Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Relativity Made Easy!, November 8, 2001
For a long time I've desired an understanding of relativity. Having just finished this book, I have achieved my goal -- without struggling with impossible equations. Thank you, Nigel Calder.
Due to the complex subject, this book isn't a particularly easy read. But the author keeps it very interesting and does as good a job as possible in translating the theories into understandable concepts. If you want to understand how gravity, time, space, energy, and mass are all tied together via relativity, then this book is for you.
There is an incredible amount of information packed into the pages. The famous equation E=Mc2 has never meant anything to me, but after reading just the first 25 pages of this book, I was able to explain to my wife the meaning and significance of the equation and some of the thought processes that led Einstein to develop it! I feel so much smarter now!
There were only a few places where I thought the author could have done a better job explaining some concepts, and some illustrations here and there would have been helpful. But if you are capable of understanding the Doppler effect, you are capable of understanding the major concepts of relativity.
Now I feel ready to tackle the basics of quantum theory!
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put the book down! Fascinating!, November 29, 1999
By A Customer
I read the 1979 version of this book, not the newest version. I've always thought that no one could explain relatively better than Issac Asimov, but finally someone has. With almost no math, Calder explains how gravity and speed affect time, space, and other characteristics of our universe. Superb!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Descriptive and Energetic, September 22, 2001
Mr. Calder has done an outstanding job writing a book about relativity that non-physicists can read and enjoy. Mr. Calder writes with such clarity, such tangible descriptions, and such succinct summaries of the theory that the reader can begin to incorporate the implications of the theory into one's own worldview. For instance, the author devotes much time and energy describing the possibilities of the universe being either open or closed (essentially, will the universe expand indefinitely, or will it eventually contract). By the time Mr. Calder begins to describe the metaphysical implications of these possibilities, the conscientious reader is already prepared to explore them on his own. This ability to communicate science with such clarity as to allow a lay reader, whom I certainly am in physics, to be able to consider the implications of science, is a great complement to the author. Unfortunately, I am a hostage to much of what I read in science, so often having to rely on the author to describe the science as well as its implications. In addition to summarizing and communicating extremely difficult material very well, Mr. Calder also writes with a great deal of energy and excitement. The author clearly shares his excitement about the subject matter to the reader. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the history of science and its implications.
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