What Is Relativity?: An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein’s Ideas, and Why They Matter by Jeffrey Bennett (PDF)

Description

It is commonly assumed that if the Sun suddenly turned into a black hole, it would suck Earth and the rest of the planets into oblivion. Yet, as prominent author and astrophysicist Jeffrey Bennett points out, black holes don’t suck. With that simple idea in mind, Bennett begins an entertaining introduction to Einstein’s theories of relativity, describing the amazing phenomena readers would actually experience if they took a trip to a black hole.The theory of relativity reveals the speed of light as the cosmic speed limit, the mind-bending ideas of time dilation and curvature of spacetime, and what may be the most famous equation in history: E = mc2. Indeed, the theory of relativity shapes much of our modern understanding of the universe. It is not “just a theory”―every major prediction of relativity has been tested to exquisite precision, and its practical applications include the Global Positioning System (GPS). Amply illustrated and written in clear, accessible prose, Bennett’s book proves anyone can grasp the basics of Einstein’s ideas. His intuitive, nonmathematical approach gives a wide audience its first real taste of how relativity works and why it is so important to science and the way we view ourselves as human beings.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Booklist *Starred Review* Doubtful in 1919 that even three scientists fully understood Einstein’s theory of relativity, the astrophysicist Arthur Eddington would marvel at this book. For in its relatively few pages, Bennett explains relativity to ordinary readers. Applying two simple principles—the uniformity of natural law and the invariance of the speed of light—readers conduct thought experiments that fuse time and space into a single concept. Armed with this concept, readers see why time slows down for space-travelers streaking across the cosmos, their spaceship growing more massive but shorter. Similarly, as they plunge into a black hole, doomed but enlightened readers can at least congratulate themselves on comprehending how extreme gravitation creates inescapably lethal tidal forces. Still, a perplexing mystery remains. Why does the singularity at the center of a black hole look irreconcilably different when viewed through quantum physics than it does when viewed through relativity? Undaunted, Bennett views this conundrum as the stimulus for scientific progress that will resolve it. Indeed, in the very fact that one man could formulate a theory as powerful as relativity, Bennett sees reason to hope that the entire human species can ultimately conquer stubborn nonscientific problems—social, political, even metaphysical. An impressively accessible distillation of epoch-making science. –Bryce Christensen Review What Is Relativity? is a well-written and uniquely readable book that beautifully serves as an introduction to special and general relativity. Jeffrey Bennett carefully avoids bombastic statements and ‘spectacularization’ of the subject, sticking with well-established facts and presenting them in a clear and compelling manner. — Alberto Nicolis, Columbia UniversitySince it first appeared more than a decade ago, I have used Cosmic Perspectives by Jeffrey Bennett and his colleagues in no small part because of the excellence of its chapters on relativity. It is wonderful to now have a stand-alone volume in which his lucid, explanatory text and figures are coupled with a thoughtful commentary on why relativity is important in constructing our scientific and personal views of space and time. — David J. Helfand, President, American Astronomical Society, and President and Vice Chancellor, Quest University CanadaI have read lots of introductions to relativity, but none is as clear and compelling as this one. For anyone who is keen to grasp the fundamentally simple yet non-intuitive ideas of both special and general relativity, Jeffrey Bennett’s book is the way to go. Impressively understandable and interesting. — Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute…Bennett’s fun book shows readers what relativity means, and what it reveals about our universe. ― Publishers WeeklyFor in its relatively few pages, Bennett explains relativity to ordinary readers… An impressively accessible distillation of epoch-making science. ― Booklist (starred review)A sober, comprehensible account of what every intelligent layman should know about space and time. ― Kirkus Reviews… [P]erhaps the best homage that anyone can pay to [Einstein] for such a groundbreaking contribution to physics in particular and science in general. ― BrainDrainBennett… has written an entertaining, brilliant introduction to Einstein’s ideas… that is impressively understandable. ― CHOICE About the Author Jeffrey Bennett, winner of the 2013 American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award, holds a BA in biophysics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MS and PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the lead author of several best-selling textbooks in astronomy, astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics and has written numerous award-winning books for the general public and children. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I’ve read a few other books about relativity, but none have been as clear or complete. All the questions I had after reading those other books were answered here. I also enjoyed Dr. Bennett’s clear writing style. I highly recommend this book. As a note: I read the Kindle edition and there were no problems with the text or illustrations.

⭐Good illustrations of what Relatively is. The book explains it without using any math. However, the concepts are still hard to grasp.

⭐In my Chemistry BSc degree I had studied a little smidgen of special relativity. Since then I have dabbled on and off with special and general theory of relativity. The simple and elegant Lorentz transformations make the special part seem simple, but the rest of the math is way beyond me. What the author is trying to do is to make relativity accessible despite the fact that even to a well-educated 21st century person it remains largely counterintuitive. The same problem faces anybody who tries to integrate quantum mechanics into his everyday life. Despite the author’s laudable efforts, relativity and quantum mechanics remain out of reach because the phenomena describe velocities, dimensions, and energies that are inaccessible to non-physicists. The book begins by taking the reader on an imaginary trip to a black hole luckily situated just around the corner, a mere 25 light years away. What follows is an insightful discussion about inertial and accelerated frames of reference, the strange behavior of dimensions, mass, and time when velocities get close to the speed of light. Finally, time and again we are shown that despite the apparent clash of relativity with everyday experience, we do have to factor it in in everyday’s life (e.g. using GPS). Though relativity makes gravitation switch from a property of mass to the property of space and dispenses with the terrible action-at-a-distance conundrum – the answers to the all important existential questions remain painfully mute: What is time? What was there before time started? How mass and energy were born? Why is speed of light a universal constant? And what about God? I wholeheartedly recommend this book as a well designed student’s aid to grapple with modern physics and the way the universe looks after donning on up-to-date scientific glasses. Being a science graduate certainly does help a lot. But even if one does get a feeling that relativity is not mind-boggling anymore, the universe still is as mysterious as ever, hiding behind the event horizon. Thank God and Einstein for this.

⭐For my personal view their was to much ” Al and friend sceneries that bored me nuts. It was like being in college and grammar school in the same book. I quickly scan past the dumb stuff and focus on the good.

⭐Bennett manages to explain the principles of Einstein’s special and general theory of relativity shedding enough light to help anyone understand and reprogram himself on how to view the world and universe that surrounds us. It’s an inspiring writing too that will help you link and think from now on solely on spacetime; forget space and time already!

⭐I’ve read a lot about these ideas for about fifty five years and this book does a better job than any I have read so far to bring together Einstein’s ideas. Simplified but not dumbed down, the author helped me to connect many points that I have never seen before and caused me to start thinking about our solar system and the universe in new a different ways. Foremost, he reminds me that scientific methodology must be applied and ideas not held as faith, examined and re-examined forever. Great read.

⭐I have a background in physics and math and I found that this book would be fairly easy to understand by someone without too much training in physics, math, and astronomy.

⭐The “Theory of Relativity” has always been an ‘easy’ set of concepts to describe and understand, but convoluted by the ‘qualified’ to obscure their meaning (like the ‘law’, the ‘tax code’, etc).This book, brings them back to a level of easy understanding, with serious mental consequences for those that grasp the implications…- Time (as you use the term) is just a measurement of events over distance (traveled).- There is no such thing as ‘time’.- No time to lose… (that’s right)* SPOILERS BELOW *The knowledge that the GPS satellites (which we set many of our digital/computer clocks by) are actually ‘correcting’ their time to match ours, since being outside our ‘gravity pool’, ‘their’ time is different than ours…The video review of the film “Interstellar” includes comments by Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who critiques the film for scientific accuracy. It illustrates the effect of ‘time’ by gravity, in the scene where the landing party doesn’t ‘age’ as quickly as the ‘pilot’ of the orbiting ship.If ‘aliens’ ever did visit our planet, but no longer do, is it because they live in a different ‘gravity pool’ and concept of time, such that their race is now long extinct ?

⭐Explains very well how all the odd results of relativity arise from very simple basic premises.

⭐Excellent book, very interesting and explained in a way a child could understand. Complex topics broken down in a way I have never seen before. The author has a real talent at making complex ideas extremely accessible to the masses.

⭐A really good, well thought out explanation of the general principles of the subject. No maths and my head didn’t hurt too much. Plenty of scope for those last two is available elsewhere for those not studying physics after work with a glass of wine.

⭐Para aquellos que tengan interés en comprender mejor la teoría de la relatividad, este libro es una introducción fácil de entender y extremadamente interesante. Si no tienes conocimientos previos acerca de la teoría de la relatividad, este libro definitivamente cambiará la percepción que tienes del mundo que nos rodea y el universo en su conjunto.

⭐

⭐A must read for understanding Relativity, excellent book

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