The Einstein Theory of Relativity [Paperback]

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (Author), Albert Einstein (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2009

Professor Lorentz is credited by Einstein with sharing the development of his theory. He is doubtless better able than any other man - except the author himself - to explain this scientific discovery.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928) was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He also derived the transformation equations subsequently used by Albert Einstein to describe space and time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 28 pages
• Publisher: WLC (July 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557427127
• ISBN-13: 978-1557427120
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Introduction That Has Stood the Test of Time, November 20, 2010

By 

Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Einstein Theory of Relativity (Kindle Edition)

Albert Einstein is rightly considered one of the greatest scientists of all time, and his two theories of relativity - special and general - are the crowning glory of his scientific oeuvre. They have fundamentally reshaped our thinking of the most fundamental concepts - space, time and matter. These two theories have also withstood the test of time, and a century after they had been formulated they are still almost entirely used in their original formulations.

H. A. Lorentz was a distinguished physicist in his own right, and one of Einstein's closest scientific and personal friends. The special kind of the coordinate transformations that characterize the special relativity have been named after him, and he is one of the first people to whom Einstein described his general theory of relativity. In that regard he is certainly one of the foremost early authorities on the subject.

This short book primarily deals with the general theory of relativity. It was written shortly after one of the most startling predictions of the general relativity - the deflection of light by the sun - was confirmed by the British astronomer Eddington. The public was immensely fascinated by this incredible phenomenon, and there was a need for an accessible and informative explanation of general relativity. Unfortunately, even though general relativity is an incredibly "beautiful" theory in its own right, the mathematical apparatus required for its full understanding is formidable. This short introduction completely sidesteps all mathematical language and presents the subject in terms of the most fundamental concepts.

It is quite remarkable that a short popular book like this one has withstood the test of time. As a college physics professor who works with general relativity I could not think of much that I would add or subtract from this book. However, this is a rather short book and if a reader would like a bit more information on the subject that is still at the level of general reader I would strongly recommend Relativity A Very Short Introduction.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting as a historic doc, beware the General Books LLC reprint, March 14, 2011

By 

Kiwi (Mississauga, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Einstein Theory of Relativity (Paperback)

And I say "beware the General Books LLC reprint" because when you do the "Look Inside" thing, you'll read "Just so you know...This view is of the Paperback edition (2009) from WLC. The Paperback edition (2010) from General Books LLC that you originally viewed is the one you'll receive if you click the Add to Cart button at left.." And that's correct. The General Books LLC version is a completely different book. To wit....

General Books LLC puts together books using an OCR automated scanning device which can miss complete pages. There are many many Typos and no table of contents. There books receive NO EDITING of any kind, also, the OCR scanning is done by a robot (which the publishers website outright says can miss pages). This is all stated on the publishers web site (google them and read for yourself to get all the details).

Within Amazon, books are generally grouped by the same title regardless of whether there are multiple publishers - which there are for this book, as it's now copyright free. Consequently, when one of these books with multiple publishers is reviewed, you will see the reviews of other publishers versions associated with it. And as a result you need to be very careful to make sure you've bought a decent version. The version available from General Books LLC is NOT a decent version. To be quite frank, it's awful. Full of mistakes (OCR does that, when there's no actual editing to catch the software-generated mistakes), tiny font (verging on the unreadable), no table of contents, no index. By now you should get the idea.

General Books LLC are flooding Amazon with these low quality publications (450,000+ listed so far) and, unfortunately, many of them have the reviews associated with the original or with better quality imprints associated with them. For the buyer that's not aware of this publisher this can result in a rather unfortunate purchasing decision.

A good rule of thumb for these Print on Demand publishers is to take a look at the cover - if it's a good quality illustration that reflects the content, there's a table of contents, and when you do the Look Inside thing there's no disclaimer saying you're looking at another book, and they've stated that they used facsimile reproduction technology (rather than OCR), it's usually a pretty safe bet. Conversely, if any of these are missing, you're taking a chance on the quality. I've bought a few based on my selection criteria above and they've been good quality. General Books LLC however, is a publisher to steer clear of at all costs.

If you have been unfortunate enough to buy the General Books LLC version by mistake, you can return to Amazon for a full refund (but check Amazon's return policy and process first).

86 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Entry-Point Reading, February 25, 2010

By 

Adorina L. Reyes "SamThin" (Quezon City, Philippines) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Einstein Theory of Relativity (Kindle Edition)

This very short book is sort of an abstract on Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Whether you're familiar, and especially if you are, about Physics and Nature's Laws of Motion, Gravity, etc...this is a worthwhile read for getting to know Einstein's theory as written by a friend physicist. It describes Einstein's theory and quashes your curiosity on the subject matter.

Short and concise, I picked up a few concepts that I was not truly aware of since grade school or high school...when I was actually enrolled in a science class. For instance, I always thought space is enveloped in a vacuum...meaning no air or nothing at all. It was not after reading this book that I was made re-aware of the gas ether as "light's medium"...or what the upper atmosphere consists of, hence the word ethereal (`not of this world).

Read further and you actually grasp the essence of the theory, said in the simplest possible way from a physicist's point of view. Right now though, I'd like to read more on the subject matter at hand...or perhaps more on Einstein himself. This is just good entry-point reading.