Relativity: The Special and the General Theory Paperback – 1 Dec. 2010

Difficult read, but what a prize to understand it!

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.

This is a classic text. It’s not the best book ever written about Relativity, but it’s one of the most interesting because of the wonderful insight it gives us into the way that Einstein himself thought about it.But it would have been nice if someone involved with the Kindle edition had proof-read it before publishing it. I’ve never read a book so absolutely stuffed with typesetting errors. There’s at least one typo on almost every page. It’s really awful. I imagine that it was scanned from an original print copy by a machine, and then no one bothered to check it at all before offering it to the public.So: five stars for the book, no stars for the edition. Giving it four stars overall.

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.

Amazingly written for the none 100 percent academic. Really found out some new insights here

Well, I admit defeat once again. This stuff is too much for my poor brain! There were instances where I could say, `oh yes` or `ah I see` but they were few. I found as the book progressed that I simply could not read it! A shame, because I am interested in the ideas here. In a way I think that part of the reason I find this subject attractive is that it is so mind blowing, but also so hard to grasp! I have looked at numerous explanations for relativity with time dilation/length contraction etc - and they all tend to repeat the same examples eg twins paradox. Sure, I understand the language they use, but true understanding - to me the whole concept of `understanding` is called into question! So now I have a copy of `Einstein for dummies` which was recommended by someone. Let`s hope I have more success here.

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 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.

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

A captivating read! This book gives an insight into the scientific theory about the relationship between space and time, the theory of gravitation and the universe.

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.

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.

Well-written presentation by the author and translator in bite-sized chunks of information, developing the theories in logical steps. Some understanding of algebra is needed to follow the arguments, but concepts sequentially build on each other. Supporting appendices help explain material essential to the book for those needing additional background. Some language is dated and uses formats and expressions no longer in use, but can be understood through careful reading. Some terms might require a dictionary for those not having prior physics experience, but this is not a major limitation. Given how broadly these theories are now used, this short book is a worthwhile time investment for any serious adult or high school student. It would be a great book to read and discuss with others for its meaning and implications.