Customer Reviews

Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide

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In "Very Special Relativity," physicist Sander Bais uses basic spacetime geometry to provide a beginner's explanation of Einstein's theory. Topics include relativistic length contraction and time dilation, the twin paradox, Lorentz transformation, and a brief introduction to E=mc2. Spacetime diagrams are Euclidian, not Minkowski, with the time coordinate set to w=ct. This has the advantage of highlighting the Lorentz symmetry between space and time. On the negative side, it's not easy for beginners to understand the need for oblique coordinate axes and rescaling on the moving frame.

No matter what approach is used, the theory of special relativity will probably always seem a little complicated when learning it for the first time (after all, it took an Einstein to figure it out!) The best an author can do is not make it any more complicated than necessary, and I give Bais pretty good marks for this. There is a certain amount of hand-waving and "proof by picture" in it, but after all this is a book for general readers and not a textbook. The book is too short, and more explanation and examples would certainly have been helpful. All in all though, a diligent reader can indeed learn something about relativity from it.

Although nicely concise, the style of presentation is quite dense and requires much energy from the reader who has not kept current with the general content of modern physics.