Relativity: The Special and the General Theory

When physicists insist on writing nonsense, it is helpful to get it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. With relativity we have to get our heads around the idea that no matter how fast we are moving, we will always measure the speed of light relative to ourselves as exactly the same. This defies the common sense of our daily experience. But, using everyday language and practically no mathematics, Einstein leads us to accept this experimentally confirmed truth in the only way it can be accepted: that our time and our space lengthen or shorten such that the light around us travels at 300,000 of our km per one of our seconds. OK. I'm sure he's right. But, he does another thing in this book which I found most valuable, and that is that he firmly ties the discussion of relativity to empirical reality, so that in the end we might accept relativity with no more fuss than we accept a 30 cm rule for measuring distances and drawing straight lines. One returns to the undergraduate texts much strengthened.

Difficult read, but what a prize to understand it!

Prior to purchasing this book, one might notice some reviewers pointing out certain editions with poor translations and missing diagrams. The following edition is a good translation with the diagrams included: ISBN 978-1-891396-30-4 The book walks the reader through the development of the special and general theories of relativity and the supporting theories they were built upon. Starting with the special theory and its limited applicability and the later development of the more universal general theory, aimed at covering the deficiencies of the former. The first chapters of the book on the general theory of relativity are easy to approach even for those with no background in physics, featuring only little math and easy to relate to examples. More math and complexity comes in the later stages of the book introducing the general theory of relativity and may be hard to grasp even with a basic background in physics. Noticeably the book is a translation and the original language is not English, however its still readable. Its not light reading so be prepared to sit and think in order to really digest and understand the principles. Overall a good basic insight to one of the greatest achievements in physics, which could perhaps benefit from a few extra diagrams for those with a limited background.

The biographical notes. The translation was good even including some amusing linguistic differences no doubt to retain some from the original text by Einstein. Nevertheless I did find some explanations unclear requiring me to refer back to previous pages for definitions.

I couldn't fault it: carefully written with the non-scientist, albeit intelligent reader, it was a joy to appreciate the part played by the mind experiments for which Einstein was so famous. Highly recommended.

Trying to understand why it is written in old style English, surely it was translated from German? Makes it very difficult to read and understand.

Considering the information contained in this book, the Kindle version was astounding value for money. Thank you for producing this book that was ten times easier to read than I had expected. Everyone who is a scientist should read it.

I'd describe it as a "Summary of Einstein's Relativity". It delves into the subject matter, vividly paints you a picture: a mathematical picture

This book is a ripoff. Someone printed some pdf, but it doesn't even contain the images. Instead, it contained the file names (!) of the images.

A relatividade mudou todos os conceitos sobre o universo, e continua válida, proporcionando viagens espaciais

Es un clásico. Observo que en esta edición solo hay cuatro apéndices, cuando en otras hay cinco. (Quinto apéndice "La relatividad y el problema del espacio")

Like no other, Albert Einstein celebrates simplicity combined with imagination and precise, scientific knowledge and methodology to explain the breathtaking, harmonious structure that the universe is based on. WHAT A REVOLUTIONARY, MINDBOGGLING BOOK. THANK YOU!

Ho avuto la sensazione di aver capito perfettamente la teoria della relatività, ma appena ho terminato il libro mi sono accorto che era solo l'effetto illusorio dell'impressionante lucidità di Einstein nell'esporre concetti a lui evidentemente chiarissimi. Mente superiore.