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Title: The Principle of Relativity by et al., Albert Einstein ISBN: 0-486-60081-5 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1952 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An accessible reference book
Comment: This compact collection of English translations of the original papers is a cheap and highly accessible reference book.
The book is a chronology of the development of the theory of Relativity. Starting with Lorentz' papers on Michelson's interference experiment and electomagnetic phenomena in moving frames of reference, the book follows the rapid development of the subject from Einstein's ground breaking papers of 1905 on Electrodymanics and Inertia. Minkowski's original paper on Space-Time is a delight: it's always a pleasant surprise when one finds that the explanation of the originator has not been bettered in nearly 100 years!
Latter chapters of the book present Einstein's papers on General Relativity -which are mathematically complex. They are definately not the place to start if one wants to learn the principles of General Relativity. Nonetheless, after one has learnt the principles from more accessible materials, such as "The Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation" by M V Berry, these papers can be very useful as original sources that the reader can use in order to grasp the methods by which Einstein presented his revolutionary discoveries.
This is an excellent, high value, low cost source that is worth keeping!
Rating: 5
Summary: A colection of classical articles
Comment: This book is not for the usual reader, it contains many articles from the beginning of the 20th century in physics that are now classics.
Basically it deals with the birth of relativity theory, in form of a collection of articles related beetween them and that describe the early evolution of the theory in the circle of physics. The original audience was cientists, so the usual reader will be daunted by formulas and formal description of theories and hipotheses.
It is however a must read for physics students and those interested in theory of relativity and a strong reference for PHD thesis and cientific works.
I bought it to use in my PHD thesis as reference as the basis of the view of the world where there is no priviledged point of reference, that is, everything is relative, wether in physical sciences or social sciences. This is the essence of the relativism that permeates the post-modern view of world, and historiography today.
I strongly recommend it for use as reference for cientists and students, but it is daunting in mathematics, You can use it without knowing lots of math, but you need to understand the concepts derived from the math. They are surprisinlgy well described by einstein and the others, after all they were geniuses.
Rating: 5
Summary: THE Classic
Comment: I do not know how I can adequately review this. That this is indispensible to any theoretical physicist is pretty much the extent of what I am about to say. I mean, here you have the greatest scientific giants of all time grappling with some of the deepest, most complicated issues of 20th century physics: you not only get the opportunity of finding out what they really thought about relativity, with all mathematical and philosophical details, but you also are able to see how truly great minds go about solving difficult problems (which, I feel, should be an inspiration for modern theoreticians as to how to solve the problems associated with quantum gravity, string theory, etc.). Just the section of Einstein's paper The Foundations of a General Relativity Theory on the deep, philosophical reasons why a theory of nature should be generaly relativistic are well worth getting this book; I personally think that this one paper is the greatest scientific publication of all time (Principia is certainly bolder, more revolutionary, but Einstein's deepest ruminations, I feel, are almost religious). To be sure, one needs certain mathematical training to get the full benefit of this book, but this could be said of relativity in general; I personally do not think that one can fully comprehend relativity theory, in all its beautiful glory, without this training. Despite this, I still think it is possible, even without sufficient mathematical training, to get a real feel of how these titans thought and felt, even if just by osmosis (you know that profound thoughts are being expressed when you can almost grasp them without really understanding them). In short, it is the duty of every physicist, maybe even every scientist, not just to read, but to EXPERIENCE this book (that is the only way I can adequately describe this; it is an experience).
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Title: Relativity : The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein ISBN: 0517884410 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 06 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein ISBN: 0691023522 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 November, 1966 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory by Werner Heisenberg ISBN: 0486601137 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: December, 1930 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Ideas & Opinions by Albert Einstein ISBN: 0517003937 Publisher: Gramercy Pub. Date: 12 December, 1988 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: A Brief History of Time : The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition by Stephen Hawking ISBN: 0553380168 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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