Customer Reviews

Special Relativity

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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 !!