It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity [Hardcover]

N. David Mermin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691122016 | ISBN-13: 978-0691122014 | Publication Date: September 12, 2005

In It's About Time, N. David Mermin asserts that relativity ought to be an important part of everyone's education--after all, it is largely about time, a subject with which all are familiar. The book reveals that some of our most intuitive notions about time are shockingly wrong, and that the real nature of time discovered by Einstein can be rigorously explained without advanced mathematics. This readable exposition of the nature of time as addressed in Einstein's theory of relativity is accessible to anyone who remembers a little high school algebra and elementary plane geometry.

The book evolved as Mermin taught the subject to diverse groups of undergraduates at Cornell University, none of them science majors, over three and a half decades. Mermin's approach is imaginative, yet accurate and complete. Clear, lively, and informal, the book will appeal to intellectually curious readers of all kinds, including even professional physicists, who will be intrigued by its highly original approach.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

According to an old publishing saw, every equation included in a book decreases its sales. This one attempts to defy convention. The product of Mermin's career teaching the subject to nonscience majors, its audience will be readers who are aware that near the speed of light, dimensions shrink, time slows, and mass increases infinitely but who may not know why. Assuring them that only high school-level algebra and geometry are required, Mermin begins gently with verbal descriptions of a frame of reference. The equations debut with his discussion of moving frames of reference, which at the speeds of our everyday world are easy to digest. The difficult, counterintuitive part is grasping the implications for moving frames of the absolute constancy of the speed of light. Nobody did until Einstein's 1905 paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." Mermin's dozens of diagrams illustrate the chain of reasoning that arrives at Einstein's startling discovery that mass is equivalent to energy. There's a profound difference between knowing about something, and knowing it, and Mermin succeeds at instilling the latter. Gilbert Taylor
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Review

Mermin's premise is that everyone should know about relativity in order to understand the real nature of time. . . . What is remarkable in his approach is his reliance on developing the reader's skills to analyze events in more than one frame of reference. This is the key to understanding relativity: being able to translate with ease from one frame of reference (a moving train) to another (a station). -- Simon Mitton, Times Higher Education Supplement



This is a book full of insight with an engaging style. I recommend it to anyone who has to teach the subject to either [non scientists or undergraduate and graduate students]: it's a brilliant basis for a set of lecture notes. -- Derek Raine, Nature



It's About Time is a book that should join the very best systematic popular expositions of science written in the last 50 years. -- Peter L. Galison, American Scientist



In this highly readable book, Mermin argues that a working knowledge of relativity requires no more than basic algebra and geometry. He makes a valid point. Special relativity is more fundamental, up-to-date and accurate than Newtonian physics, and Einstein's presence in the classroom may inspire the most uninterested student. -- Amanda Gefter, New Scientist



There's a profound difference between knowing about something, and knowing it, and Mermin succeeds at instilling the latter. -- bert Taylor," Booklist



Mermin has taught relativity for 40 years and has clearly thought about the best way to teach the subject. It's About Time offers a serious, yet accessible approach to relativity. -- Kara shane Colley, MAA Reviews



What makes the book as a whole so enjoyable to read is the steady pace at which the subject unfolds. The author spends as much time on each idea as he considers necessary. . . . Nowhere is the book too intense, and the learning curve for readers has a fairly constant slope. . . . David Mermin [is] a master teacher at work--and instructors will almost certainly include some of the ideas in their own teaching. -- Nigel Dowrick, Physics Today



Requiring nothing more than a basic understanding of algebra, [this book] provides the clearest and most insightful treatment of special relativity I've ever encountered. . . . It's About Time brings the practice and foundation of physics together through the question of time. -- Arkady Plotnitsky, Foundations of Physics



The reader will find some of the best non-technical description of the special theory of relativity ever written. -- Jaume J. Carot, Mathematical Reviews



An excellent book on Einstein's special theory of relativity. . . . I clearly see the strength of this book in lucid, self-contained, lively, down-to-earth, and meticulous presentation. . . . I have no hesitation in saying that this is the best book on the special theory of relativity at a semi-popular level I have ever read. -- K. S. Birbhadra, The Observatory

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (September 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691122016
• ISBN-13: 978-0691122014
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #921,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best way to learn the fundamentals of relativity, December 14, 2005

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Hardcover)

The basic ideas making up Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity are relatively easy to understand. The only mathematics required to understand the formulas is basic algebra and very little knowledge of physics is needed. The only essential physics background is an understanding of many of the words of physics. Concepts such as linear momentum, electromagnetic radiation, computing with units, velocity and simultaneity must all be clearly understood before you read this book.
Once into it, you will find some of the best non-technical descriptions of the special theory of relativity that have ever been published. While the author does not pathologically shrink from using equations, he also does not become infatuated with them. There are just enough to demonstrate the concepts and none that I considered superfluous. Many diagrams are used to illustrate the ideas and equations and the text is a superb complement to the formulas and figures.
The world where the special theory of relativity is valid is a strange one where our intuitive ideas based on everyday phenomena no longer apply. However, it is not impossible to understand and this book is the best place to begin that process.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The importance of thinking relatively, March 6, 2006

By 

Dr. S. A. Mitton "Simon Mitton" (Cambridge UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Hardcover)

One hundred years after Einstein published the theory of relativity, publishers are still promoting popular books that explain reltivity to the lay reader. This is the best such book that I have read. That's because Mermin's approach is to help the reder to develop a thinking style so that it becomes almost second nature to get your brain to hop between moving frames of reference. Mermin's thought experiments examine the outcome of experiments performed on moving trains or by moving rockets. The reader discovers the trick of examining the outcome from two points of view: inside the moving train, and outside watching the train go by. Almost everyone, including professers of physics, will benefit from a careful rreading of this book. It does include many equations and diagrams.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book, but not an easy one, June 26, 2010

By 

Metallurgist (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Paperback)

This book was produced from the lectures given for many years by the author for a course on Relativity that was given to Cornell University non-science majors. Aimed at an audience of non-scientists one would expect a watered-down, simplified book. While only basic algebra is utilized, with the introduction of almost no Physics, this is far from a watered-down or simple book. As the author clearly states, this in not a book that can be read like a novel. It requires deep concentration and a lot of patience to follow what is presented, but in the end the reader is rewarded for their efforts with a deeper understanding of what the Einstein's Theory of Relativity is all about- it's all about time. I have previously read the general treatments of relativity written by Einstein, Martin Gardner, Richard Wolfson, David Bohm, Max Born and the sections on relativity in Richard Feynman's physics text. Even with a considerable background I found a new understanding of the subject.

Unlike most relativity books, this one does not start with the reason's why Einstein developed a new way of looking at time and space and in doing so overturned Newton's ideas of time and space. The book focuses on the problem of examining events from different frames of reference, and in doing so develops the ideas of relativity without any detailed physics arguments, beyond the idea that the speed of light is the same for all observers, regardless of their velocity. The arguments are all logical and geometrical. Gradually one learns how events may or may not be simultaneous when viewed in the same or different frames of reference, how velocities combine, how time measured on a clock can be a function of the velocity at which the clock moves and how this leads to new concepts of space and time - to space-time. While relatively straight forward at first, the text got much more complex as it progressed and became so complex that after a while I found myself longing for the simplification of a bit more complex mathematics. In fact, it drove home to me how much mathematics can simplify a problem and how difficult things can get when one tries to do without it.

I found the first half of the book to be somewhat challenging, but in the end quite understandable. Unfortunately, I found the next third of the book to be much less clear. This portion of the book deals with the analysis of a "train of rockets" and the idea of space-time. Instead of dealing with the standard approach to space-time, Professor Mermin utilizes his own approach using the ideas of equiloc and equitemp, that he developed. I found this approach far more difficult to grasp than the conventional one. While it does bring out many features of space-time, it requires a difficult exercise in visualization, and in the end is used to only derive equations that had previously been derived in other, and in my opinion, much more assessable ways. I am sure that in Professor Memin's classes he assign's homework problems and discusses their solutions and in this way helps the student more firmly grasp the equiloc/equitemp concepts and how they are used. Studying this approach without them is, in my opinion, very difficult and a bit frustrating. One hopes that these might be included in future editions, or at least this section should be enlarged. The last sixth of the book deals with energy and mass, general relativity and why relativity may be as it is. I particularly liked the energy/mass chapter as it presents the subject in a modern manner, as opposed to the other books that I have read that follow Einstein's approach. This new approach utilizes the concept of mass being invariant in all frames of reference, so it is not a function of its velocity. Instead the analysis is done in terms of relativistic momentum.

Given that I liked this book and learned a lot from it, why am I giving it only four stars, instead of five? This is definitely not a book for someone who just wants to understand a bit about Relativity. For them I would recommend Gardner's book (Relativity Simply Explained) or the one by Wolfson (Simply Einstein). I would, however, recommend this book to someone, like myself, who has a reasonable general background in Relativity but is not studying the subject in a college course, with the understanding that this is a difficult book. I think that the book is best suited for a physics major studying relativity from another text. Physics professors who teach relativity will probably also like this book. I am thus giving the book only four stars because I do not think that it is a good choice for the stated target audience and I would like to be a slight counterweight to some of the five-star reviews that recommend this book without any reservations.