Relativity: The Special And The General Theory (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
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 - theories that Einstein was the primary developer of. Einstein assumes the reader has passes a "university matriculation exam." What that meant in the first half of the 20th Century, I don't know but in practice what's required is the level of algebra I had by age 16 plus a smattering of mentions of the square root of minus 1. I also found basic calculus useful for one section, though it is possible to do without it.For the most part this book is excellent, introducing the minimal amount of mathematics and formal language necessary to understand the most important and fundamental concepts of Einstein's theories in a way that is accessible whilst concise. It might be possible to do it better with a bigger book, a less formal style and a lot more diagrams but it very interesting to get Einstein's unique perspective as originator of the theories and insight into his thought processes.A few sections are remarkable in contrast with the rest, for being unclear. The section on addition of velocities in special relativity leaves rather more to the reader than anything else in the book, mathematically, and when I looked it up it turned out to be much easier to work out using basic calculus than algebraic division - and the bit that wasn't clear was that a division of two equations was what was required. This section could be skipped without losing much. The remainder of the muddy sections come at the back end of the section on general relativity. The simplest precise mathematical formulation of this theory is expressed using tensors - and tensor algebra is way beyond what anybody encounters in standard school maths or physics curricula. Einstein makes no attempt to explain it and in fact never shows the fundamental equation of general relativity. This makes it very hard for him to explain how gravitational fields and space-time interact, which leads to the lack of clarity in the latter stages of this part of the book. Things get easier and clearer again when he moves on to relativity and cosmology.The final part of the book is a collection of appendices expanding on things discussed earlier on. I required pen and paper to check the derivation of the Lorentz Transformations from first principles - but this section could just be skipped if the maths bothers you - it doesn't add a lot but it is interesting to see it, if your algebra is up to it.The most rewarding thing for me, since nothing here is completely new to me, was listening to Einstein's voice. He seemed to come at things from a viewpoint much more generally philosophical than most present day physicists would, discussing Kant, Descartes and Hume, for instance. The section on the concept of "empty space" was fascinating - he concludes that general relativity precludes this notion - one cannot have space-time without it containing "fields." What he means is fields of force - the electromagnetic field, gravitational field etc. This implies the notion of a field being present even if its magnitude is zero - which is a bizarre concept. Modern quantum mechanics backs these ideas to the hilt and leads me to think that one of the most important areas of inquiry for fundamental physics as it stands is the connection between the classical idea of space-time and the quantum idea of the vacuum. The fundamental nature of both is obscure - and in some sense they should be the same thing.Overall this is an excellent introduction to special relativity and at least the conceptual underpinnings of general relativity, if not of the full theory, which really just can't be explained properly without knowledge of tensors.
Albert Einstein was a really smart motherfucker. He was smart not just because he was able to conceive of the theory of relativity (both the special and general theories) - he was working on things that people before him had already worked on. What was really smart about him is that he was able to make it all explicable - if not entirely comprehensible - to your average person. I'm not going to go into the general and special theories of relativity, because I honestly only understand the theories in metaphor, and Einstein's metaphors are much more eloquent, nuanced, and specific than mine. Plus, I don't really remember exactly what it was all about. Basically, that Euclidean geometry is always going to fail in the face of a universe that is infinitely more complex than we can possibly imagine. But there are some constants and things you can do with math that help make calculations a lot closer to and reflective of actual observation. Einstein was hoping, I think, for some universal constant, but never got there (or didn't share it, fearing that it would give physicists nothing to do but make little pig statues out of pink erasers and thumbtacks). The math, a lot of it, is far beyond me, but I'm sure the mathematic illustrations and references to quantum physics documents are really helpful to people who know about that stuff. I was a good math student in high school, and a lot of it is still light-years out of my league. But like I said, the important thing about the book is that it explains things without needing the math. Anyone can relate to that feeling of being on a train (or in a car, nowadays), your focal point being the side of a moving car, and feeling as if you're moving backward even though the car beside you has moved forward, when in reality, you're both on the planet Earth, rotating on its axis and around the sun, which is moving in relation to our galaxy, which...you get the point. You can measure the speed of the car moving next to you, giving you that sick feeling in your stomach, but you're never going to get it quite right, except as it relates to wherever you happen to be. Pretty short read, too.
What do You think about Relativity: The Special And The General Theory (2006)?
جُزيتِي خيراً حوري.. ولكن هناك مشكلة بسيطة و هي أن الكتاب على ميديافاير يصعب تحميله على التاب .. لذلك لو كان لديكِ حساب في "فور شيرد" فسيكون التحميل أسهل بكثير.. و الّم يتوفر فلكِ جزيل الشكرو أكرر شكري على جميل تعاملكِ و سرعة استجابتك
—مديحة حوري
Einstein, Albert. RELATIVITY: The Special and General Theory. (German-1916; Eng.-1920). ****. And now for something completely different... I first read this small book by Einstein in, I guess, 1960, just after I had finished a course in Nuclear Physics. I didn’t understand it then. Since then, I have completed two degrees in chemistry and worked in the field for 45 years. I still don’t understand all of it. This was his attempt to present these theories to the lay public. This is probably his most widely read boo, and he went to great pains to use practical examples (most notably the train and the embankment) to demonstrate its application. There is the minimum amount of mathematics included in the book, although he does use equations to show the difference between the Newtonian (or Galilean) transformation and the Lorentz transformation, a critical piece of mathematics basic to his explication of his theories. The book is basically divided into two parts: the first part dealing with the special theory of relativity, the second with the general theory. He hints at his search for a unified field theory, but cleverly puts us off. The section on the general theory deals, primarily, with its cosmological implications, and he uses it to formulate his view of the structure of the universe that holds, mostly, down to this day. There are later appendices added that provide additional data offered as proof of both theories and what additional implications there might be. Although this is a landmark book in the history of science, it is not one for the “general” reader, even though Einstein, in his preface, indicates that “...(this) work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation examination.” He does go on further to add: “...despite the shortness of the book, a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader (would be required).” If you are interested in the history of science, this book is for you. If you are trying to learn about the basics of the theories of relativity without a degree in physics, I’d suggest you seek other texts. Recommended.
—Tony
Sometimes it's best to get your info straight from the horse's mouth. Putting aside how utterly pretentious you'll look reading this book, it's a great encapsulation of Einstein's most important work into something most people will be able to understand. Other summaries of relativity I've read by Hawking and Greene have been good but not as comprehensive. More dumbed-down versions are usually nothing more than analogies that offer no real insight.As far as the math credentials, Einstein introduces some coordinate shifting that requires a bit of algebra and familiarity with function notation, and a small bit of trigonometry later on. Calculus is not required but certainly helps with the understanding. Math-phobes can ignore all of this and still get the gist of most of it, but all readers will need a fair bit of spacial understanding to visualize many of the scenarios posed.
—Eli
