Customer Reviews

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The reviewer of April 13 from Moscow, Idaho says this is not the book to read unless you already understand the theory. Maybe fair enough. It was written when Einstein had achieved youthful fame, though, not in his dotage, if he had such a thing. It may be a little more difficult for the translation, but not much. Contrary to some reviewers, it is not that easy to follow, and if it seems like an easy read, you probably haven't understood it. There are many books written since where it is probably easier to learn about special relativity, to say nothing of the basic ideas of general relativity. But once you have started to get the hang of things, this book is a masterpiece of exposition! It allows one to follow Einstein's actual thought process in arriving at these theories -- pretty much by a process of pure thought -- more or less in the steps he probably took himself. There is not a word in the exposition that was not carefully thought out. So, learn the theory somewhere else and then read this book -- you'll understand the theory better for reading Einstein's book -- or read this book first, keep going back to it 'til it starts to make sense, and maybe consult some other, more "user-friendly" textbook at the same time. Einstein claims his book allows a lay reader with only high school math to understand relativity. To which a friend of mine replied "Yeah, if you have an IQ of 800". To which I say, have patience, keep thinking about it and going back to it.

There is no doubt that Albert Einstein has been one of the most brilliant minds of the past century. His major contribution to science was the special and the general theory of relativity, which gave a new dimension to that we call today "Modern Physics". Many people feel frustrated because when they try to understand relativity, they find some authors that expound in their books a complex arrangement of equations referring to the mathematical part of the theory, namely, the books are accessible for people with certain levels of knowledge (that is the case of engineers, physicists, mathematicians, among others). Nevertheless, perceiving and anticipating this situation, Albert Einstein wrote this book (more than fifty years ago) whit the purpose of exposing the special and the general theory of relativity in such a way that anyone can understand it. I this sense, I think, Einstein succeeded because despite the shortness of the book, the same covers the most important aspects of relativity in a clear and concise form. Moreover, the book has appendixes where the author makes reference to some interesting subjects like the problem of space and relativity, the experimental confirmation of the theory, to name a few. If you have decided to learn something about relativity, and you do not have vast knowledge in physics and mathematics, I sincerely recommend you this book. On the other hand, if you were a reader looking for more technical information (mathematical foundation of general relativity), I would choose the book "Gravitation" written by Misner, Wheeler y Thorne. This text represents an encyclopedia about general relativity.

This book is truly a scientific gem. Not only did the brilliant Einstein envision the theory of relativity, but he also felt compelled to inform non-scientists by writing this "less" technical explanation of his theory. The book's section on Special Relativity is not too difficult to grasp. However, having some basic understanding of algebra and classical mechanics is helpful. On the other hand, the section on General Relativity is quite profound, requiring the reader to imagine new concepts of space and time that are alien to one's sense of reality. Indeed, I had to read this section several times and I'm still not sure if I completely understand it. However, this is more of a function of my imagination skills rather than Einstein's literary abilities. For he uses an abundance of familiar terms and analogies to simplify the understanding of some of the more "unusual" implications of General Relativity. I would not recommend this book to someone averse to technical subjects. However, I do recommend it to those wishing to learn the basics of relativity theory.

This book is not an easy read. It is not his best attempt at explaining his theories of special and general relativity. I do however recommend any book he has written purely for the thrill of reading something by his own hand. Without going into details about the book, suffice it to say, his examples are not the most fluid or helpful in explaining the counter intuitive to mediocrities like myself. Moreover, the equations are not for the faint of heart.
But I do have a much better book to recommend, also written by Einstein(and Infeld). The book is called An Evolution Of Physics. It covers the rise and fall of mechanics, explains beautifully theories of special and general relativity, as well as his theory on quanta. I have taken a university course on relativity for non-specialists, am a collector of popular science books, and have twenty or more books explaining Einstein's theories. The Evolution of Physics is sheer poetry!!! Unlike its predecessor published in 1916, this book was published in 1938. In my humble opinion, he got it right the second time 'round.

Much has been said about Einstein's poor ability to write, namely with respect to this particular book. Einstein frequently mentions that this book, designed for the laity, will not be easy to read despite its purpose to clarify. Einstein states on numerous occasions that he does not wish to focus a tremendous amount of time on perfecting his writing style. In fact, he relegates this practice to "tailors" and "cobblers". Although, for us this certainly is a disadvantage because the end result is that only a select number of people in the population can interpret the Theory of Relativity correctly. Yet, the aim should be the reverse.

What better person to here about relativity than Einstein himself? This is a great book for anyone interested in relativity. I do have one problem with this book--it's a crappy translation, even taking into account the fact that it was written in the dialect of Great Britain. The language is too lugubrious for my taste.

I've used this book with my high school students - very slow going. You can definitely understand the issues involved in relativity, even as a layman, from reading this book, but THIS IS NOT AN EASY READ! A mature, dedicated reader will get through this book. I'm proud of my high school students for struggling through this book, but readers at that age mostly do not have the intensity to really appreciate it.

I won't lie to you, the theory of relativity is not simple. The special relativty is easily understood, yet it is a topic covered in university as an speciality in majors more involved with physics, and general relativity is coverd in masters. Both topics can be quite esoteric, and the mathematical explanation for the relativistic deformation of the time-space due to speed uses Fourier's transforms, so most people will have to just have faith in what Einstein is trying to explain. However, he does simplify the subject enough, so anyone with a basis of physics could grasp some of the most important ideas behind his theory.

Furthermore, this book is important in the fact that by proving that relativity was a real fact in physics, the shape of the world in the twentieth century took a great change. I believe that without Einstein's work, the nihilism porfethized by Nietzsche, toghether with the despotic regimes that the will of power would create guided by deviations of the "übermensch" might not have com in such strenght as it did.

How better to learn and appreciate Einsteins theory's of relativity than from his own words. I read this book senior year of Highschool and found it quite engaging. There are some mathmatical prerequisites for understanding everything, but nothing that should keep anyone from understanding. These were the theories that changed the view of the universe and should be known by a wider base of people.

This book is very interesting glimpse of where einstein was coming from. this is a book that is still interesting if you understand relativity, because einsein gives a very thorough look at the circumstances surrounding the development of the theory. Including a delineation of the specific problems with newtonian mechanics which neccesitated development of the special and general theories of relativity, which I have never found in any other book on the subject.

He also does a wonderful job of explaining why the special theory was insufficient, and the steps with which he developed the general theory of relativity.

This book is a look at the most wildly hyped theory of the twentieth century, and explains it so that almost anyone should be able to understand it and also undestand why Einstein once said he spent the vast majority of his life trying to understand quantum mechanics, and not relativity.