Einstein’s Masterwork: 1915 and the General Theory of Relativity by John Gribbin (PDF)

Description

In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his masterwork to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, a theory of gravity, matter, space and time: the General Theory of Relativity. Einstein himself said it was “the most valuable theory of my life,” and “of incomparable beauty.” It describes the evolution of the universe, black holes, the behavior of orbiting neutron stars, and why clocks run slower on the surface of the earth than in space. It even suggests the possibility of time travel.And yet when we think of Einstein’s breakthrough year, we think instead of 1905, the year of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and his equation E=mc2, as his annus mirabilis, even though the Special Theory has a narrower focus.Today the General Theory is overshadowed by these achievements, regarded as “too difficult” for ordinary mortals to comprehend. In Einstein’s Masterwork, John Gribbin puts Einstein’s astonishing breakthrough in the context of his life and work, and makes it clear why his greatest year was indeed 1915 and his General Theory his true masterpiece.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐A fascinating account of Einstein’s life and his crowning achievement – the General Theory of Relativity. Some describe this as the greatest intellectual achievement by any human. The book gives a very clear and simple description of the theory. It is really more than a theory – experiments over the last hundred years have supported all of its predictions. A stimulating read.

⭐a brilliant history of both technical aspects and social history of the man, relatives, and society of the time.

⭐Misleading title, but excellent overview of relativity, both theories, 1905 and 1915. Only the latter part of this book is about the gravitational theory. The bulk of the book is devoted to Einstein’s marvelous 1905 published papers. The prose is clear and concise. There is no mathematics involved. And the ideas are well presented. I’m a physicist, former Newsweek science editor. I have probably read most of the popular treatments of Einstein’s work. Where this book excels for me, is in the gritty, hard-nosed calculations Einstein used to support his conclusions. Many books present a picture of Einstein seated at a desk, daydreaming thought-experiments, arriving at revolutionary solutions. This book takes the reader into what those calculations involve – without going into the actual math. I found this approach refreshing. If you’re looking for a wonderful popular treatment of general relativity, I recommend ‘The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity,’ by Pedro G. Ferreira.

⭐The weak link in Einstein’s agnosticism?From “Einstein’s Masterwork” by John and Mary Gribbin, 2016, p. 25″This is what appealed to Einstein: the idea that the power of the human mind and mathematics was alone enough to conjure up deep truths about the world, echoing the way the Greeks had conjured up deep truths about geometry.”Had Einstein constructed the logical wall beyond which Heaven is impenetrable?!The Mileva Missing conjecture …”Einstein’s Masterwork” p. 31, highlights another misconception of how the universe works:”But there is not one shred of evidence that Mileva contributed anything more to the development of Einstein’s great theory than her role as scientifically literate listener on whom he could try out his ideas.”To wit (aka “The Mileva Missing”) …When a sword has superior blade, who/what gets the credit?The bladesmith or the grinding tools/materials … yet wherewiththe superior blade without the grinding/polishing contributions?!… and Mileva contributed much more.

⭐My background is not in physics, but I found this masterpiece of a book from the wonderful writer John Gribbin. He very carefully lays out the biography of Einstein’s early life and the series of papers and intellectual achievements which will make Einstein’s mathematical skills shine with glory. Imagine that Einstein reshaped the known universe, not through experimental results (which came later), but with a soaring intellect who brilliantly derived the special and general theory of relativity by shear genius. Gribbin is a masterful writer who engages the reader is short concise and clear writing.

⭐As 1915 marks the 100th anniversary of the presentation of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (GTR), we can expect a number of books on the subject.John Gribbin has an impressive track record in bringing modern science, and in particular Quantum Theory (‘In Search Schrodinger’s Cat’, and ‘Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum revolution’) to the general reader. It’s of no surprise to find him delivering a book on Einstein and the GTR. Unfortunately this book is not to the standard of some of his previous works.Gribbin argues in the book that although Einstein is remembered more famously for E=mc2 and his other works of 1905, the year being memorialised as his Annus Mirabilis, it is the GTR that is the greater work. He then sets about delivering a book to support this argument.I have two difficulties with what he says and how he says it.The first is I’m not convinced people do so regard Einstein’s work in such a way. I accept that many people do recognise the famous equation as, well, a famous equation, but I think most people do recognise the GTR as the pinnacle of Einstein’s scientific work. In that respect, he’s pushing against an open door, rather than arguing against accepted wisdom.The second is having set out the argument; the book itself is actually rather light on the GTR. In a 208 page book, we don’t meet the theory until page 113 and then only for 40 pages. The balance of the book contains a brief biography of Einstein, the legacy of GTR and, rather curiously given Gribbin’s premise that the GTR should be regarded as Einstein’s greatest achievement, a 68 page chapter on the 1905 papers, entitled Annus Mirablis.And here is the irony of the book: I actually thought the chapter on the 1905 papers was really rather good, better than the somewhat thin and once over lightly chapter on the GTR. I couldn’t help but feel when reading the book that the author was actually unconvinced by his own premise of the relative greatness of Einstein’s work.I have given the book 3 stars because any book on Einstein that helps to explain his importance and greatness is welcome and some of the science explanations are well done. However, I can’t give more when, in reality, the book does not deliver on the central argument and fails to appropriately focus on the subject of its title.- the General Theory of Relativity.

⭐Great biography of Albert Einstein by my favourite author John Gribbin. Came to know of many things from the book related to scientific aspects as well as personal side of Einstein.

⭐It’s so awesome and must read for all research aspirants .

⭐SEMPLICE ED ACCESSIBILE ANCHE A CHI NON HA CONOSCENZE SPECIFICHE DELLA FISICA. MOLTO INTERESSANTE NEL CHIARO PERCORSO DI FORMAZIONE DEL PENSIERO

⭐John Gribbin is a superlative populariser of science. He is a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex, England. As an astrophysicist, he is well qualified to cover large subjects (cosmology) and small (string theory). His writing is very clear and understandable, the seeming ease of which shows both his mastery of the topic and hard earned skill in its exposition. Here, in this small book, he covers both the personal and professional biographies of Albert Einstein and describes the significance of Einstein’s work. The General Theory of Relativity was developed by Einstein in 1915; this volume lucidly explains how is still of great significance to physics.today a century later. If you’d like to get an appreciation for what relativity is and how it was revolutionary without being left behind by the mathematics, I can highly recommend this book. Gribbin insists that his books have no equations (other than E=mc^2, of course) to hinder the accessibility of the science.I would be remiss if I didn’t include the necessary bit of pedantry that Gribbin points out: Special relativity and general relativity are misnomers. It is the individual theory that is special (i.e. limited) or general (i.e. universal).

⭐A very good book, but still used a few scientific concepts in places that a non-scientist like me struggled with. Half the book seems to be about 1905 rather than 1915 – not that that’s a problem, still very interesting.

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