ISBN:0517884410Amazon.com
How better to learn the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity than directly from their creator, Albert Einstein himself? In Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, Einstein describes the theories that made him famous, illuminating his case with numerous examples and a smattering of math (nothing more complex than high-school algebra). Einstein's book is not casual reading, but for those who appreciate his work without diving into the arcana of theoretical physics, Relativity will prove a stimulating read./p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Still the Best Layman's Intro Out There
Modern phsyics gives us Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. For the lay reader, the plethora of popularizations out there can be daunting. But, having read the lion's share of all of them myself, I'd recommend to you only a handful:
QM: Nick Herbert's "Quantum reality"
Strings: Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe"
Everything: Roger Penrose's "the Road to Reality"
Relativity: This book by Einstein! Einstein's presentation is so clearly stated and concise. His presentation of what he's thinking is so simple that you'll find you too can visualize just what he's explaining... at the end of the book, you'll find that it actually makes sense... not only that, it makes perfect sense and you'll understand just why the theory had to come about. The beauty of relativity (as opposed to QM and Strings) is that it IS accessible to us mere mortals and it IS a sensible and beautiful theory, once you strip away everything else and just think about. That's what Einstein brilliantly helps you to do here.
A Good Compilation of early 20th century Physics
This is a good book, but most are under the impression that Einstein actually CREATED the content of the book.
Einstein actually compiled the physics theories of the latest German and Italian physicists and wrote it as his entire theory.
For instance, e=mc^2 was not created by Einstein, as so many people people. An Italian physicist came up with it. If you don't believe me check any encyclopedia.
Einstein suceeded in taking everyone's work and compiling it. This was helpful to the world of physics.
Unfortunately, this stuff is outdated, and Autodynamics has disproven many things that Einstein says in this book. When it came out it was already outdated. This was published in the 60s. Autodynamics disproved what is in this book in the 40s (45 I believe). If this was published in the 20s or even the 30s, it would have been a good book.