Relativity Demystified

"Learn Relativity at the Speed of Light" is found on the back cover of this book and I think it's true. It was aproximately 1.23 light years ago when I first purchased this book and I am now on page 208(out of 328 total). My point is that the book is very good but to get through it requires a lot of work; relative to the math and physics background that you possess. I was totally stumped on pages 2 and 3 (Maxwells current-magnetic field equation). It will help to supplement this study with a book on tensor calculus and another relativity book by Hartle or Schutz. The worked examples and chapter quizes were great though and worth the effort.

While this is not exactly the "learning of relativity at the speed of light" the book advertises, unlike many others of the Demystified series, this volume does indeed have its high points. The lead up to Einstein's Field Equations -- although the notational gymnastics and some of the mathematics was daunting -- is nevertheless first class. It gives the reader a very much-needed window into the role the Linear Algebra notion of mathematical mappings and transformations -- especially as viewed from the point of view of "basis vectors," through "one forms," and on to "partial derivatives of Tensor Calculus" -- play in bootstrapping one's way up from the local Newtonian/Euclidian frame of reference to the more generalized space-time Reimann/Malinowsky frame. And most importantly, it shows by carefully selected examples and exercises how tensor calculus takes over from Linear Algebra in moving from the more local Newtonian/Euclidian frame to the more generalized space-time frame. In fact, reading between the lines of the book, one could argue that the whole of understanding the mechanics of relativity is grasping fully this single concept: of how to move mathematically from reference frame to reference frame -- that is, from inertial frames moving relative to one another in the Euclidian world to doing the same in the Space-time world. Doing this is not easy either conceptually or mathematically but is a necessity for getting from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics. If the reader learns to appreciate that the heavy-duty mathematics is required only for this task, and only in this light, then the ride will be infinitely easier. Even in Taylor and Wheeler's very down to earth treatment of relativity (in their "Spacetime Physics"), this kind of understanding is left in the background for the reader to infer and to ferret out on his own. A great deal of time is save in the earlier chapters of this volume by forcing the reader to understand early on why working ones way gradually up the ladder to the tensor Calculus is necessary: so that he is better able do all of the mathematical heavy-lifting seamlessly, later. One word of caution to the reader, which also is my only serious criticism of the book: The written dialogue is painfully sparse, so every word must be read carefully, weighed and parsed for its full meaning. It is helpful to read the book three times: First as an overview to see where the author is headed; and then a second time to understand the mathematical content -- especially the dizzy array of notations -- and then finally to put all the pieces together. That is, read it a third time just to confirm that one understands fully how the larger concepts match up with the corresponding mathematics. It seems much easier for the authors of physics and mathematical texts to roll out reams of equations than to give just the minimal explanations about how these equations relate to the underlying concepts they are supposed to explain and descr

McMahon has done it again; its a masterpiece. If you ever wanted to know what a Schwarzchild radius represents, you should get this book. He starts out sequentially and after moving through different topics you get to work on the Einstein equations. I had an old copy of Maple V and didn't even know it would do Christoffel symbols of the first and second kind. After upgrading to Maple 10, I worked out problems on the computer.

The five stars are for the CLARITY and EXPLICITNESS of this book, for what the author intends and accomplishes, as opposed to a comparison with other GR books that have different goals. If you are self-studying GR, this is the book to have, even if you own others. If you are taking a GR course and don't find GR trivially easy or straightforward then this book will HELP. While this may not be the very best GR book it is certainly the best for those readers lacking the math skills (or who have forgotten the math) to jump into a 'graduate level textbook.' [I am also reading "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, along with several other GR books, and "Relativity Demystied" is helping to make that 1300+ page book and others much more readable.] This book takes the reader step by step through the tensor analysis required to build up the Einstein Field Equations. Numerous examples are worked in explicit detail, and (doable) excerizes are offered with most chapters. Exercise answers are provided in an appendix. If you want to go beyond popular accounts of Relativity but don't have the math background for a 'graduate level textbook' then thi s is almost certainly the answer. This book is also MUCH less expensive than almost every other useful GR textbook so it is tremendous value, even as a supplement to more advanced texts. Does it make GR easy? No. Does it make GR POSSIBLE to understand? Absolutely. As Einstein himself reportedly said, "As simple as possible, and no simpler."