Relativity Demystified [Paperback]

David McMahon (Author), Paul M. Alsing (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071455450 | ISBN-13: 978-0071455459 | Publication Date: December 2, 2005 | Edition: 1

This book helps readers learn relativity at the speed of light! Now anyone can grasp Einstein's great theory of relativity - without formal training, unlimited time, or a genius IQ. In "Relativity Demystified", theoretical physicists (and student-savvy authors) David McMahon and Paul Ansing provide an effective, illuminating, and entertaining way to learn the essentials and formulas of Einstein's theories. With "Relativity Demystified", you master the subject one step at a time - at your own speed. This unique self-teaching guide offers problems at the end of each chapter and part to pinpoint weaknesses, and a 100-question final exam to reinforce the entire book.This fast and entertaining self-teaching course makes it much easier to: master theoretical physics at your own pace; learn the formulas and principles of special and general relativity from hundreds of worked examples; use practical mathematical tools for solving relativity problems; receive layperson's explanations for Schwarzhild spacetimes, black holes, gravitational radiation, and actual current research; perform better in one of the scariest courses of all; and, take a final exam and grade it yourself!Simple enough for beginners but challenging enough for those who already know something about relativity, "Relativity Demystified" is the best self-teaching tool or brush-up you can find!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

LEARN RELATIVITY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT!

Now anyone can grasp Einstein's great theory of relativity -- without formal training, unlimited time, or a genius IQ. In Relativity Demystified, theoretical physicists (and student-savvy authors) David McMahon and Paul Ansing provide an effective, illuminating, and entertaining way to learn the essentials and formulas of Einstein's theories.

With Relativity Demystified, you master the subject one step at a time—at your own speed. This unique self-teaching guide offers problems at the end of each chapter and part to pinpoint weaknesses, and a 100-question final exam to reinforce the entire book.

This fast and entertaining self-teaching course makes it much easier to:

• Master theoretical physics at your own pace
• Learn the formulas and principles of special and general relativity from hundreds of worked examples
• Use practical mathematical tools for solving relativity problems
• Receive layperson's explanations for Schwarzhild spacetimes, black holes, gravitational radiation, and actual current research
• Perform better in one of the scariest courses of all
• Take a final exam and grade it yourself!

Simple enough for beginners but challenging enough for those who already know something about relativity, Relativity Demystified is the best self-teaching tool or brush-up you can find!

About the Author

David McMahon works as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility. His research involves work on nuclear fusion and the design of nuclear-powered spacecraft. He has a master's degree in physics and a bachelor's in applied mathematics, both from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in theoretical physics in the areas of quantum field theory and the use of general relativity. Mr. McMahon is a published author. Previous work includes two books on computer programming: Rapid Application Development with Visual Basic 6 and Rapid Application Development with Visual C++. He also wrote Quantum Mechanics Demystified, and was a contributing writer to Ace the Technical Interview. All of his books are published by McGraw-Hill. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (December 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071455450
• ISBN-13: 978-0071455459
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Relativity

More About the Author

I am is the author of Linear Algebra Demystified, Quantum Mechanics Demystified, Relativity Demystified, and A Beginner's Guide to Mathematica. He holds advanced degrees in physics and mathematics and works as a consultant at Sandia and Los Alamos National laboratories. He has worked on space nuclear propulsion, the ITER fusion project, optics, and quantum information theory. More information about my books including sample text can be found at http://www.davidmcmahonbooks.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent intro to General Relativity WITH the Math, July 10, 2006

By 

H. Martin (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Relativity Demystified (Paperback)

The five stars are for the CLARITY and EXPLICITNESS of this book, for what the author intends and accomplishes, as opposed to a comparison with other GR books that have different goals.

If you are self-studying GR, this is the book to have, even if you own others. If you are taking a GR course and don't find GR trivially easy or straightforward then this book will HELP.

While this may not be the very best GR book it is certainly the best for those readers lacking the math skills (or who have forgotten the math) to jump into a 'graduate level textbook.'

[I am also reading "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, along with several other GR books, and "Relativity Demystied" is helping to make that 1300+ page book and others much more readable.]

This book takes the reader step by step through the tensor analysis required to build up the Einstein Field Equations.

Numerous examples are worked in explicit detail, and (doable) excerizes are offered with most chapters. Exercise answers are provided in an appendix.

If you want to go beyond popular accounts of Relativity but don't have the math background for a 'graduate level textbook' then thi s is almost certainly the answer.

This book is also MUCH less expensive than almost every other useful GR textbook so it is tremendous value, even as a supplement to more advanced texts.

Does it make GR easy? No. Does it make GR POSSIBLE to understand? Absolutely.

As Einstein himself reportedly said, "As simple as possible, and no simpler."

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good coverage of topics but not for first time study -- Need better editing work before release, August 12, 2007

By 

Paul Quantum - See all my reviews

This review is from: Relativity Demystified (Paperback)

This book covered a lot of the practical topics in GR. The writing is quite easy to understand. In some places, it seems to be too short. For example, the explanation of the basis in coordinate basis is not very clear. [Just refer to Carroll] However, be careful if you are the first time study in GR. You should get one of the other standard books, like Schutz, Weinberg, MTW(Misner, Thorne, Wheeler) otherwise, you will not be able to move too far in this area. Also, I really hope the editor/author can do a bit more thorough job in proof reading before releasing the book. There are many places where you could find sign errors or the indices placement are not correct. For example, the definition of Christoffel Sympbol in terms of metric and also the definition of symmetrization and also the -ve sign in the proper time definition....If you already know about the subject matter, this is not a bad reference book, just a bit tiring in keeping track of these minor errors.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bumpy Ride but Well Worth the Effort, September 1, 2007

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Relativity Demystified (Paperback)

While this is not exactly the "learning of relativity at the speed of light" the book advertises, unlike many others of the Demystified series, this volume does indeed have its high points.

The lead up to Einstein's Field Equations -- although the notational gymnastics and some of the mathematics was daunting -- is nevertheless first class. It gives the reader a very much-needed window into the role the Linear Algebra notion of mathematical mappings and transformations -- especially as viewed from the point of view of "basis vectors," through "one forms," and on to "partial derivatives of Tensor Calculus" -- play in bootstrapping one's way up from the local Newtonian/Euclidian frame of reference to the more generalized space-time Reimann/Malinowsky frame. And most importantly, it shows by carefully selected examples and exercises how tensor calculus takes over from Linear Algebra in moving from the more local Newtonian/Euclidian frame to the more generalized space-time frame.

In fact, reading between the lines of the book, one could argue that the whole of understanding the mechanics of relativity is grasping fully this single concept: of how to move mathematically from reference frame to reference frame -- that is, from inertial frames moving relative to one another in the Euclidian world to doing the same in the Space-time world.

Doing this is not easy either conceptually or mathematically but is a necessity for getting from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics. If the reader learns to appreciate that the heavy-duty mathematics is required only for this task, and only in this light, then the ride will be infinitely easier.

Even in Taylor and Wheeler's very down to earth treatment of relativity (in their "Spacetime Physics"), this kind of understanding is left in the background for the reader to infer and to ferret out on his own. A great deal of time is save in the earlier chapters of this volume by forcing the reader to understand early on why working ones way gradually up the ladder to the tensor Calculus is necessary: so that he is better able do all of the mathematical heavy-lifting seamlessly, later.

One word of caution to the reader, which also is my only serious criticism of the book: The written dialogue is painfully sparse, so every word must be read carefully, weighed and parsed for its full meaning. It is helpful to read the book three times: First as an overview to see where the author is headed; and then a second time to understand the mathematical content -- especially the dizzy array of notations -- and then finally to put all the pieces together. That is, read it a third time just to confirm that one understands fully how the larger concepts match up with the corresponding mathematics.

It seems much easier for the authors of physics and mathematical texts to roll out reams of equations than to give just the minimal explanations about how these equations relate to the underlying concepts they are supposed to explain and describe. Why leave such important connections to the reader?

Realizing that this is not a book of prose, still it would be helpful sometimes to give ample and clearly written explanations, with even (god forbid), a little repetition from time to time, just as a guide so that the reader can confirm that he is making the correct interpretations along the way.

Anyway, I am hooked on the Demystified Series and hope this book will be great preparation for the upcoming Demystified volume on String Theory.

Four Stars