Customer Reviews

Relativity and Its Roots

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Many books attempt to expound the complexities of modern thinking in physics, but few achieve their objective as well as Hoffmann's "Relativity and its Roots." Hoffmann gives a superb overview of the history of thought in physics. He also gives vibrant descriptions of difficult concepts, leading the reader in the most natural way toward a solid understanding of Relativity theory and the foundations upon which it is built. In my opinion, this book ranks with the best of popular expositions both on the history of scientific thought in physics, and on modern physics itself. I recommend it for the non-initiated as well as for the seasoned scientist.

Relativity and its Roots is more than an assembly of Einstein's work, it's a rich volume of scientific history leading up to his discoveries. The book starts with the early philosophical and geometrical ideas of the greeks and guides the reader up to and beyond the breakthroughs made in the middle ages. Complete with dozens of explanitory diagrams, it's one read that will change your perception of our universe.

Some interesting information from the history of science here, but this book suffers from trying to give technical explanations of scientific laws and phenomena without having the proper space to devote to those technical explanations. Also, in many places the writing is just unclear -- I've seen a lot of these things explained a lot more clearly elsewhere.

Relativity and Its Roots straddles the line between physics and history of science. It explores the development of an idea. You'd expect a book with "Relativity" in its title to concentrate on Einstein, especially as it is written by one of his colleagues. In fact Einstein does not enter the picture till the penultimate chapter. The story of Relativity starts with the Greeks and takes time to tell.

What I found most useful was Hoffmann's exploration of the thought processes of the scientists who advanced the theory. They often do not follow the standard stories of scientific discovery. Maxwell developed his theory of Electromagnetism not by thinking of mathematical symmetry but by following a mechanistic explanation of phenomena. He then removed this mechanistic scaffolding leaving us with the elegant mathematical theory. You come away from the book with new insights into both the way the universe works and the way great minds think.

Both the scientifically trained and the layman can learn from the book. It is written without equations in the main body. They can be found in the notes for those who appreciate them.