Customer Reviews

A Short Course in General Relativity

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one gem of a book! It's paced extremely well--the authors managed to write a book which is neither cryptic from lack of detail nor cumbersome with too much detail. It strikes me as the perfect self study book for a physics or mathematics student.

You won't find the ramblings of 'The Phone Book', nor will you find the obfuscated discussions in Wald. If you like David Griffiths' friendly and breezy writing style, you'll love this book.

Don't let its size fool you. While the book is short in pages, it manages to cover most of what Schutz's book covers (another great book) and in many cases, does it better.

I'd say it's suitable for a motivated junior undergraduate and is certainly suitable for a graduate student at any level.

It has my full recommendation.

This book picks up with a brief refresher in vector calculus and then proceeds to develop the differential geometry needed to treat the subject with fidelity. Interesting topics are supplemented with useful excercises, all with a minimum of wandering by the authors. This book is probably appropriate for a 4th year undergraduate or a 1st year graduate student in mathematics or physics -- excellent text for individual study.

As a person who did postgrad physics and maths over 5 years ago and has been out of the field for way too long, I found that this was a great introduction to GR, a subject I never got to do at university. It introduces the maths (tensors, manifolds and geodesics) in the earlier chapters and relies heavily on them in the introduction to GR.

The book has great solutions, or at least very helpful hints, to the problems that are given throughout the book. Though at times I was stuck with some, it generally it required me to only look at the first step of the solution to be able to solve the problem.

This book is a quantitative approach, while "A First Course in General Relativity" (Schutz) is a more qualitative approach. I personally perfer the quantitative approach, and found this book better than Schutz. If you're looking for a more verbose and wordy book, go for Schutz, while if you're going for a mathematical approach (includes the derivation of the Schwarzchild's solution and the rise of black holes coming from Schwarzchild's solution) then this book is more for you.

If you are looking for a solid introduction to GR in under 250 pages, this is clearly the book for you. Its size can be deceiving, since it covers all the traditional background to GR, and does it well. The authors have managed to do this by introducing very few applications of GR. This, in my opinion, is a positive attribute, as it focuses on the actual machinery of relativity and gives a few basic applications (black holes, gravitational waves) that whet one's appetite for more. Plus it includes numerous exercises with solutions. Overall a great little book.

A truly great introduction to GR. If anything, it quickly puts you into the fold of doing the mathematics (and physics ) of GR. Not too many applications are discussed, which is a PLUS in this case. Many times, the mathematics and the physics can be overwhelming. This books helps lessen this considerably.

It's also a good pre-study to Schultz. Schultz is also an excellent book, but Foster's focuses on the immediate `necessities'. Great for a first course in general relativity, or for the self learner who wants to see what's up with GR (of course vector calculus is assumed, but not too much more).

This is a real gem. I have copies of both the first and second editions. The style is clear and concise with lots of 'do-able' exercises and problems. The mathematics required for understanding curvature is well explained in both editions, although the authors seemed to think that the first edition placed too many demands on the reader for a first course in GR.There is a nice balance between explaining the mathematics fully (without getting bogged down with inappropriate rigour) and the usual physical applications. The second edition that I have does not include solutions/hints for the exercises but one of the authors (J.Foster) kindly provided a little booklet upon request. This book is very accessible for independent study.

I like this book because it has the best elementary introduction to the mathematics of general relativity. It starts out with simple multivariable calculus and geometric notions about vectors. It then explains the ideas of the natural basis and the dual basis, first in a plane and then on a manifold, with very helpful figures. With too many other books it is possible in a first exposure to completely miss the point of these ideas, which really are pretty simple when you come right down to it. It is true that the physical motivation and meaning of general relativity are not treated in that much depth, but these can be picked up from other sources. In my view it is the mathematics that is the most intimidating thing about general relativity -- the physical ideas are exhilirating and natural by comparison!

The second edition of this book (which is what this is) is a terrible change for the worse. The first edition tried to introduce (the mathematics of) general relativity, in the "geodesics" method - i.e., taking the shortest route possible between two points, teaching you the mathematics and basic physical postulates and nothing more. But while the first edition used modern differential geometry, this volume has been entirely re-written in coordinates!!! This means you'll be given the old definition of a tensor as a set of numbers that transform as ... and thus taking away the book's only merit, being a modern, quick, short introduction to the mathematics of GR. Sorry, but even if I wanted a sea of indices (which I don't and no one else should) I could have picked up Weinberg's book. Try Schutz's book on general relativity instead.

This textbook provides an excellent introduction to a topic that is extremely easy to get bogged down in. I took a one semester course that used this text as an undergraduate, during which I thought the book was merely decent, but then when I took a gradute course that used Carroll's Spacetime and Geometry is when I really came to appreciate the preparation this book gave me (not that Carroll's book is bad, I just wouldn't recommend it for a first reading). Not to mention the book is pretty cheap as far as physics texts go.

I have a degree in physics from a small midwestern university including a year of grad study. Problem is that was in 1987. I have since been working in software engineering and hardly touched the stuff. I have always been facinated with General Relativity but never had the opportunity or the time to fulfill that desire... Till I got hold of this book. I have never seen a more elegantly written physics text... period. I should say, I had very little exposure to tensors prior to studying this book. That didn't matter. I was in the Einstein field equations after a little over a week of self study! Good homework problems (with solutions at the back if you need it). The presentation of covariant and contravariant vector components is second to none. That said, being such a short book there is some detail missing. I would like to have had a better backgroung on Christoffel coefficents for example, among a few other issues but they are minor. I have since been picking through Schutz to fill in the gaps in the details since I definitly intend to continue my study of this subject. This book however is much better written than schutz, is about the same level and subjects are covered in roughly the same order (except special relativity with tensors is covered in an appendix at the back of the book). I definitly recomend Schutz. It's a very good intro to general relativity, BUT... READ THIS FIRST!!

FOLLOWUP TO PREVIOUS REVIEW MADE ABOUT A MONTH AGO:

In the review I gave above I continue to stand by. The thing I wish to change is, I recomended "A first Course in General Relativity" by Schutz as a follow on to this book. I no longer agree with that statement. I went back to Schutz and found it way too wordy, unfocused and frankly useless. I also think I understand GR better than I would have with Schutz. I have sinced moved on to "Gravitation and Cosmology" by Steven Weinberg which I am finding completely accessable, thoroughly enjoyable and very well written. I found "A Short Course in General Relativity" prepared me just fine as it is. So.... Now I say, forget Schutz, study this instead, then move on.