Relativity Demystified by David McMahon (PDF)

Description

This guide to Einstein’s theory of relativity presents an overview of the essentials and formulas of Einstein’s theory, and focuses on quick definitions and demonstrations of the procedures needed to solve problems.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From the Publisher David McMahon works as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility. His research involves work on nuclear fusion and the design of nuclear-powered spacecraft. He has a master’s degree in physics and a bachelor’s in applied mathematics, both from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in theoretical physics in the areas of quantum field theory and the use of general relativity. Mr. McMahon is a published author. Previous work includes two books on computer programming: Rapid Application Development with Visual Basic 6 and Rapid Application Development with Visual C++. He also wrote Quantum Mechanics Demystified, and was a contributing writer to Ace the Technical Interview. All of his books are published by McGraw-Hill. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From the Back Cover LEARN RELATIVITY AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT!Now anyone can grasp Einstein’s great theory of relativity — without formal training, unlimited time, or a genius IQ. In Relativity Demystified, theoretical physicists (and student-savvy authors) David McMahon and Paul Ansing provide an effective, illuminating, and entertaining way to learn the essentials and formulas of Einstein’s theories.With Relativity Demystified, you master the subject one step at a time—at your own speed. This unique self-teaching guide offers problems at the end of each chapter and part to pinpoint weaknesses, and a 100-question final exam to reinforce the entire book.This fast and entertaining self-teaching course makes it much easier to:Master theoretical physics at your own paceLearn the formulas and principles of special and general relativity from hundreds of worked examplesUse practical mathematical tools for solving relativity problemsReceive layperson’s explanations for Schwarzhild spacetimes, black holes, gravitational radiation, and actual current researchPerform better in one of the scariest courses of allTake a final exam and grade it yourself!Simple enough for beginners but challenging enough for those who already know something about relativity, Relativity Demystified is the best self-teaching tool or brush-up you can find! About the Author David McMahon works as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility. His research involves work on nuclear fusion and the design of nuclear-powered spacecraft. He has a master’s degree in physics and a bachelor’s in applied mathematics, both from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in theoretical physics in the areas of quantum field theory and the use of general relativity. Mr. McMahon is a published author. Previous work includes two books on computer programming: Rapid Application Development with Visual Basic 6 and Rapid Application Development with Visual C++. He also wrote Quantum Mechanics Demystified, and was a contributing writer to Ace the Technical Interview. All of his books are published by McGraw-Hill. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Read more

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

⭐I’ve used a few others of this series and found them very useful. But I overshot in getting this one. I would call the math used here quite advanced, but that’s on me. If you have excellent math this may work for you.

⭐I have seen about ten books dealing with the forms approach. If you are using another book to learn GR. then this is a good complement to that book. This book uses the differential forms approach. Got it years ago, but it really helps when teaching students about forms. The book has errors, but most of them are obvious. This book covers Cartan’s approach. This really teaches through examples how to use the forms approach. One error is on page 44 in the middle. If you have had multi-variable calculus, you should be able to spot the error right away.This book gives worked example after example on how to use differential forms. Carroll’s book uses the forms approach, but it is not explained as good as in this book. The rest of the book is OK, with some mistakes in the equations. You really only need chapters one thru five.Most students get hung up on forms and then have problems with the rest of GR. The book is cheap. It teaches differential forms through example, which is what you need to see to do problems. After chapter five you will have no problem applying differential forms to GR. Again the book is cheap. I give it five stars for the differential forms approach. I promise you cannot find a better book to learn to us differential forms than this one.After this book, you will wonder why you ever had problems with them. If you have to, read chapters one thru five ten times until you get it, it is worth it. Even at ten times it still only takes a little time.

⭐The five stars are for the CLARITY and EXPLICITNESS of this book, for what the author intends and accomplishes, as opposed to a comparison with other GR books that have different goals.If you are self-studying GR, this is the book to have, even if you own others. If you are taking a GR course and don’t find GR trivially easy or straightforward then this book will HELP.While this may not be the very best GR book it is certainly the best for those readers lacking the math skills (or who have forgotten the math) to jump into a ‘graduate level textbook.'[I am also reading “Gravitation” by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, along with several other GR books, and “Relativity Demystied” is helping to make that 1300+ page book and others much more readable.]This book takes the reader step by step through the tensor analysis required to build up the Einstein Field Equations.Numerous examples are worked in explicit detail, and (doable) excerizes are offered with most chapters. Exercise answers are provided in an appendix.If you want to go beyond popular accounts of Relativity but don’t have the math background for a ‘graduate level textbook’ then thi s is almost certainly the answer.This book is also MUCH less expensive than almost every other useful GR textbook so it is tremendous value, even as a supplement to more advanced texts.Does it make GR easy? No. Does it make GR POSSIBLE to understand? Absolutely.As Einstein himself reportedly said, “As simple as possible, and no simpler.”

⭐As most will tell you, there is no single GR book that someone can read and come away feeling that GR is understood. This was indeed my experience. I started using Weinberg in an advanced undergrad class and then used Meisner et al. in graduate school. Sure, I solved loads of problems, but I still felt like I didn’t get it. I then read “Tensors, Differential Forms…” by Lovelock & Rund and felt better about the math but I needed to understand the fundamental physics better. I then read Wald and made a little more progress, but needed to put it all together. This is where Demystified comes in to sew together an understanding of both the nitty gritty and big picture. (I then later found the freely available notes by Sean Carroll, who incidentally was a class ahead of me at my undergrad. His notes, and likely the book based on these notes, are great for tying together the math and physics in a way a physicist thinks – perhaps the best of the lot.)Anyway, Demystified has it strengths and weaknesses:STRENGTHS* Detailed Solutions: sometimes you just need to see someone trudge through calculations and their tricks to get the feel for the calculations. After all, physicists spend most of their time calculating things.* Intuitive Feel: in several areas, the author provides an intuitive feel for what some elements represent, e.g. the Stress-Energy tensor.WEAKNESSES* Typographical Errors: the book is littered with them, in the text and equations. These could leave a novice reader scratching his head.* Physics Errors: the most glaring on p.163. See Marion “Classical Dynamics” p. 326 for the correct solution.* Vacillating Notation: for example, sometimes the covariant derivative is an upside-down delta, sometimes it’s a comma. There are many infractions of this.* Gravitational Waves: the book falls apart in this final section.Use this book if you already have a good understanding of advanced physics and mathematics and some exposure to GR.I don’t think it would be helpful to many others.

⭐In this field (and others), so you can get started. The book is almost comprehensive, but you have to go elsewhere to complete the math (Wikipedia is Ok for that), and also to get through some typos…Be warned: General Relativity is a field based on very advanced math, so a lot of work is needed to get a grasp on it! The book has examples and exercises to help you advance.Anyway I think is a very good book.

⭐Great reference for all maths and physics students.

⭐first off im not a physicist. molecular cell biology is my area, i just find physics interesting and wanted a book which would help me understand the maths behind it without reams of highly technical pages. this is precisely what i got.essentially this is a book filled with calculations with the brief introductions, for each topic covered, providing an insight into the physical meaning. its clear, it provides the odd example question at the end of the topic.note that those looking at the answers in the back for explanations of the examples will find nothing but the answer, and frankly it doesnt need to anyway. all calculations are laid out clearly and are simple enough to follow. often it will need a second (or third) look for it to sink in but noone says relativity was easy (ok some might but they hardly need this book do they mr hawking ;)).this book is definitely not pretentious. it doesnt claim to be a masterful work on the ‘ins and outs’ of relativity theory, nor does is leave on a tangent (if youll excuse the mathematical pun).simple put the title explains all. if you want to feel less in the dark over relativity, or need a simple revision text, then this book is a must have. yes there are more comprehensive textbooks around, but this is not the intention here, and for what it is, its hard not to give it 5 stars.a word of caution if the cover art or title are misleading. this is NOT a laymans book. you will not understand it if you have not done maths at, at least a level (or similar), nor will you be able to read through it like a brief history of time. it IS challenging stuff, more so than its sister book i also picked up ‘quantum mechanics demystified’, at least mathematically speaking.if youre a undergrad student of physics, however, and youre not oe of those gifted ones (weve all met one) then this is definitely recommended for your studies.

⭐Not good at all. Derivation of the velocity law up the spout.

⭐The title reads: ‘Relativity Demystified – A Self-Teaching Guide’. Unfortunately, according to my understanding, ‘Demystified’ implies clear, down-to-Earth explanation and ‘A Self-Teaching Guide’ suggests that everything necessary to an understanding is contained within, subject to sufficient reader effort. It would appear that wide-ranging mathematical skills are assumed from the outset. I’d suggest that beginners might look elsewhere.That aside, the publication may well be fine, but the above allows nothing more than a ‘poor’ rating.

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