Customer Reviews

Einstein For Dummies

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would give this book five stars except for one thing. I have a masters degree in social work. While I enjoyed the book immensely, I wouldn't describe it as a true "dummy's" guide. For some of the concepts, I got the gist of what was being said but not a clear understanding.

Still, it's probably one of the most readable introductions to Einstein and to physics available. One of the more remarkable and appreciated features is that the book is about so much more than Einstein. There is a real effort to help you understand the context in which Einstein operated: the ideas that came before him, which influenced him and challenged him, and the ideas that came after him, which were influenced by his work. Into all this, interesting details of Einstein's life are effectively woven.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a sense of what physics is about, and of Einstein's place in that field--without getting lost in mathematical formulas. So much is touched on: from the tiny world of atoms to the immense universe of galaxies.

This is the best physics book I have read. Mr Calle does a superb job in explaining subjects which are extremely difficult to understand if you use a standard text book. Reading this book myself gave me a clear understanding of quantum physics and relativity. I would really recommend this book to everyone who wants to start studying science before attending the real classes. The book does not have any equations but simplifies everything by figures and thought experiments. As I am writing this review I'm about to graduate with a masters degree in engineering and I truly regret that I didn't know about this book five years ago.

This is the book to read if you want to understand relativity but don't know mathematics. As a biologist, I read 6 chapters in one night. Dr. Calle's analogy made use of my commonsense and everyday experience to the best. From the history and philosophy of physics described in the book, I figured out what theoretical physics is and how physicists do it. I still have questions not answered by the book, but I finished the book and want another one by the same author.

I wish all the science professors have Dr. Calle's communication skills and interest in teaching.

This book describes the highlights of Einstein's life and physics in a very basic and elementary manner. The book was written for an average high school student or for anyone who wants to learn a bit about Einstein, but is satisfied with a very elementary treatment. The first third of the book provides a very elementary treatment of the basics of mechanics and electromagnetism, as background for Einstein's work. This was a very nice feature that is missing in many other treatments (at least to the extent that it is covered in this book). In addition to the usual discussions of relativity and Einstein's contributions to the foundations of the idea of quantized energy, the book also covers his work on Brownian motion and the idea of atoms. Everything is presented clearly without the use of any mathematics, which may be applauded by its target audience, but I think that this can be a drawback.

While I am very familiar with this material, having read many Einstein biographies and books that detail his physics in much more detail than that presented here, and I found out a lot of new things. For instance, while Ole Romer made the measurements required to determine the speed of light, I did not know that it was Christian Huygens who actually made the calculation and using Romer's data and calculated a value that was 24% below the modern value. Most books leave out Huygens' contribution and give a value that is based on Romer's method, but using modern measurements, making it much closer to the correct value. The book also does a good job with the historical aspects of Einstein's life. There is an excellent summary of the letters Einstein wrote concerning the need to develop an atomic bomb before the Germans could. This is a subject that is often confused in many books, as there were several letters, not just one. The discussion of the historical development of many concepts was also excellent, particularly the development of the idea of black holes. This is the first elementary book that explained how Schwarzchild's solution for a black hole was conceptually different from that of Mitchell (made in the 18th century), even though both were numerically the same. The author explains that gravity does not slow down a photon as Mitchell assumed, but rather stretches out its wavelength to infinity or alternatively dilates time to infinity, effectively freezing the photon in place. The author also implies that Laplace may not have independently discovered the black hole (actually, at the time, called a dark star) as is stated in all the books that I have previously read, but may have been merely restating, without attribution, Mitchell's idea. I found the discussion of cosmology to be more complete than that of more advanced books and I particularly liked the discussion of the use of Cepheids and type 1a supernovas as "standard candles" and how this enabled the discovery that the universe was expanding. The discussion of dark matter and dark energy is also very good.

I liked this book, but it is not without flaws. While the author did an excellent job of explaining complex ideas, but I think that this task would have been made much easier if a little math was used. Special relativity requires little more than the Theorem of Pythagoras and a little algebra. Electing to do without any mathematics resulted in statements being made that the reader has to take on faith. My second problem were the errors that were introduced because of the need to simplify the presentation of these complex ideas. For instance, it was stated that Michelson-Morley experiment measured the speed of light, which it did not. It measured the relative speed of light for perpendicular directions. There are other such "simplification errors" but I do not think that they are serious, or would be very detrimental for the intended audience. I had a bigger problem with the fact that while the book contains an index, it does not contain any references or even a bibliography, which are necessary to allow the reader to continue their education via new sources. The simplification errors, the lack of references or a bibliography, as well as the lack of any math made it difficult for me to give this book five stars. However, I think that on balance it is better than four-stars, so I am giving it a reluctant five-stars. If fractional stars were allowed, I would rate this book as 4.5 stars.

An excellent book which clearly describes not only Einstein's contributions to physics, but the contributions of many other physicists who went before him like Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Maxwell, and Lorentz and who were his contemporaries like Planck and Bohr. In highlighting Einstein's contributions, he covers a wide range of topics including dynamics, electromagnetism, atomic physics, and quantum mechanics. For a more detailed description of physical concepts covering a broader range, I highly recommended his book on superstrings, etc.

This is an interesting book about Einstein's life and work. There is only one equation -- guess which one! When the book said you only needed high school algebra to understand the Special Theory of Relativity, I wish it had included those equations. But -- one can find them elsewhere.

I am an Accountant by profession with an interest in popular Science. This book was a fantastic read for me. I was looking for something which will make me understand the General Theory of Relativity and I stumbled upon this book.

I particularly liked the way the Author traces the development of theories starting right from Newton and ends with emerging theories on Dark energy. The author does not introduce any of the concepts abruptly. He starts with something which we can understand and relate in our daily lives and gradually builds the logic to arrive at the concept. In doing so, he also gives us a brief background of the different scientists who have contributed to the emergence of Physics. He also gives us an idea of what are the key scientific mysteries prevalent at the time and which Scientists are grappling with. This helps us better appreciate how a particular law in physics were discovered.

I would recommend this to anyone who would like to know the various discoveries made by Einstein and more importantly, why did he made those discoveries.

Happy Reading :)

Wow, when I bought this book I was hoping for a better grasp of Einstein's theories of relativity, and ended up gaining a much better understanding of physics in general. The author says up front that you can skip around if you like, but I recommend reading this book cover to cover. I found the way physics is explained through what Einstein understood (previously discovered physics concepts) and then wending into Einstein's theories truly helpful. The way the author weaves in other scientists and their discoveries in histories read very well and quickly. I've read this book in two sitting and got so much out of it. I recommend it to anyone interested in or struggling with physics. For those of you with a good grasp of physics, this book might bore you. I found it truly helpful and delightful to read!

My 9th Grade son, who is very interested in math and physics, asked me to buy this book for him. He reads it every night for fun and talks about what he's learning. He was lukewarm at the beginning because the focus was biographical but now that he's in the science part, he can't get enough of it.

I wish all text books were written like this. It has all the needed details for the kind of book it is, yet written with such a straightforward style that makes it a pleasure to read. Writers of text books can learn a lot from this book. This is what learning should be about.