A Serious But Not Ponderous Book About Relativity

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A Serious But Not Ponderous Book About Relativity Author: Walter Scheider Pub Date: 11/2000 Trade Paperback, List Price $14.95. 5.5 x 8.5, Illustrated, Indexed Book Description: The title describes it. It is "a serious but not ponderous book" on Special Relativity for the non-specialist. It uses introductory high school level algebra to make possible the depth and thoroughness and unambiguous definitions of terms -- qualities that tend to be sacrificed in the math-less or math-sparse 'popular' books on Relativity. At the same time, this book is written for the general reader, giving plain-English explanations for things which the text books often don't explain at all, because they assume that they are obvious from the formal and mathematical argument. The style has been described as "fast-moving and breezy." The book begins with the story of the conundrum posed by Maxwell's law of the electromagnetic field, its implication for the propagation of light, and Einstein's surprising resolution of that conundrum. From those first chapters that are largely conceptual, the book moves gradually in the direction of increasing use of algebra to derive and describe the phenomena that Einstein's theory implies, many of them appearing at first to be counter-intuitive. The final three chapters give a taste of contemporary application of four-dimensional spacetime equations of motion to particle collisions and astrophysics. The reader is assumed to bring along an acquaintance with high school algebra and some familiarity with elementary physics, but can begin at ground zero for the main subject, relativity. There are tangible examples, solved problems, and 88 original illustrations.

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MAXWELL's CONUNDRUM
A Serious But Not Ponderous Book About
Relativity

"Clear and engaging style" "extensive discussion of misconceptions about relativity indicates the author's long experience in teaching this material." "Highly recommended." --- ALA's  CHOICE Magazine (reviews of academic books)  Sept 2000

"marvelously well written. The style is fast-moving and breezy." "the book does indeed live up to its billing, as serious but not ponderous." "the gradual increase in difficulty is also very well done." --- from an independent review for University of Chicago Press

"A first class job of laying the groundwork, which, of course, is the hard part." --- David Halliday, co-author of "Fundamentals of Physics"

"for the first time I have found a book on relativity that is both rigorous and readable" "just as a question arises in the reader's mind about something [the book] said, it addresses it on the next page." ---Donald Wulfinghoff, author of award-winning "Energy Efficiency Manual"

"At last you have cleared up for me the 'lookback time' vs relativistic effects problem -- it has nagged at me for years." --- Keith Burrows, physics teacher, Australia

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Preview a Sample Chapter Contents I. Chapters 1-5 "The Detectives:" The story of how relativity was discovered, and what led Einstein to choose the most unlikely of the three possible ways to resolve what was wrong with Maxwell's equations. This book is organized along a path of increasing difficulty. It begins with this intriguing detective story in the first five chapters, which anyone can enjoy for the suspense and mystery. In chapters 6-17, the book proceeds, starting with very elementary use of beginning algebra concepts, bringing in more mathematical and increasingly abstract formulations only as needed, so that each reader can stay with it to the highest level of understanding that his or her training allows them to attain. The first five chapters deal with the ideas that caused such profound difficulty for both theoretical and experimental physicists in what was otherwise a triumphant era for physics. Maxwell's Conundrum The conundrum arose out of a fabulously elegant theory of Clerk Maxwell, a theory of electric and magnetic fields, which had as a seemingly unavoidable consequence a distressing contradiction of a 300 year old principle without which ordinary life would be most difficult. It is a story of ideas and of people. Einstein's role in it is remarkable for the quality of insight that permitted him to resolve this conundrum. Here is how chapter 1 begins: "Einstein's Theory of Relativity was born in 1905 out of the realization that three of the very most basic of the known physical principles couldn't all be true. A fundamental incompatibility among the three became apparent. "It was a who-done-it with three suspects, each a formidable pillar of unassailable respectability. The conundrum was so perplexing that some of the best detectives in the scientific world were kept chasing clues for more than two decades. "Seen as a tale of mystery, this story has a familiar twist: The detectives have two prime suspects, and the reader sees the spotlight move back and forth between the two, while the guilty party moves among the crowds so inconspicuously, and so totally above reproach and beyond suspicion that even the reader is surprised at how it all turns out.

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