Customer Reviews

Complete Series Bundle RC: The Special Theory of Relativity (Routledge Classics)

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4 star:		(2)
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A thorough but very down-to-earth introduction to the math, physics and philosophy of special relativity, and some of the history leading to its development. Bohm is such a first-rate physicist (well known for his original theorizing about quantum reality) and also a superb teacher who understands where others are coming from. The best quality is his well-rounded understanding of human cognition as it relates to the concepts of the relativity of space and time, matter and energy, etc. A long and really worthwhile appendix discusses Piaget's models of how children form ideas about space, time, permanence, change, etc., and, since we were all children once, the source of many of the metaphors and thought patterns that we bring to our understanding of classical space and time, and also relativity. He argues -- and shows -- that relativity's ideas of flexible space, time, etc., are actually close in structure to a child's notion of the world and therefore not so counter-intuitive as we often think they are. Indeed, his constant message is, "This isn't really so hard, nor is it really as strange as it's made out to be." He shows the errors of the absolutism (and arrogance, really) that grew out of Galileo's and Newton's approaches toward "eternal verities" about the universe, and finds in relativity not only a different approach toward space, time, matter, energy, etc., but toward doing science.

In the process he does a LOT of math, and relates the formulas to the philosophy and threory he expounds. The math is not hard -- almost no calculus, mostly algebra, a little trigonometry. If you really study this, you can have a very deep understanding of why special relativity concludes what it does. The discussion of Minkowski's geometrical approach is very helpful and complements well the earlier algebraic treatment of the Lorentz transformations.

I've read quite a few popular books on special relativity and this is definitely among the very best. Bohm converses with the reader, doesn't talk down, and is wise, not cute, about the most surprising aspects of the theory. He clearly has thought deeply about the meaning of special relativity, and I came away feeling fortunate for having one of the great physics minds of our century share his creative insights and many years of experience with me. His thinking has a broad reach -- he refers to Thomas Kuhn several times, and his focus on the physical experience behind our abstract concepts reminded me of Lakoff and Núñez's groundbreaking "Where Mathematics Comes From," and Lakoff and Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" (both written well after this 1965 book). I feel I understand not only special relativity better, but science in general and its place in our thought.

There are a few small drawbacks. I found myself skipping over some of the tedious derivations of the formulas and picking up without missing anything. The edition I read (Routledge, ppbk 1996) has a few minor math mistakes, which is a pain when you're trying to follow the steps carefully. But all-in-all I found myself eager to come back to the book until I finished it, and I've underlined so much that I'll be going back to it again soon, I think.

This is a review of the edition of 1965 which appeared in Russian (1967) in my translation. The book contains a thorough exposition of Einstein's special relativity, with a discussion of historical, philosophical and psychological issues. David Bohm's clear and professional style, as well as many deep and original ideas make this book an outstanding course of this important chapter of theoretical physics, being of great value not only for students, but also for both actively working specialists in physics and philosophy of science, and even for serious laymen. I especially recommend the Chapter 25 (Falsificability of theories) as an excellent food for thought.

Here, David Bohm, one of Einstein's last students, brings to our attention in his usual clear, thorough and exciting way, just how revolutionary and counter-intuitive the ideas that underlie the Special Theory of Relativity really were, and still are, and indeed how different they are from the standard model of physics. In order to fully appreciate the radical nature of the changes needed to make the transition, from the "Standard Model" to "Relativistic Physics," he includes a complete appendix from which he draws most of his conceptual (i.e. Psychological and Philosophical) insights. Rather surprisingly they were taken mostly from the works of none other than the famous Swiss Child Psychologist Jean Piaget, which at the time the book was written in 1967, were quite revolutionary themselves. Judging by this rather astoundingly clear appendix alone, called "Physics and Perceptions," in which Bohm lays out a deep conceptual framework upon which the book is hung, one could argue that Professor Bohm is at least as proficient a social scientist and analytical psychologist as he is a Physicist.

Because of its centrality to the book, my advice to the reader is to read the appendix first, or at least at a very early stage of the book, because it is there that the substance of the book takes shape and form. The physics concepts are almost incidental to this underlying conceptual theme.

That said, it must be pointed out that this then is a wholly conceptual, rather than a mathematical book on the Special Theory. No mathematics are needed and none are used. In many ways it parallels Amos Harpaz's equally excellent conceptual book, called "Relativity Theory: Concepts and Basic Principles," which attempts to do the same thing for the General Theory, except in Harpaz's case (written almost 30 years later), even to explain the concepts of GT required, as a minimum, the Tensor Calculus.

The beauty of the present volume is that even though we have heard it all before and thought we fully understood the conceptual basis of the Special Theory, and all the many nuances of the Michelson-Morley experiments with the ether, Lorentz transforms, Maxwell equations, to Minkowski's geometry, and on to the tricky aspects of reformulating space-time itself, it all has a fresh (not a historical) resonance in Bohm's skilful hands.

And as always, here again, as he has done in his other writings especially those since, on "The Implicate Order," for instance, there is something novel to learn and understand with each new recounting by Bohm. It is not just the way the concepts are applied to physics alone that matters in Bohm's recounting, but also how they are used in other contexts, in the arts for instance, or to modern applied physics and engineering technology, and how Relativity has become a metaphor of our culture, more generally.

Bohm's explanations are so clear and so carefully laid out that there is no margin of error for misunderstanding. For that alone and the historical value of the book itself (it may even be clearer than Einstein's own popular book on STR) earns five stars.

If fractional stars could be awarded I would give this book 4.5 stars. I liked it but in my opinion was not quite a 5 star book. Being unable to give it 4.5 stars I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and going with 5 stars, but with some reservations, discussed below.

I really liked the first three-quarters of the book. Professor Bohm writes with clarity, giving more than just derivations of basic equations (which he does with some rigor), but also provides a very clear exposition of why things are what the theory says they are. He provides not only the standard treatment of relativity, but also provides details about the ether theory, Lorentz' attempt to save it in the face of contradictory experimental evidence and the behavior of charged particles in electromagnetic fields - the last item a subject that is generally not covered in a basic treatment of relativity theory. In terms of difficulty, I would rate the book as being much more difficult than Gardner's "Relativity Simply Explained" or Wolfson's "Simply Einstein", but less difficult than an intermediate college text. It is suitable for someone wishing to learn the subject on their own, but only if they have some physics background and are willing to deal with some basic algebra and a little first year college math. It is also very useful for someone studying this subject in college, as Professor Bohm's explanations of the nature of relativity theory are very good, making this an excellent adjunct to a standard college text.

Unfortunately, I found the last quarter of the text a bit less clear than the first three-quarters. This latter quarter deals with the Minkowski Diagram, K calculus and applications of these subjects. Many basic books cover Minkowski's space-time approach, but few cover K calculus, for good reason. I found these discussions rushed and far from clear. Also, the text covering several of the figures contain reference to letter denoted items that are not on the figure, making it very difficult to follow what Bohm is trying to get across. As noted by other reviewers, there were some typographical errors (mostly leaving out prime superscripts and alike) that needlessly confused things. I had the feeling that if another 50 pages had been allotted to the latter half of the book it would have been greatly improved.

There is a 60-page appendix that discusses Physics and Perception. Professor Bohm obviously was greatly influenced by the work of Piaget and other physiologists and used this to try to explain how we learn to interpret the world, how this defines our concept of it, and why this makes the basic concepts of Special Relativity are so difficult to accept. While very useful and informative, this is an area where I think that less would have definitely been more. A brief 10-page summary would been, for me, clearer, more focused, and would therefore have had more impact.

All in all, I liked this book and would recommend it to someone who is really interested in Relativity Theory, but if all you want is a basic primer on what the subject is about, without somewhat rigorous mathematical derivations, then this would not be the best choice for you.

Due to appreciation of Bohm's Quantum Theory text I didn't hesitate to borrow this from the library when I saw it in the catalogue.

Much of the book was very enjoyable and informative to read. Like Bohm's Quantum Theory book, this has a great deal of well thought out logical development of the subject, a great deal of which does not require much mathematics to appreciate. The discussion of the Lorentz and the aether theory fit well with the development of the Lorentz transformation, general velocity addition and other concepts. That Lorentz theory discussion provided nice context for the introduction of Einstein's relativity principle, and one is left better able to appreciate the differences from the mechanistic model.

The idea that our perceptions, and preconceptions towards non-relativisitic descriptions are learned was interesting. That said I have to admit that the non-technical appendix that discussed this in depth lacked the technical content required to hold my interest.

Some of the mathematics bits were actually fairly tricky, in particular, the transformation of the Lorentz force equation. The approach seemed straightforward, but the algebra gets hairy. The part that was left as an exercise for the reader to verify was particularly messy.

As observed by one of the other reviewers, there were many typography errors in the mathematics. These were usually self correcting in later steps so I imagine they were not in the original manuscript.

Great intro book to SR, highly advise to all prof/teachers/scholars.

Hope they come out with a hardcover soon