Book Description
There is little doubt that Einstein's theory of relativity captures the imagination. Not only has it radically altered the way we view the universe, but the theory also has a considerable number of surprises in store. This is especially so in the three main topics of current interest that this book reaches, namely: black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. The main aim of this textbook is to provide students with a sound mathematical introduction coupled to an understanding of the physical insights needed to explore the subject. Indeed, the book follows Einstein in that it introduces the theory very much from a physical point of view. After introducing the special theory of relativity, the basic field equations of gravitation are derived and discussed carefully as a prelude to first solving them in simple cases and then exploring the three main areas of application. Einstein's theory of relativity is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of the human mind. Yet, in this book, the author makes it possible for students with a wide range of abilities to deal confidently with the subject. Based on the author's fifteen years experience of teaching this subject, this is achieved by breaking down the main arguments into simple logical steps. The book includes numerous illustrative diagrams and exercises (of varying degrees of difficulty), and as a result this book makes an excellent course for any student coming to the subject for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent General Relativity Textbook.......2006-09-15
This text is well written. It is less well-known than it deserves to be, as it now has many competitors. Needless to say, it deserves attention by the serious student and professors alike.This marvelous resource should not be collecting dust on anyone's bookshelf.
Review by author of Relativity Demystified.......2006-02-07
This was one of the books assigned when I took general relativity in college. I found several of the chapters very enjoyable to read. D'Inverno does a great job getting into some of the fascinating physics that lies behind general relativity and its development, like Mach's principles and a great discussion of the equivalence principle. Much of the book is devoted to teaching you the mathematics, and it does so in a good fashion. He has two nice chapters on tensors with homework problems that are doable. One drawback was the book didn't have anything on Cartan's equations or discuss one forms (although he talks about contravariant and covariant vectors). The first half of the book is better than the second half, I found his chapters on special relativity excellent but felt his chapters on black holes and gravity waves were a bit lacking. In any case, I recommend it. Try beefing up your education by reading it along with Schutz so you get some exposure to one forms and all that.
This is the best book for an introduction to GR.......2005-09-22
D'Inverno presents all the prerequisite maths needed for GR perfectly. The book is presented perfectly and at the appropriate introductory level for someone who has already done special relativity and wants to jump into GR but doesnt know what a tensor is. There definitly is no better introduction to GR in existence. The exercises at the end of each chapter are brilliant as well. Usually I dont do exercises as they take too long but D'Invernos exercises are a must do. You learn soo much from them and they are more easy than hard. Most books at this level give exercises which are too hard or not that important to understanding the next few chapters. But D'Invernos exercises are perfect especially the ones on the chapters about the maths needed for GR.
After introducing GR he does stuff on black holes, worm holes, gravitational waves and cosmology.
The only problems with the book are that in the first section of the book he does an introduction to special relativity for those who have never seen it before. It is a very bad intro to special relativity. For the best intro to special rel. one needs to consult "University Physics" by "Young and Fredman".
But for those who have already done SR, d'invernos intro to SR is new and interesting as a method if a bit too difficult and mathematical.
Also I would be a bit critical of the fact that after explaining the geometrical structure of GR perfectly he does not even mention how this view of gravity as a force is not exactly "combinable" with the particle physics view of gravity as a force communicated by a graviton. Just a small thought which I think is important. (Weinberg introduces GR by another method which does not use the mathematical geometrical structure throughout as he considers it "overemphasized" and a bit "misleading")
Wienbergs "General relativity and cosmology" should be the readers next port of call after D'inverno
Where's the new edition?.......2005-05-16
This is an excellent book. But I have seen a 1996 edition of it, not described above.
The best intro book on GR !!!.......2002-10-24
This is without any doubt the best book one can use for starting with GR: it is self contained, well written and moreover it is full of Physical insight. In brief: a great book. Even the introductory mathematical part (about tensor calculus) is great written: not too short and not too long. If one would like to gain an additional point of view about tensor calculus I'd recommend to compare the way followed by R. d'Inverno with that followed by Richtmyer "Principles of advanced mathematical Physics" vol 2 (the last all done in geodesic coordinates: this is a book on maths and not about GR!!). The level of Ray d'Inverno is at advanced undergraduate/1st year graduate: in fact one can find a lot of well discussed topics that are generally left out in other books on the subject. Of course this is not an advanced text like R. Wald or Hawking-Ellis, which are the right books if one wants to get a deeper insight in particular topics. The only fundamental thing R. d'Inverno lacks to treat in a fully way is the form of the Energy of the Gravitational field in GR and its related problems: no specific discussion about it. I think this is an important topic. A valuable (and probably the best) discussion about the latter can be found in L.D.Landau "Field Theory" book, or even in Sean Carroll "Spacetime and Geometry" book (a very good one, my favourite together with Landau and Ray d'Inverno), or you can also have a look about it into P. Dirac or Weinberg.
Book Description
It is now a century since Einstein's theories of Special and General Relativity revolutionized our view of the universe. Introducing Relativity plots a visually accessible course through Einstein's thought experiments that have given shape to contemporary physics. Scientists from Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking add their unique contributions to this story. Einstein's legacy is reviewed in the most advanced frontiers of physics today - black holes, gravitational waves, the accelerating universe and string theory.
Customer Reviews:
In my opinion, the "Introducing" series are well worth the money.......2007-06-14
Loved it. One of the better books in the series, I think.
Space is curved, not flat and gravitational waves can be manipulated to stretch time which is no longer fixed........2007-03-30
2nd edit
"Introducing Relativity" is explained well enough to be able to get it almost on the first read. Revision always reveals more (this is inherent in what it predicts and is the reason why I edited this review) but relativity is here for anyone who wants to know it.
In terms of the "Introducing..." science series this book complements "Introducing the Universe" and is an extension of "Introducing Newton and classical physics" but it turns out to be the easiest of the three to understand. It also harmonizes Hawking's "A brief history of time" who gives relativity a chapter but this book brings it out more.
Einstein became a household name with his formula E=MC2 meaning energy is mass. As a consequence he established that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light because the energy required to accelerate mass to this speed would be infinite because acceleration also produces an increase in mass.
Einstein understood Newton. Newton showed with his laws of motion how matter moves with and without force and established gravitational effects while Maxwell unified magnetism and electricity by showing that shifts in either electricity or magnetism produces a shift in the other. Newton however also implied that there was no absolute standard of rest because everything is moving. There was no such thing as absolute position or space in his mind. Newton did not believe that time was part of space but separate and could be measured with a good enough clock.
Reality without time is actually like saying that everything is flat and we now know this is an error. This flatness can be imagined by saying that when all questions about matter (sun, moon, planets and forces) was connected through Newton's mechanics of explaining nature it was explained `linked' in a flat sort of way.
Einstein discovered because of the properties of observing light that these `links' have an underlying nature that would change the Newtonian model with his special relativity (SR).
In SR Einstein showed time dilation at near light speeds. A simple theoretical model for this is a ball bouncing between the floor and ceiling. Our concern is just the distance up and down. If we put the room on a train and watch this as the train goes by, the ball also travels the distance the train moved so in one bounce it doesn't just travel up and down, it travels diagonally for us. The diagonal up and down is longer than just up and down. This means that for the observer on the ground the distance traveled was more than what the observer saw while in the room. There is a difference and so time can dilate.
Newton's flat model was not in agreement with SP. Time could change relative to the observer. Only the speed of light remained constant and the law that it could not be broken.
Now that Einstein had changed some of Newton's laws he sought to find how it extended to the rest of Newton's laws. Einstein needed to include velocity in SR in order to solve the simultaneity problem where a force like gravity and velocity can be confused if we don't have a window to observe from while inside the box being pulled by a planet or towed by a rocket.
Einstein eventually realized that gravitational mass and inertial mass are the same which explains this. Linking gravity with inertial mass meant Einstein could under more about this strange force of gravity. This resulted in GR, showing the shape and function of spacetime in the light cone event sliced into four dimensional space with curves called geodesics that matter naturally follows when others forces don't change act on the matter.
Imagine a trampoline made from very flexible material. When you role balls onto the material it creates dips in the plane creating a terrain. For Einstein this created natural curves for things to follow. That is it, GR!... okay so Einstein went more to show that features of this terrain cause affects on what we observe relatively in SR. The biggest feature is how it influences light (it can bend it) and of course the `dragon eating tail' mystery of GR whereby matter cause geometry to curve and geometry tells matter how to move.
There is whole new level of thought with GR. Its discovery meant GR needed to be calculated back into what physicists knew. The mathematics had to adapt and change to include Einstein's new equations and tensors.
Einstein discovered with GR that gravity travels in waves (is not just a strange mystery force, although it is unusual in that it is very weak) and these waves travel at the speed of light and that waves and curves in spacetime are subject to stretching. These gravity waves that are stretched by matter travelling in spacetime are called gravitational waves and were predicted by GR.
GR is summed up by John Wheeler who said "mass grips space by telling it how to curve, space grips mass by telling it how to move."
Core material:
Space and time
Newton and gravity
Maxwell
Spacetime
Special relativity
Time dilation
Muons
E=MC2
Anti-matter
Simultaneity problem and general relativity
Slicing spacetime
General relativity
Equivalence principle
Gravitational mass and inertial mass are the same
Matter follows geodesics unless acted on by a force
Spacelike, null, timelike
Metrics
Spacetime geodesics
Tensors and field equations
Positive and negative curved space
Intrinsic curvature
Extrinsic curvature
Vectors
Light bends
Black holes
Gravitational waves and stretching space
Interference
The book's technical value finishes at around this chapter on Interference. After that we get 50 pages on the standard model of the universe, Hawking and superstring. It really isn't much to do with relativity and you get better information on these topics on more specialized books. I would have preferred the 50 pages to be more about relativity explanations although I understand a need for closure somehow.
"Introducing time" also has relativity references. Overall this is excellent.
If you buy it, read it 5 to 7 times.......2006-09-09
I definately agree with the reviewers who say it's difficult, but this was the first and only introducing book I have ready perhaps 8 times. Each time, I walk away with a little bit more. Now I feel ready to actually tackle the real deal and research relatively from the horse's mouth. I highly recommend this book, but if you do read it, be prepared to read it several times before it all sinks in.
I went in dumb and..........2004-06-29
... came out dumb too.
I'm usually the first in line when there's Weighty Knowledge to be had on the cheap, and there ain't much that's toting a heavier load than Einstein's Theory of Relativity. So, skinny book + cartoons on every page + minimal text = Smart Me. Oh, happy day.
I was doing okay up until the two crows that looked kind of like Heckle and Jeckle showed up. Look, you can throw all the cute pictures you got but they aren't going to get me any closer to understanding geodesics and metrics. And that was just the crows! The chimp with the egg beater was pushing tensors and the gorillas with the pointy sticks were trying to explain vectors. Sorry. From the birds on I was absorbing what the authors were throwing at me about as well as a concrete wall absorbs tennis balls.
I like the idea of presenting complex topics in a graphic-text format. Unfortunately, I think this topic needs quite a bit more text and (gulp) an in-depth explanation of the math behind it all.
Absurd.......2003-12-23
A simply silly collection of kiddy drawings. Look elsewhere for genuine content.
Customer Reviews:
Relativity effectively explained using cartoons and humor.......2006-10-03
The conventional wisdom is that Albert Einstein was a transcendent genius whose development of the concepts of relativity was a generation ahead of his time. Sir Arthur Eddington was once told that he was in distinguished company, as he was one of only three people who understood Einstein's theories of relativity. Eddington paused for a moment and when asked what he was thinking, responded, "I am trying to think who the third person would be." However, this conventional is not the case, the relativity theories of Einstein were a natural progression of centuries of scientific thought.
This book, in a very entertaining yet efficient way, recapitulates the history of science that led to Einstein's great discoveries. It goes all the way back to the Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks to lay the mathematical foundations for understanding relativity. Using cartoons, captions and an occasional formula, the authors take you through the history of physics, astronomy, and some political and biographical history and end up with a brief explanation of the consequences of relativity.
It is another conventional wisdom that relativity is so complicated that very few can actually understand it. That is true if your goal is complete understanding, which requires very advanced mathematics. However, if you want to just understand it, then it is possible to learn it, and with this book you will not only learn it but have fun doing so.
Book Description
A graphic introduction to the best-known physicist alive today.
Customer Reviews:
So Hawking wants to win the Nobel prize does he.......2001-10-30
I read this book as a science work, not as a promotional biography.
As popular writings of modern physics go this is a rather good account of modern cosmology. The author has a physics background thus making the science fairly honest. The writing is linear with ample asides to bring the reader up to speed on important concepts. The brevity of the writing bespeaks compatification, not loss.
The problem is that Hawking wants to win the Nobel Prize something fierce. The author is out to lend his support to a fellow Britisher by publishing this unabashed Nobel promo (the closing pages give a summation of why Hawking should win the big one). As far as the cartoony format goes the caricatures seem to be directed at those physicists and religious figures (generally dead) the author wants to relegate to supporting roles to the great one. If you can get around these prejudices you will find a good read.
good descprtion of general concepts :).......2001-08-02
I was a bit reluctant to like this book when I first read it because of its abundance of cartoons that appeared to be quite cheaply drawn. It also belonged to part of a larger series of 'Introducing' books and I'm always reluctant to like those because they always seem to be directed towards making a profit rather than providing good information.
Contrary to my first impressions, the book was actually fairly good and informative. It covers a good part of Stephen Hawking's life as well as some background in fundamentals of physics so you can grasp some of his ideas. Although soem cartoons are completely gratuitous others actually provide extra clarification on the ideas expressed.
The book gives a very broad overview over Stephen Hawking's ideas. Specifically his theories concerning black hole radiation. Some stuff was a bit hard for me to grasp (atleast to understand all the little details was near impossible) but the book illustrates the general ideas very well :)
Aaah, so thats how space time works............2000-12-15
Cartoons, comic book style, sumo wrestlers - all these will from now on be associated with astronomy and quantum theory, thanks to this book. If like me you are just reading for general interest this book will explain it all, but without bogging it down with detail. A good read, and now I feel confident to read Hawkings book 'A brief history of time'.
Wonderfully informative!.......2000-02-23
This is a wonderful, short book about one of the most intelligent scientists of the time. Written in a biographical sense, Hawking's life is well documented as are his accomplishments and contributions to science.
Excellent, humorous introduction to Hawking & modern physics.......1998-10-19
After picking this up in a bookstore in Chicago, I couldn't stop reading it after I had started. The book combines interviews with Hawking along with biographical information and excellent cartoon illustrations and black & white photos to explain how modern thoughts on physics and black holes were developed. I've used some of the information from this book to teach my high school Physics class about black holes, and I hope to use it more in the future. The book sort of ends without much explanation of the COBE background explorer, but other than that, it's full of essential information presented in a format that is easy and fun to read.
Average customer rating:
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Introducing Special Relativity
W.S.C. Williams , and
W.S. Williams
Manufacturer: CRC
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0415277612 |
Book Description
Introducing Special Relativity provides an easy and rewarding way into special relativity for first and second year university students studying physics. The author establishes the fundamentals of relativity at the outset of this book so readers fully understand the principles and know how to them before moving on to subjects, like time dilation, that often are a source of difficulty for students. The primary topics addressed include conserved relativistic energy and momentum, applications of the Lorentz transformation, and developments in 20th-century physics. This volume also reviews some of the early experiments in the development of special relativity.
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Acid Rain Fisheries
American Fisheries Society
Manufacturer: American Fisheries Society
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0913235261 |
Book Description
International symposium on acid rain's immediate damage and future threat to fish and aquatic resources in North America
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Acid Stress and Aquatic Microbial Interactions
Salem Rao
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0849351685 |
Book Description
This volume presents information and techniques which are at the leading edge of microbial acid rain research and addresses a number of topical and important issues of global concern. Topics discussed include microbial responses to low pH and biogeochemical processes. Cycling of organic matter, microbial interactions with higher forms of biota, and the factors affecting these processes and interactions are described. This book is of special interest to researchers and those involved in management of acid - stressed waters.
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Acid rain and fisheries: An overview
Murray G Johnson
Manufacturer: Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007BJJGI |
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