Customer Reviews (1)

Nobel prize winning material.
This book represents a world change in Physics as fundamental as the works of Newton and Einstein. The theory is a remarkable extension of the work of Einstein in his later years. Professor Sachs is a master of clear and lucid writing. A true masterpiece !

Gravity and Electromagnetism are now naturally married in a brilliant re-derivation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Sachs uncovers a long forgotten paper by Einstein and Mayer that holds the secret. But Einstein missed its fundamental importance. The vector basis used by Einstein in deriving the General Theory is incomplete. Just as Maxwell (and Tait) used the more complete basis of quaternions in deriving Maxwell's equations, Sachs builds a complete theory of General Relativity but using a quaternionic basis. Hamilton and his quaternions are finally vindicated.

The "square root problem" of the fundamental metric defining space-time disappears with the natural factorization of the metric stated in a quaternionic basis. The true nature of spin that has eluded all the vendors of Quantum Mechanics comes simply from the correct application of relativistic covariance. It does NOT depend on the quantum mechanical nature of the description per se.

The additional key insight is that Sachs realises that Einstein needed to eliminate the discrete symmetries of reflections in space and time. Sachs points out that the theory of relativity compares laws of nature in reference frames that are distinguished from each other ONLY in terms of their relative motion - a continuous set of transformations.

Sachs can lay a strong claim to having merged all the known forces in this brilliant work. It is a fairly reasonable hypothesis that the ONLY forces in nature are NOW shown to be Gravity and Electromagnetism. The Strong and Weak forces are simply aspects of Gravity and Electromagnetism at an extremely short range. Sachs demonstrates in a mathematical tour de force that all of nature appears to be contained in his equations from nuclear dimensions all the way through to the properties of astronomical objects. An oscillating Universe cosmology naturally arises instead of the Big Bang discontinuity. All discontinuities fade away into the smooth continuous fabric of Sach's space-time continuum.

I suspect there will be many years before the true nature of this staggering leap of Sachs is recognized. Meanwhile Physics wanders in the wilderness of the string theory and other well meaning but misguided theories that come from academics wandering too far from the shirt-tails of geniuses like Einstein and Newton. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook contains Albert Einstein's RELATIVITY, a fundamental treatise on Einstein's theory of the nature of gravity, space-time, and physics.A refugee from Nazism, Einstein (1879-1955) revolutionized physics and other fields, with his theories of General and Special Relativity gaining wide acceptance in the 20th century.

This work also contains two supplemental essays, "Ether and the Theory of Relativity," and "Geometry and Experience" originally published separately from Einstein's RELATIVITY.

This ebook contains an active table of contents for easy navigation.

RELATIVITY: THE SPECIAL AND GENERAL THEORY
Preface
Part I: The Special Theory of Relativity
Part II: The General Theory of Relativity
Part III: Considerations on the Universe as a Whole
Appendices

SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY
Ether and the Theory of Relativity
Geometry and Experience
... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1986, this award-winning account of how Einstein's theory holds up after more than seventy-five years has been updated to accomodate the most recent experimental findings, as well as the exciting story of the rise and fall of the "fifth force". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

out of date
If this was 1995, I'd give this book five stars. It's an excellent, readable book on an important scientific topic. The trouble is that this second edition, which dates back to 1993, is now out of date. It came before some important tests of General Relativity (Gravity Probe B, Cassini-Huygens), and it also came before the discovery of the nonzero cosmological constant.

Excellent
"Was Einstein Right" is the first book (out of 37 on relativity which I own) that I offer someone interested in learning about Einstein's theories.It is interesting, clear and to the point. I have re-bought this book three times, as my copies are lent out and don't always make it back!hahaI don't blame them!

a saga of modern science
Everyone knows that Einstein revolutionized the theory of gravity.But only experiment can tell whether he got it right.Will recounts in clear and nontechnical language the story of how Einstein's theory was put to the test in earth- and satellite-based experiments from the 1950's to the 1980's.He describes how it is actually possible to see space curve by making very accurate measurements in the solar system, and he explains how those measurements were made by the Mariner probe to Mars, by radar surveying of the planets, and by bouncing laser beams off the moon. From these highlights to the three naked Stanford professors whose experiment is still waiting to go up in the Shuttle, Will sets out every aspect of this fascinating story ... Read more

Product Description

Observational and experimental data pertaining to gravity and cosmology are changing our view of the Universe. General relativity is a fundamental key for the understanding of these observations and its theory is undergoing a continuing enhancement of its intersection with observational and experimental data. These data include direct observations and experiments carried out in our solar system, among which there are direct gravitational wave astronomy, frame dragging and tests of gravitational theories from solar system and spacecraft observations.

This book explores John Archibald Wheeler's seminal and enduring contributions in relativistic astrophysics and includes: the General Theory of Relativity and Wheeler's influence; recent developments in the confrontation of relativity with experiments; the theory describing gravitational radiation, and its detection in Earth-based and space-based interferometer detectors as well as in Earth-based bar detectors; the mathematical description of the initial value problem in relativity and applications to modeling gravitational wave sources via computational relativity; the phenomenon of frame dragging and its measurement by satellite observations. All of these areas were of direct interest to Professor John A. Wheeler and were seminally influenced by his ideas.

Customer Reviews (1)

Nothing substantially new
Basically, this book is useless from different points of view.
The price is too high and its content is really not new in the sense that several contributions
can be found for free on, e.g., the arXiv database. Moreover, it seems the umpteenth attempt by one of the editors of exploiting the fame of Wheeeler toobtain a personal endorsement. The chapters concerning the LAGEOS and LARES tests of frame-dragging contain material which has been presented, basically almost always in the same way, in several other places, like presentations, slides, talks, pre-prints, papers, all available elsewhere for free on the Internet, or at a much smaller price.From a scientific point of view, they do not contain anything really new and worth buying the book.
All in all, I do not recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
Einstein's general theory of relativity is introduced in this advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level textbook. Topics include special relativity, in the formalism of Minkowski's four-dimensional space-time, the principle of equivalence, Riemannian geometry and tensor analysis, Einstein field equation, as well as many modern cosmological subjects, from primordial inflation and cosmic microwave anisotropy to the dark energy that propels an accelerating universe.

The author presents the subject with an emphasis on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus. The reader first learns how to describe curved spacetime. At this mathematically more accessible level, the reader can already study the many interesting phenomena such as gravitational lensing, precession of Mercury's perihelion, black holes, and cosmology. The full tensor formulation is presented later, when the Einstein equation is solved for a few symmetric cases. Many modern topics in cosmology are discussed in this book: from inflation, cosmic microwave anisotropy to the "dark energy" that propels an accelerating universe.

Mathematical accessibility, together with the various pedagogical devices (e.g., worked-out solutions of chapter-end problems), make it practical for interested readers to use the book to study general relativity and cosmology on their own. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Best book for self-study
Learning general relativity has always been a dream of mine.This book made it possible for me to learn GR on my own.A dream come true!

The Fundamentals
Excellent overview text.Enough detail for people with a physics background; an alternative to an exhaustive course on general relativity.

This book is a gem
Intermediate level, with clear presentation, lots of graphics and exercises, ideal for self-study. In one word, excellent.

Excellent Material to begin with and test yourself.
I'm a second year astrophysics student from Ireland.
Recently I've tried to learn the Mathematics of General Relativity in detail, outside of my course and have bought numerous books in the process.

In my opinion this book and "A First Course in General Relativity by Bernard F. Schutz" are perfect complementary texts to learn the main basis of General Relativity on your own.

The author has provided an unbelievable amount of questions and not a single one of them is pointless exercise.

The book is Divided into three sections:

Part 1: Metric description of Space-Time
Very well written intro to General Relativity which delves into Black Holes and Mercury's Orbit, without the full on Field Equation and Tensors.

Part 2: Cosmology
Still keeping to the metric description of space-time, cosmology is introduced. The mathematics of concepts like the closed and open universes are explained really well.

Part 3: Full Tensor Formulism
I was able to learn Tensors from this, using Chapter 3 from Schutz's book as a companion.

The questions at the end of each chapter really test your knowledge and after reading this you will be able to manipulate the field equation for simple cases and move onto more advanced books if you wish.
... Read more

Product Description

This book introduces the general theory of relativity and includes applications to cosmology. The book provides a thorough introduction to tensor calculus and curved manifolds. After the necessary mathematical tools are introduced, the authors offer a thorough presentation of the theory of relativity. Also included are some advanced topics not previously covered by textbooks, including Kaluza-Klein theory, Israel's formalism and branes. Anisotropic cosmological models are also included. The book contains a large number of new exercises and examples, each with separate headings. The reader will benefit from an updated introduction to general relativity including the most recent developments in cosmology.

Customer Reviews (3)

jw
This is a student friendly book and the material very well presented.
The production quality of the book itself is however sloppy.The text is too close to the binding or the spine of the book and makes the reading quite tedious. This is very ignorant and unprofessional by the publisher.
I give the book 5 stars for content and zero star to the publisher.
With this production quality the book should cost no more than $30.

Up to you
Again a decent book ruined by the printing quality. I don't know if it was only my copy purchased at UK, but the shamelessness of the publishers seems to have no end. The first edition of the book is printed like the 'printing on demand' books, that is, poor quality galore: a bunch of leaves with a tiny font, glued in a cardboard covers. Be sure to have it in your hands before buying it, so you can see what for are you going to pay 100$, or you'll have a big disappointment.

A Physics Professor
This book is simply , the best choice if you are planning to teachGR beyond Schutzor Nightingale.
I am inclined to landau and Adler .I am a Geometry - biased physicist.
This book,reviewsthe Geometryof manifolds , recalling even Gauss-Weingarten equations!! .
Then it covers the standard ,Vectors , Tensors, Special Relativityinterior and vacuumsolutions. Black Holesand Gravitational waves.etc.
Laterthe authors proceed toderive Kerr Metric, from Ernst equation ,something that you don't see very often . I was yearning for having a copy of Adler , since is the other book that coverKerr derivation is Chandra , which istoo picky. But thenI got lucky ,I found this book.
Somethingeven more interesting s that it incorporates Advanced Topics like Kaluza Kleinand Brane Cosmology (Randall -Sundrum) etc.
The book brings step - by step derivations and a considerableamount of Exercises.
It is a noble, friendly book , produced byPhysicistthat really want you to learn ..Buy it . ... Read more

Product Description
When this book was originally published in 1979, the vitality of Einstein's general theory and its impact on other branches of science had never been greater. The unprecedented advances of the previous fifteen years had been stimulated on the observational side by developments in radar and space technology and by the discovery of exotic astronomical objects, which pointed to the existence of very strong gravitational fields, and possibly black holes, in many parts of the universe. Equally striking had been the progress in theoretical understanding, notably of black hole physics, the early history of the universe and the reconciliation of quantum physics and gravitational theory. To honour Einstein's hundredth birthday, twenty-one of the world's leading relativists collaborated on this carefully integrated survey of the state of research. This unique book, which remained a standard for many years, is indispensable to anyone concerned with the profound influence that Einstein's theory has exerted on our notions of space, time and the ultimate nature of matter. ... Read more

Product Description
From the reviews of the second edition: "It is the book par excellence for the nonrelativist who is at home with mathematics...What gives the book its outstanding quality is Professor Rindler's profound understanding of the ideas behind the formulas and his remarkable ability to share this understanding with the reader. In graceful prose he makes deep things simple. Under his guidance the basic concepts come vividly to life and acquire a force of their own so that the mathematics takes on a secondary role...With its combination of substantial mathematics, insight, and physical down-to-earthedness, the book is a delight in every way." American Mathematical Monthly ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very well written
As a modern textbook in the theory of relativity, this book is rare, in that its goal is to give the reader a conceptual introduction to the theory, and not just mathematical formalism. The author also does not hesitate to include some philosophical argumentation wherever needed. It is written for the advanced undergraduate, and will prepare such a reader for more advanced reading in the subject.

The first chapter of the book is the best, for it is a comprehensive discussion of the origins of the theory of relativity as one that rejected the assertion that space and time were absolute. The author also gives an interesting historical discussion of Lorentz's ether theory, wherein Lorentz hypothesized that bodies moving through the ether undergo a contraction, and he discovered a time transformation that implied that clocks moving through the ether run slow. As the author points out, Lorentz thought such considerations were purely mathematical, and not important physically. In addition, in the section on Mach's principle, the author discusses briefly the work of Dennis Sciama who showed that the 1872 gravitational theory of F. Tisserand included Mach's principle. I was not aware of this work, and it motivated me to do further reading on the subject. The author also gives several examples to show that Mach's principle is not physically vacuous, but has observational consequences.

Chapter two overviews the kinematic consequences of the special theory of relativity. The most interesting part of this discussion was the section on the formulation of special relativity without assuming the invariance of the speed of light. The author shows that the principle of relativity implies that either all inertial frames are related by Galilean transformations, or all are related by Lorentz transformations with the same (postive) velocity (squared).

A discussion of optical effects follows in chapter 3. One unexpected and interesting result in this chapter is that a moving sphere has a circular outline to all observers because of length contraction.

Some of the mathematical formalism needed in special relativity is overviewed in chapter four. The class of four-vectors and four-tensors is defined, and the light cone geometry discussed in detail.

The relativistic mechanics of point particles is covered in chapter five. Such a theory is cast in the language of four-vectors, and the author explains nicely the mass-energy equivalence, analyzes scattering from a relativistic standpoint in the center of momentum frame, and shows how Newtonian mechanics is altered in the relativistic realm. He also spends a little time on relativistic continuum mechanics, via the energy tensor of the simplest continua: dust.

The connection between relativity and electrodynamics is outlined in chapter six. The material is standard and found in most books on relativity.

The author begins the study of general relativity in chapter seven with some elementary considerations of the differential geometry of curved surfaces and also Riemannian spaces. The author endeavors, rightfully, to explain the mathematics in a way that is intuitive as possible, rather than hitting the reader with highly abstract formalism.

He then presents the mathematica foundations of general relativity in chapter eight. After a brief review of tensor calculus, the author considers the gravitational field equations in a vacuum, emphasizing their nonlinearity. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the famous Schwarzschild solution. In addition, he considers a particular exact solution of the Einstein field equations in a vacuum, namely a plane-fronted gravitational wave. Although not physical, this solution illustrates some important properties of general gravitational radiation.

The author ends the book with a fairly detailed overview of cosmology. The difficulties in the pre-relativistic cosmology are discussed, one of the more interesting being the consideration of the Newtonian gravitational field inside a cavity resulting from the removal of a finite sphere from a static universe. Recognizing that Poisson's equation does not have a constant solution led to the alteration of the Newtonian potential and thus a modification of the Poisson equation. As the author observes, this move to get a static Newtonian universe is formally the same as what Einstein did via the introduction of the cosmological constant in his field equations (also to get a static universe). The author also considers the Robertson-Walker, Milne, and Friedman universe, and compares these to what is known observationally.

Relativity in the style of Feynman's Lectures
This is a wonderful book, very amusing and thought provoking. Without trying to be comprehensive, it sheds much light on the basics of the theory, as well as of the mathematics. His discussion of Mach's principle is brilliant, and ends with a proposal of an experiment to test it with satellites! Very good at computations too, boasting tables for computing the curvature tensorfrom the metric tensor which are very useful.

subtle approach to SR and GR
Although not the most comprehesive text on the subject (see Thorne's tome, Gravitation), Essential Relativity is perhaps the most fulfilling book from which to learn both special and general relativity on a graduate school level. Flipping through the pages, one cannot help but notice that it often reads like a novel. For the student or the adventurous, a wide variety of problems are found in an appendix. The author's background in differential geometry is very evident in his excellent explanations of difficult concepts. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful, physical book
Sciama gives a mixture of philosophical, theoretical, and observational arguments that Newton's Laws have to be extended and modified into general relativity. He makes heavy use of introductory physics and special relativity, but almost nothing else; he assumes that the reader is careful and attentive, but not a genius. He never gives the full-up equations, because he doesn't allow himself any difficult mathematics, but the equations are fully explained in words, which, in my opinion, is much more useful. It is absolutely the clearest introduction to general relativity I have ever seen, hands down (and I have seen a lot).

One of the most remarkable parts of the book is his use of contemporaneous cosmological measurements to argue that inertial forces (ie, forces that appear in reference frames that are accelerated relative to the reference frame set by large mass at large distance) must scale as 1/r. This use of observations to constrain the possible forms for gravitational theory clearly grounds general relativity in the real and observable. This is followed by an extremely frank (ie, skeptical) look at the observational tests of general relativity available at the time of publication. ... Read more

Product Description
There is little doubt that Einstein's theory of relativity captures the imagination. It is unrivalled in forming the basis of the way we view the universe and the many surprises that the theory has in store -- the characteristics of black holes, the prospect of detecting gravitational waves, and the sheer scope and profundity of current cosmology excite all students of relativity. The aim of this textbook is to provide students with a sound mathematical introduction coupled to an understanding of the physical insights needed to explore the subject. The book follows Einstein in that it introduces the basic field equations by discussing the relativistic theory of gravitation from a physics point of view, and the structure on the resulting equations is discussed carefully before going on to their solution in simple settings. The book is designed with two objectives: to familiarize students with the basic ideas and equations of the theory, and to cover three main topics: black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. Throughout, the author has included numerous exercises (of varying degrees of difficulty) to illustrate and extend the ideas covered. As a result, this book will make an excellent first course for any student coming to the subject for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Excellent General Relativity Textbook
This text is well written. It is less well-known than it deserves to be, as it nowhas many competitors. Needless to say, it deserves attention by the serious student and professors alike.This marvelous resource should not be collecting dust on anyone's bookshelf.

Review by author of Relativity Demystified
This was one of the books assigned when I took general relativity in college. I found several of the chapters very enjoyable to read. D'Inverno does a great job getting into some of the fascinating physics that lies behind general relativity and its development, like Mach's principles and a great discussion of the equivalence principle. Much of the book is devoted to teaching you the mathematics, and it does so in a good fashion. He has two nice chapters on tensors with homework problems that are doable. One drawback was the book didn't have anything on Cartan's equations or discuss one forms (although he talks about contravariant and covariant vectors). The first half of the book is better than the second half, I found his chapters on special relativity excellent but felt his chapters on black holes and gravity waves were a bit lacking. In any case, I recommend it. Try beefing up your education by reading it along with Schutz so you get some exposure to one forms and all that.

This is the best book for an introduction to GR
D'Inverno presents all the prerequisite maths needed for GR perfectly. The book is presented perfectly and at the appropriate introductory level for someone who has already done special relativity and wants to jump into GR but doesnt know what a tensor is. There definitly is no better introduction to GR in existence. The exercises at the end of each chapter are brilliant as well. Usually I dont do exercises as they take too long but D'Invernos exercises are a must do. You learn soo much from them and they are more easy than hard. Most books at this level give exercises which are too hard or not that important to understanding the next few chapters. But D'Invernos exercises are perfect especially the ones on the chapters about the maths needed for GR.
After introducing GR he does stuff on black holes, worm holes, gravitational waves and cosmology.

The only problems with the book are that in the first section of the book he does an introduction to special relativity for those who have never seen it before. It is a very bad intro to special relativity. For the best intro to special rel. one needs to consult "University Physics" by "Young and Fredman".
But for those who have already done SR, d'invernos intro to SR is new and interesting as a method if a bit too difficult and mathematical.
Also I would be a bit critical of the fact that after explaining the geometrical structure of GR perfectly he does not even mention how this view of gravity as a force is not exactly "combinable" with the particle physics view of gravity as a force communicated by a graviton. Just a small thought which I think is important. (Weinberg introduces GR by another method which does not use the mathematical geometrical structure throughout as he considers it "overemphasized" and a bit "misleading")
Wienbergs "General relativity and cosmology" should be the readers next port of call after D'inverno

Where's the new edition?
This is an excellent book. But I have seen a 1996 edition of it, not described above.

The best intro book on GR !!!
This is without any doubt the best book one can use for starting with GR: it is self contained, well written and moreover it is full of Physical insight. In brief: a great book. Even the introductory mathematical part (about tensor calculus) is great written: not too short and not too long. If one would like to gain an additional point of view about tensor calculus I'd recommend to compare the way followed by R. d'Inverno with that followed by Richtmyer "Principles of advanced mathematical Physics" vol 2 (the last all done in geodesic coordinates: this is a book on maths and not about GR!!). The level of Ray d'Inverno is at advanced undergraduate/1st year graduate: in fact one can find a lot of well discussed topics that are generally left out in other books on the subject. Of course this is not an advanced text like R. Wald or Hawking-Ellis, which are the right books if one wants to get a deeper insight in particular topics. The only fundamental thing R. d'Inverno lacks to treat in a fully way is the form of the Energy of the Gravitational field in GR and its related problems: no specific discussion about it. I think this is an important topic. A valuable (and probably the best) discussion about the latter can be found in L.D.Landau "Field Theory" book, or even in Sean Carroll "Spacetime and Geometry" book (a very good one, my favourite together with Landau and Ray d'Inverno), or you can also have a look about it into P. Dirac or Weinberg. ... Read more

Product Description
This book deals with 2-spinors in general relativity,beginning by developing spinors in a geometrical way rather than usingrepresentation theory, which can be a little abstract. This gives thereader greater physical intuition into the way in which spinorsbehave. The book concentrates on the algebra and calculus of spinorsconnected with curved space-time. Many of the well-known tensor fieldsin general relativity are shown to have spinor counterparts. Ananalysis of the Lanczos spinor concludes the book, and some of thetechniques so far encountered are applied to this. Exercises play animportant role throughout and are given at the end of each chapter. ... Read more

Product Description
General relativity is now an essential part of undergraduate and graduate courses in physics, astrophysics and applied mathematics. This simple, user-friendly introduction to relativity is ideal for a first course in the subject. Beginning with a comprehensive but simple review of special relativity, the book creates a framework from which to launch the ideas of general relativity. After describing the basic theory, it moves on to describe important applications to astrophysics, black hole physics, and cosmology. Several worked examples, and numerous figures and images, help students appreciate the underlying concepts. There are also 180 exercises which test and develop students' understanding of the subject. The textbook presents all the necessary information and discussion for an elementary approach to relativity. Password-protected solutions to the exercises are available to instructors at www.cambridge.org/9780521735612. ... Read more

Product Description
Starting with the idea of an event and finishing with a description of the standard big-bang model of the Universe, this textbook provides a clear, concise and up-to-date introduction to the theory of general relativity, suitable for final-year undergraduate mathematics or physics students. Throughout, the emphasis is on the geometric structure of spacetime, rather than the traditional coordinate-dependent approach. This allows the theory to be pared down and presented in its simplest and most elegant form. Topics covered include flat spacetime (special relativity), Maxwell fields, the energy-momentum tensor, spacetime curvature and gravity, Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes, black holes and singularities, and cosmology. In developing the theory, all physical assumptions are clearly spelled out and the necessary mathematics is developed along with the physics. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter and key ideas in the text are illustrated with worked examples. Solutions and hints to selected problems are also provided at the end of the book. This textbook will enable the student to develop a sound understanding of the theory of general relativity, and all the necessary mathematical machinery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

First GR book without the Christoffel symbols?
The book is remarkable in its approach: it uses coordinate-free geometric formulation throughout, never using non-tensors such as the Christoffel symbols, and never resorting to brute-force calculations. Beware that this is not a textbook of GR for beginners! Rather, this is a second book that explains a more advanced approach. The initial chapters (non-GR) are useful for those who already know special relativity+mechanics+EM, but not in a more abstract four-dimensional formulation (a 4-vector of *electric field*?). The beauty of the book starts to shine in the GR chapters; for example, the derivations of the Newtonian limit (although it contains a hard-to-spot sign error), the redshift, the properties of horizons, and the introduction of a null tetrad are elegantly executed. The Schwarzschild metric is derived from symmetry arguments together with the Raychaudhuri equation, rather than by a long calculation most textbooks avoid. This book sets a worthy example of lucid explanations and geometric reasoning from which especially graduate students would benefit.

Dense
There are endorsements on the back of this from Roger Penrose and Bernhard Schutz. The two neatly parenthesise the problem with this book, which is that in order to follow it, you need first to read Schutz's 'Geometrical methods', but once you have read Schulz you can skip Ludwigsen, and have a crack at Penrose (or, more reasonably, Wald) instead.
This should be a nice book (and Roger's blurb is probably earned - but Rog is not the audience). The author is enchanted - understandably - by the beauty of both relativity and differential geometry, but he tries to do too much in the number of pages he has, forgetting that mathematical ladders are much less intimidating looking down than looking up.

A book twice as long would take half the time to read.

A good book (in particular, for students)
This is a good book, with a pronounced mathematical accent and many useful and solvable problems. It can be considered as a textbook, though there are some points which deserve corrections, for example: (a) In p. 36, the Author characterized the Lorentz transformation too shortly, and he calls it "Lorenz transformation". This is especially strange since in the neighbouring Denmark (Ludvigsen's address in the book is in Sweden) there was a great physicist L.V. Lorenz, 1829-1891, inventor of the Lorenz condition, creator of the electromagnetic theory of light (1867, independently of Maxwell), and co-author of the famous Lorenz-Lorentz formula -- together with H.A. Lorentz of Holland to whom pertains the above transformation. Eight lines below Ludvigsen introduces "Levi-Cevita" tensor (named after T. Levi-Civita, and this is a pseudo-tensor = axial tensor). These errors are not misprints (see Index, p. 216, and the text in the pages given there). (b) The Author uses, of course, real coordinates (not the ancient imaginary time), so it is inadequate to picture the Lorentz transformation as a sheer trigonometric rotation of space-time axes (cf. figs. 4.7, 5.3). (c) In the very title of the book the subtitle ("A Geometric Approach") seems to be artificial since general relativity practically is a synonym of geometry: the well-proportioned abundance of figures in the book is not identical to geometry. Imagine that Euclid would entitle his books as "The Elements. A Geometric Approach"... But the book by Ludvigsen is definitely a success, though it needs some editing more. I highly recommend it to students.

not so geometric
it's a brief introduction to the physics of gravity, not the mathematics. by the word geometric, the author means indepedence from coordinate, but he doesn't use tools of modern differential geometry(curvature form, connection, fiber bundle, pullback). it deals Killing field, Schwarzschild, and Kerr, but anti-deSitter nor variational formulation. if you want a mathematically elegant treatment, look for other books.

Useful, but with a STEEP learning curve
I have taught electromagnetism at the advanced graduate level, and am reasonably familiar with classical differential geometry and general relativity (e.g. as presented by Weinberg). I am finding Ludvigsen's book a tough read, though a worthwhile one. A considerable amount both of the physics background and the mathematics background of the subject is omitted or treated very briefly. Three paragraphs cover the Coulomb potential *and* the plane wave, for instance. Definitions tend to be ostentive - by example.

Ludvigsen's book has the virtues of brevity as well as its difficulties, however: the reader can see where he is going at all times, and the author takes the reader through the modern approach to differential geometry, and deeply into the results of relativity theory, quickly and efficiently.

I hope to see a second edition of this book. A little more explanantion, here and there, would do much, if not to reduce the steepness of the learning curve, at least to provide a few handholds on the way up! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A good introduction to General Relativity
What is unique in this book is that it has the Gödel cosmological solution to
the general relativity equations. It has a good coverage of Weyl's gauge
equations as well and a discussion of the
topological implications of black holes.
The mathematics is well done and relatively easy to follow.
This text is aclassic text on gravity theory.

My Favorite Book on General Relativity
This second edition of the Adler, Bazin and Schiffer book is nothing short of miraculous. I have read it off and on for 25 years, and I always manage to learn something new from it. Although it cannot compete with the more recent texts on post-Newtonian mechanics, everything is here for the advanced undergraduate/beginning graduate student: tensor calculus; Riemannian and non-Riemannian geometries; tensor applications in electrodynamics; variational methods; Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes; Killing vectors; and much, much more. An entire chapter is devoted to Weyl's gauge-invariant theory and Wheeler's "already unified" field theory. If you have been completely turned off by Misner-Wheeler-Thorne's Gravitation book (along with its somewhat pretentious and totally confusing annotations and sidebar material), and yet you still want to learn a decent amount of general relativity, buy this book while copies are still available. I'm still hoping that a third edition (with a chapter on computer applications) will eventually hit the shelves. ... Read more

Product Description

Special and General Relativity are concisely developed together with essential aspects of nuclear and particle physics. Problem sets are provided for many chapters, making the book ideal for a course on the physics of white dwarf and neutron star interiors. Norman K. Glendenning is Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Nuclear Science Division, Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous books.

Product Description
Richly illustrated, this introductory text develops the ideas of basic physics and mathematics to introduce the essential principles and results of special relativity.A geometric interpretation of space-time is used so that the general theory is seen as a natural extension of the special theory.Although most results are derived from first principles, complex mathematics is avoided, and all mathematical steps and formulas are fully explained and interpretated.Student guides allow for alternative routes of study, and summaries, worked examples, and exercises are provided to enhance the student's understanding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent introduction to Relativity
If you are a ambitious highshool student or a physics freshman this is the best place to get started on special realtivity.
It is far less mathematically demanding then many books out there and clear on physical concepts.
(ch.1) Good review of classical ideas.
(ch.2) Need for special relativity, good explanations of
galaian and lorentz transformation, and uses of the latter.
(ch.3) Good introductions to spacetime geometry (the invariant
interval) and relativistic mechanics.

(ch.4) Good introduction to basis of general relativity and cosmmology.

One of the great things about the book is that it takes the common 'popular' accounts one step further by intoducing physics in precise languge and formulas. So that you can apply your knowldege to actully solve some problems and gain further understanding. There are problems at end of each chapter and they are (mostly) supplemented by answers in an appendix.

One thing that is left out completely is relativistic electrodynamics, of course that's only sutibale for a more advanced book. I would've liked to see the power of four vectors utilized more and see the role of tensors. ... Read more

Product Description
This long-awaited textbook offers a concise one-semester introduction to basic general relativity suitable for mathematics and physics undergraduates. Emphasis is placed on the student's development of both a solid physical grasp of the subject and a sophisticated calculational facility. The text is supplemented by numerous geometrical diagrams and by a large selection of challenging exercises and problems. ... Read more