Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Dr. Einstein oft lamented that so few really understood his theories. He said that perhaps there was one or maybe two people that understood. It seems to me Max Born must be one of them. His work simplifies as much as possible without sacrificing the level of knowledge needed to grasp the topic and begin to see its implications. It is a complex topic but Max Born rises to the occasion to give us at least a glimpse into this important subject.

At times notation can be a distraction, at other times notation can cause confusion, as in E & M most notably. Max Born's 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.Some gifted people can write and explain well the most complex ideas some cannot. Max Born succeeds one of the best popular books on Relativity.

The notation comes from German: K for Kraft (force), b for Beschleuningung (acceleration), m for Masse (mass). It might be outdated, but that does in no way disqualify the content of a text. As for learning calculus in order to understand relativity: I believe Einstein once said he could explain relativity (maybe he meant special relativity) to a barmaid. Knowing calculus and differential geometry (for general relativity) would indeed provide one with a much deeper understanding of the theory, but one can get a good feel for the subject without it. So if you are looking for a basic introduction to relativity don't discard this one for those reasons. One good reason to choose this book is that it presents relativity in its natural context of electrodynamics, which really gives one a much clearer perspective, I believe.

Born does one of the best jobs of anyone of explaining relativity to the interested person. The first half deals primarily with Newtonian mechanics and he later applies this under more extreme circumstances to bring out Einstein's theory. Born also addresses this subject very well mathematically (which is good, because otherwise no one could understand the subject), although his variables may be confusing initially as he uses letters which are not convention.All in all it was probably the best book on relativity that I've read, and that's pretty good.

Born spends the first half of the book developing an historical perspective of the time at which Einstein was grappling with Relativity. He leads us through all the major domains of Physics and arrives at Einstein's point of departure.In the second half of the book, a full and complete review of Relativity is given.Extensive use of physics equations is made throughout the book however for the reader looking purely for the historical perspective these can be safely assumed.