From: Ronald Wong (ronwong@inreach.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 00:06:00 PDT
Message-Id: <l03102802bab6d139f3c1@[209.209.18.105]> Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 00:06:00 -0700 From: Ronald Wong <ronwong@inreach.com> Subject: Re: pinhole Winds and general relativity
Jhumk asked a number of questions of which one was:
>4. Do you have recommendations for a good introductory book to general
>relativity?
Paul replied with
>The best books on relativity both special and general are Clifford Will Was
>Einstein Right? 2nd edition and Spacetime Physics by Ed Taylor.
Mr. Will's book covers General Relativity and is available as a paperback
and Mr. Taylor's book covers Special Relativity (it IS a paperback).
These books are considered "introductory" texts but what is "introductory"
to one individual may look like an intermediate or advanced text to
another. It's all relative (sorry about that). Before putting your money
down for either of these books, I'd strongly suggest that you check them
out at your local library and look them over first.
Both are considered classics for "beginners" but that term is also relative.
Physicists have a very peculiar notion of what a beginner is ("What? Your
mind doesn't work like an undergraduate mathematician?").
If you only took a couple of college physics courses on your way to
becoming a science teacher, I would suggest that you start with an old,
COLLEGE-textbook version of Paul Hewitt's "Conceptual Physics" (NOT the
high school version). You can probably find one at your local library or in
the used book section of a university bookstore. He devotes one chapter to
each of the two forms of relativity in a very simple, straight-forward way.
With these two chapters as a background you can then consider taking the
plunge into a more thorough discussion of relativity.
Regarding Mr. Will's book, note the comments by Martin Gardner (another
fine writer when it comes to math and science) in his review in the
December 4th, 1986 issue of the NY Review of Books called "Secrets of the
Old One" (this review may be all that you may want to know about general
relativity):
Enjoy.
ron
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