twentieth Century physics - from black holes, quantum mechanics, wormholes and the Big Bang to the workings of the human mind, and asks: what would physics look like without special relativity? 394 printed pages, 234 156 mm, ~200 figures and illustrations, includes bibliography and index www.relativitybook.com

Customer Reviews

A wonderful physics compendium.
Not only is this a great introduction to the history of 20th Century Physics, it also introduces the reader to the author's sometimes controversial, but fresh perspective on the world of theoretical physics. You don't have to agree with everything, but the book will certainly make you think again about the bizarre world of quantum phenomena. If you didn't get 'A Brief History of Time', then try this; it probably goes down much easier.

Something different
Chapters 1-4 cover everything that most people will want to know about light, gravity time and relativity, from first principles, and with lots of illustrations. E=mc squared is dealt with in chapter two!
Chapter 5 is about where Isaac Newton's physics went wrong.

Chapters 6-8 deal with Doppler shifts, and the way that things seem to distort when they move, and Chapter 9 lists reasons why we might expect moving bodes to drag light along with them.

Chapter 10 is about quantum mechanics and what happens when we can't see things, Chapter 11 is about black holes and dark stars.

Chapter 12 asks what's wrong with general relativity, and Chapter 13 does some math (its title is "Horrible Nasty Mathematics"!).

(deep breath)

Chapter 14 describes the background to special relativity, Chapter 15 takes a critical look at Einstein's theory, and Chapter 16 examines the experimental evidence for it.

Chapters 17, 18 and 19 are more fun, and tackle cosmology, wormhole theory and whether we can build a warp drive.

The rest of the book is about the psychology of science and how it influences what theories say. Chapter 20 is about language traps and mental blocks, Chapter 21 is about social factors and peer pressure, and Chapter 22 is a short conclusions section. Then there's some calculations and a decent reference section for students.

Overall, its a big book with lots of pictures. Most people will probably like Chapters 1-4 and 17-19, but whether you like the other chapters or not will probably depend on how interested you are in their subject matter. Chapters 6-8 do read a bit like a boring school textbook, but the rest of the book is pretty chatty, and it has illustrations almost everywhere. It's not your normal science book.

how refreshing!
Physics is not my subject but I have read this book with great interest and have learnt a great deal. Its very accessible and as a lay person I found the writing style to be open and inviting, it was easy to delve in and out of subjects and chapters - particularly helpful if one isn't very familiar with the subject matter.

The author treats the reader with respect and grants them the intelligence to soak up his points and at the same time understand counter arguements. There is a great sense of humour that comes through as well as a desire to really engage the reader with the subject.


Thankyou - I'll keep delving...