Special Relativity and Motion Faster Than Light [Paperback]

Moses Fayngold (Author), Roland Wengenmayr (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3527403442 | ISBN-13: 978-3527403448 | Publication Date: December 2, 2002

While the theory of special relativity is often associated with the idea of traveling faster than light, this book shows that in all these cases subtle forces of nature conspire to prevent these motions being harnessed to send signals faster than the speed of light.
The author tackles these topics both conceptually, with minimal or no mathematics, and quantitatively, making use of numerous illustrations to clarify the discussion. The result is a joy to read for both scientists familiar with the subject and laypeople wishing to understand something of special relativity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... as serious and accurate, as a scientific publication, and as absorbing and entertaining as a good scientific popularization. Among hundreds books on relativity this one is special."
Prof. Edward Parilis, California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, USA

"... supplementary reading material to the standard texts, that expands on the concepts without getting hyper-specialized."
D. Green, The New School University, NY, USA

"... the physics community will enthusiastically receive this book and [...] it will be widely adopted by physics and engineering teachers as a complementary textbook."
S. Piatek, New Jersey Inst. of Techn., USA

"Dr. Fayngold knows how to tell a story."
S. Piatek, New Jersey Inst. Of Techn.

"Dr. Moses Fayngold has written an extremely interesting book on special relativity and what happens in theory when objects travel at speeds faster-than-light. Undergraduates and graduate students will find his vivid detailed examples very helpful in learning relativity and in working out many fascination paradoxes of relativity - including both the familiar "twin paradox" and less-familiar apparant contradictions of relativistic puzzles."
Dr. Stephan Rosen, Director Scientific Career Transitions, NY.

"To sum up: the book covers all aspects of superluminal phenomena."
Norbert Dragon, General Relativity and Gravitation, vol. 36 (2004)

About the Author

Moses Fayngold is Special Lecturer at the Physics Department of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he is also involved in the research activities of the Multi-Disciplinary Optical Science and Engineering Program. He has been lecturing for some 20 years on special relativity, both to non-specialized audiences in public planetariums as well as to undergraduate and graduate students.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-VCH (December 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3527403442
• ISBN-13: 978-3527403448
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,910,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real gem of a book, August 15, 2007

By 

Victoria Gitman (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Special Relativity and Motion Faster Than Light (Paperback)

This book starts out with the usual basics of special relativity such as Lorentz transformations. It goes on to deal in some depth with such fascinating phenomena as the possibility of faster than light (superluminal) motion and the existence of especially strange particles called tachyons. Moses Fayngold accomplishes quite a feat by successfully combining the style of a popular science book with the real content of a textbook. I am an avid reader of science books (of all kinds) and I have rarely come across such a wonderful example of scientific writing. Dr. Fayngold displays a thorough understanding of educational techniques. While popular science books can be inspiring, they never leave me feeling like I have gained any actual knowledge. Textbooks, on the other hand, while full of details, lack the ability to instill a wonder at the universe that a well written popular science book can achieve. This book gives explanations of the phenomena as well as any textbook but the details are immersed in a big picture analysis that makes it worthwhile to work through the formulas and details. Reading it gave me the kind of thrill at the complexity and beauty of our universe which I only get out of popular science books. At the same time, I felt that I learned the subject at an equal depth as I would in a college course. I loved the light (unintimidating) narration tone and the little instructive tales used to illustrate the concepts. I would highly recommend this book both for personal education reading and as a textbook companion for a physics course.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Book on Special Relativity, September 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Special Relativity and Motion Faster Than Light (Paperback)

This book is a rare example of the treatment that is profoundly instructive and enjoyable to read. In it the features of a reading book for educated laymen blend successfully with rigorousness and depth of a monograph for professional scientists. Intriguing and thought provoking, it can be used by students to learn basic principles of the theory of relativity, and by physics teachers to illustrate these principles and analyze their implications before any student audience.
In many discussions of the theory of relativity there is only a brief mentioning about motions faster than light. This produced a spectrum of speculations, including a widespread and totally misleading opinion among many that such motions are impossible in principle.
Moses Fayngold gives a brilliant discussion of superluminal motions and shows how they relate to the theory. Some of the problems discussed by him are unique and cannot be found in any other book.
I would recommend "Relativity and Motions Faster than Light" to anyone who wants to get a deep understanding of one of the cornerstones of Modern Physics.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Special Relativity and Motions Faster than Light, September 30, 2003

By 

Edward Parilis (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Special Relativity and Motion Faster Than Light (Paperback)

Everybody knows that motion of objects with the speed faster than light is impossible.
Dr. Moses Fayngold wrote a 309-page book about superluminal motions. Not a science fiction work, not a fantasy, but a book on special relativity written by a theoretical physicist, an expert in this field. It is as serious and accurate as a scientific journal publication, and as absorbing and entertaining as a good scientific popularization. Among hundreds books on relativity this one is special. It covers a variety of topics, including the most recent ones that could not always be found in the classical publications. I read it with increasing interest, gave it to my colleagues, and would recommend it to both professionals and students.
Many will be surprised to find in the book something they had not even thought about. I am sure that the book will have more editions.

Prof. Edward Parilis
California Institute of Technology