Customer Reviews

Einstein's Universe: The Layperson's Guide

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I hesitated on the title because it could imply that this book is for "dummies" when in actuality one must have a "relative" understanding of science (phyics and math) in order to truly tackle the subject. But Nigel Calder has made the whole thing a lot easier.

This is NOT one of those small books with large writing and illustrations every over page. It is condensed but not obtuse - no difficult equations or esoteric 11 dimensional theory. The author tackles two subjects - Einstein and his work. Both are interesting to study but as time passes the focus will swing to the latter.

The book has chapters on almost every aspect of the theory - time, gravity, space, acceleration, light, energy, matter... It is almost too much to grasp but Calder does a fine job of organizing the material. Good book.

Nigel Calder's illuminating account of relativity in plain language is amazing. The summary notes in italics at the beginning of each chapter are particularly useful. I enjoy most reading the "Afterword 2005". As the author puts it: "Einstein's questioning of the quantum theory backfired. Discoveries bolster his theories of gravity and cosmology. In the melting pot of ideas, relativity remains untamed. Dawdling spacecraft hint at a flaw in Einstein's theory. Whatever happens, his achievement is indelible."

For the first time I had the impression I could grasp some of the ideas behind the Relativity Theory. I had read a couple of books before this and did not go much further than understanding the principles of Doppler effect. But Calder's explanations and examples managed to give someone completely innocent of anything but the basics of Newton's gravitation laws some understanding of the relations between energy, mass, acceleration and gravity. The reading is always interesting, the chaining of ideas makes sense most of the time, and the understanding of this quite counter-intuitive theory is enormously rewarding.

Calder's book is a lucid and revealing introduction to a subject that defies intuition on first exposure. Einstein developed Special Relativity first, then General Relativity. Virtually every other book presents the two theories in this order. Calder's reverses the order, and makes the subject much more approachable.