Special Relativity [Paperback]

T.M. Helliwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1891389610 | ISBN-13: 978-1891389610

Explores the 20th century revolutions in physics. This title helps readers to build up physical intuition for what is going on, before presenting mathematical descriptions. It contains many applications, ten appendices, and numerous illustrations, examples and problems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is a superb place to begin a serious study of physics. --SciTech Book News

Judging from his book, Helliwell must be a fine teacher. He achieves a rare clarity. For instance, the derivation of the standard kinematic results starting from Einstein s postulates is outstandingly clear. Throughout, he shows an unusual and sympathetic appreciation of the problems faced by the beginning student. --John Taylor, University of Colorado

Helliwell's book strikes a tone that will be very effective with a wide population of students. The writing is very accessible and conveys excitement and engagement. The problems are abundant, and students will enormously appreciate the carefully worked examples throughout. This text chooses a middle road and has a practical flavor that is often obscured in other books. --Louis Buchholtz, California State University at Chico

About the Author

THOMAS M. HELLIWELL is Burton Bettingen Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Harvey Mudd College, USA. He received his B.A. from Pomona College, USA and his Ph.D. at Caltech, USA, where his thesis was on atomic physics and quantum mechanics. He has published more than 40 research papers, many with undergraduate coauthors, in quantum mechanics and general relativity. He has taught a wide variety of undergraduate courses, from beginning to advanced, in classical mechanics, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and electromagnetism. He has also served as director of the freshman division, chair of the physics department, chair of the faculty, and dean of faculty.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: University Science Books (April 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891389610
• ISBN-13: 978-1891389610
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear and mostly pretty good, February 5, 2010

By 

Ilya N. "Ilya" (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Special Relativity (Paperback)

This is a pretty good treatment of special relativity that we used in my physics class at Caltech. For the most part, it makes sense and provides good examples and exercises. The only issue is that it is a little short on its coverage of spacetime diagrams.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starter book on SR, December 17, 2011

By 

tech book guy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Special Relativity (Paperback)

As an engineer who set out to learn SR on his own, I did a survey of over 20 books on SR to try and
find the best elementary treatment. The book by Helliwell was one of my favorites.

SR by Helliwell is a very well written book that assumes the reader has a minimal background in physics and mathematics (say freshman college level). The book has an attractive
format, is not overpriced, and was written by someone who is clearly an expert teacher and has spent his life teaching this material to students. Also, do not be fooled into thinking that this
book is somehow deficient because the mathematical demands placed on the reader are minimal. Physics is not mathematics and understanding the underlying physical concepts
is by far the hardest and most important step.

Another excellent starter book is "Space and Time in SR" by Mermin (this older book by Mermin is better than his more recent edition called "It's About Time").
Both books by Mermin are also written at the level of a freshman college student or advanced placement high-school student. The book "Flat and Curved Space-Times" by Ellis
provides a very nice geometric treatment of SR that I also think is fantastic (By the way this is the same Ellls from Ellis and Hawking's Large Scale Structure of Space-Time)
In fact, in my humble opinion, Ellis blows away in terms of clarity the popular geometric treatment of SR given by Taylor and Wheeler in their Spacetime Physics text. The short paperback by Marder titled "An Introduction to Relativity" is also a very good short introductory text and worth
digging up.

The next step after Helliwell for someone who has a strong undergraduate mathematical background (say 2+ years of college math and one year of college physics) and
wants to learn the mathematics of SR check out "Special Relativity" by Woodhouse. Also, I liked the unique and quirky book "Special Relativity for Mathematics Students" by
Lorimer as presents the results of SR using a vector space/ linear algebra approach.

Good Luck !!