Einstein For Dummies by Carlos I. Calle (PDF)

Description

Genius demystified, the Dummies way!In 1905, Albert Einstein revolutionized modern physics with his theory of relativity. He went on to become a twentieth-century icon-a man whose name and face are synonymous with “genius.” Now, at last, ordinary readers can explore Einstein’s life and work in this new For Dummies guide. Physicist Carlos Calle chronicles Einstein’s career and explains his work-including the theories of special and general relativity-in language that anyone can understand. He shows how Einstein’s discoveries affected everything from the development of the atom bomb to the theory of quantum mechanics. He sheds light on Einstein’s personal life and beliefs, including his views on religion and politics. And he shows how Einstein’s work continues to affect our world today, from nuclear power to space travel to artificial intelligence.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐Did you know that you age faster if you’re standing still versus when you’re moving? Yesssss! At last, the secret to eternal youth!But don’t break out the running shoes just yet, because even if you were to spend your life running or even flying around the world on the fastest aeroplane, the difference would barely be noticeable. Like, maybe only a minute or so’s worth of barely noticeable over your entire life time…Damn, and it seemed like such a promising thought! Personally, I blame Einstein since it was his theory in the first place. Speaking of which, I’ve been reading Einstein for Dummies by Carolos I Calle. This is the first book I’ve ever read in the For Dummies series and I think they’ve pretty much nailed it in terms of tone and language. As an added bonus the author is able to explain all the science concepts in words, without resorting to scary-looking maths equations.The book starts by giving background on Einstein and his life and, to be honest, I was pretty much intending to skip these chapters and just head straight to the bits on Einstein’s work. But they turned out to be freakishly interesting and peppered with random facts, such as: “after giving birth to Einstein, his mother thought for a moment that he was a “monster” because he had a strangely shaped and large head.” Um…alrighty then…The second part of the book goes on to discuss – for want of a better way of putting it – the history of physics up to the time when Einstein started stirring things up with his new-fangled ideas. Again, I must confess that I was also fully intending to skip this section^. However, it turned out that, much like the sections on Einstein’s life, the physics history lesson stuff was also totally easy to read AND it was even interesting! (I swear, no one is paying me to say this).Of course Dummies also runs through Einstein’s major works and contributions to science. Including, as you’d expect, explanations about special relativity, E=MC2, quantum theory and the general theory of relativity. And also information about things you might not expect, like black holes, worm holes and time travel.In each case – though the concepts are no doubt very complicated in real life – the author gives clear and simple explanations for each (it’s like for dummies, yeah?). He runs through what they are, how they work and what this has meant for science (and us). All very interesting, though I will admit that I did get slightly bored by all the rocket ship-related “thought experiments” and analogies.Dummies also goes into some detail the testing that has been done on Einstein’s relativity theories. Coming back to the point I made earlier about aging faster if you’re standing still: in 1971 a couple of scientists did an experiment to test Einstein’s theory of relativity. They flew state of the art atomic clocks twice around the world, first eastward, then westward, on commercial aeroplanes. When they compared these clocks with identical clocks which were stationary on the ground, they confirmed that less time had passed on the moving clocks. The difference was minuscule, literally a few hundred billionths of a second (you can see why this doesn’t amount to anything significant over your life time). But it certainly demonstrated that Einstein was right: the faster you are moving, the more time slows down.Somewhat to my surprise – especially given all the chapters I was originally intending to skip over(!) – I really enjoyed Einstein for Dummies. It’s written in plain English and always keeps its audience firmly in mind. As if this wasn’t enough, it also manages to be informative, interesting and even entertaining. If you have an interest in Einstein’s life or theories but no interest in complex maths, then this is the book for you.^ It is completely understandable if, at this point, you are wondering whether I was actually intending to read the book at all.

⭐The author claims the universe has existed 18 billion years (page 78), which I think is utter nonsense. (http://www.amazon.com/In-Six-Days-Scientists-Creation/dp/0890513414) But his worldview issues generally don’t interfere with his otherwise very good presentation of the science world Einstein found himself in and what he did to advance it.My copy was missing Chapter 12, and all the comic pages introducing the six parts were shifted out of place because the Part 1 page was missing. Did anyone else notice this problem? I am being sent a refund, but am hesitant to order another one on-line (sight unseen). In summary, pages 5 and 6 are gone with page 47 where page 5 should be, 111 for 47, 161 for 111, 229 for 161, 319 for 229, and 339 for 319. These pages don’t have page numbers on them so you might not notice. The missing Chapter 12 is pages 163-186, which should describe Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the highlight of the book presumably.

⭐This book is everything it claims to be. It attempts to break down the very complicated world of physics that Einstein was so involved in. It gives a great history of his life and those who influenced him. It was an easy read in terms of the organization and language used, but make no mistake about it, the topics, theories and concepts are not easy to understand at all. I found myself reading certain concepts over and over again but still not able to follow – but I do not blame the author – I simply am not equipped with the mental capacity to follow Einstein’s logic. And that is OK – this book served its purpose in that it opened my eyes to how much there is to know and understand about how our world works. Even if I learned only how much I have yet to learn, I am sure I am smarter for reading it.

⭐Very little appreciation for formal math or physics is needed to enjoy this book. Someone with a reasonably analytic outlook could pick up this book and gain a fair amount of insight. Anyone who already has even a basic understanding of relativity should probably skip this book. The key points covered are that in special relativity, space-time is a continuum where the only constant is the speed of light — different observers in different inertial frameworks will see the same events unfold at different rates. In general relativity, the big insight is that the effect of gravitational attraction is equivalent to acceleration and it is impossible to distinguish between the two. General relativity explains this effect as mass/energy causing space-time to curve in a way that causes an observer to cover distance at an increasing rate while approaching a concentration of mass/energy — i.e. someone standing on the earth opposing the pull of gravity is equivalently experiencing acceleration. The book also contains a fair amount of biographical information on Einstein, and also does a broad/shallow survey of the “rest” of physics and briefly touches on the role of relativity there.

⭐Having had a course in Special Relativity in college, I had some idea what this was going to be about. But it was a pleasant surprise to find that it was much more and better than I expected. I’m not much of a fan of the “Dummies” books since they’re often too “dumbed down” to be of much use. But this one was just right.Here is a book that about anyone truly interested in science or astronomy can understand and enjoy. The author, with his NASA background, is quite up-to-date and knowledgeable about modern physics. He is easy to follow and explains the history of physics and Einstein very well. Giving the life story of Einstein, showing his successes as well as his shortcomings, makes the story even more interesting. Einstein’s take on religion is also good.There are no math equations (it might have been interesting to see at least some in an appendix maybe), but there are good examples and drawings to help explain the various theories.Don’t be put off by the book’s title; this is a good read.

⭐This book can be criticized on many points. There is a long lead in about Einstein’s life and is very detailed and unnecessary in my view. The book is better at explaining family matter in Einstein’s life than anything else. In the theory-section of the the book, many stand alone sentences appear in the beginning, middle, or end of paragraphs, which disrupts reading flow. This requires re-reading and denotes a distinct lack of acknowledgement for the reader. The book has a subtitle of “Been explained in plain English”. I do not agree. It assumes a lot of knowledge. It is not “for dummies”. The book interjects with issues to do with Einstein’s life and this distracts from the issues at play on physics. It is poorly written from that prospective and is designed to give color to a book perhaps more concerned with Einstein’s life and times than anything else. There is also heavy emphasis on the up and downs of Einstein’s academic career as a student. You get the feeling from reading, that the man was going nowhere without the help of other people and teachers that could crush him easily. What he failed and passed, who obstructed him and who didn’t. The book is quite fragmentary and one issue does not lead on to another one. It is not for dummies and should be revised for the sake of a novice reader.

⭐Not finished reading yet but quite enjoyable read.Covers einsteins life, not just his theories. Tells of his early life and schooling and how he became interested in physics.

⭐Good informative book, properly aimed at people with an interest in the topic. Not mathematical knowledge required (as opposed to the Quantum Physics for Dummies book)

⭐A Pure Book Of Genius

⭐fine

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