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I purchased this book in 2004 finally got around to reading and doing the exercises this year ( such is the life of a professional poker player). I purchased the book as a review having already gone through MTW decades earlier but I was pleasantly surprised by the treatment of modern subjects like the alternative theories and relation to string theory and QFT in curved zone time. The math is perfect and my only objection to the book is that the errata page is not up to date - I have found the usuall amount of errors in any advanced physics book. This is a amazing graduate level introduction - not a reference work.
Latest year, when I was at my Dad’s and stepmom’s house, I found the book “An Introduction to General Relativity, Spacetime and Geometry”, by Sean M Carroll. I was struck by the promise at the beginning of the preface: “.. it is an unalloyed joy to finally reach the point in one’s studies where these phenomena may be understood in a rigorous quantitative level. If you are contemplating reading this book, that point is here.” For me the book has lived up to this promise. I have been reading the book off and on since then and working some of the problems. I studied general relativity a small in college several decades ago, but there were a lot of vague ideas floating in my head. This book has sharpened up the concepts, explained fresh ones, and connected them in a amazing way.
It's probably a bit too terse for an "introduction" but a bit too simple for a "second course." Somewhere in between.I purchased this book after taking a class with Cheng's book and search myself quickly going through it. The book is really making a lot of concepts more rigorous and thorough, but as a second read it is a bit too at being said, I really love the book and search myself learning dozens and making a bunch of connections that slipped past me my first time learning GR.
This is an outstanding textbook on general relativity. It's very detailed, well written and the order of the subjects is very well chosen, covering a wide range of themes. The level is appropriate to graduate student, with a quite decent mathematical particular, the first chapter is a review of unique relativity: a brief but clear summary, useful to become familiar with the use of the 4-vector notation, too. The second and third chapters are committed to manifolds and curvature, and you have to learn the fundaments of differential geometry. The chapters from fourth to seventh are focused on the "real" general relativity, from Einstein's equation to gravitational waves: this is a quite advanced dissertation, and I think it is important to have a primary background from an introductory book. The latest two chapters are an introduction to cosmology (brief, but beautiful good) and an introduction to quantum field theory in curved spacetime (but I never read this chapter, sorry!).Remark that the book includes ten (10!) very useful appendixes on extra subjects that are not debated in the ordinary chapters: they are a amazing extension to examine in depth some themes (in particular on a second reading).Very amazing binding and hardcover: it's durable and solid, with a amazing value for money.
For someone wanting to obtain into the true workings of general relativity with only a background of multivariable and vector calculus, this is a excellent book. It's simple to read with a amazing way of introducing the material by showing you how to use it, then deriving it, which allows you to know the importance of why you are deriving it. Issues at the end of each chapter. The only issue is finding the solutions, which can be found by searching for courses that are using the textbook, and happen to post homework solutions.
I have read parts of a lot of books on general relativity and cosmology and I have to say that when looking for a refresher on a concept, I always turn to this book first. It might be because I first learned much of general relativity from this book, but I think the explanations are clear and the authors don't obtain bogged down in details. This makes the book a amazing starting point for fresh at said, there are a lot of typos in the book. There is one and half pages of corrections in the back of the book, and the notation that is used is sometimes a bit strange (power spectrum, etc.) For me, I am more concerned about the concept and the intuition so these hiccups don't bother me too tom line: for those who wish to learn GR as quick as possible using only high school calculus read Exploring Black Holes by Taylor and Wheeler. For those who wish all the info and multiple perspectives on GR, read Gravitation by misner thorne wheeler. Bridging the gap is this book.
I have this book along with the classic by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler. Both are good, but I like the explanations in this book better. I think it benefits from being published in 2006. Physicists have learned how to explain General Relativity better. Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler is 3 times thicker and covers more topics, but this is actually a distraction from learning the topic for the first time.Another advantage of being published in 2006 is that the quality of presentation has improved.I recommend the book.
A well written presentation of a difficult subject. However, this is not for the beginner. You must have a amazing command of Calculus and ytic geometry in order to understand this material, but the authors do an perfect job of presenting it in a logical and accessible manner.I particular like the method the authors have broken the material into digestible bits makes this the best presentation of the material have seen - and I have a PH.D in Astronomy.
While looking for a book to teach my undergraduates I was lucky to get a copy of this book.I was ready to implement the Nightingale/Foster , but I was disappointed to see the degradation of its second edition. I learned GR with the first edition of N/F!!!.Well , I checked this perfect book and I was the first chapters the authors expose Vectors tensors and manifold in the easier possible way. Then they revise Unique Relativity . Then , they proceed as usual , Curved locations , Einstein's Field Equation , Scwh-Metric, Schw -Black Holes , Interior solutions, but , then : Kerr solution in amazing detail!!. Without going into Ehler's equations or Degenerated Algebras , the authors describe very well Kerr's Geometry and Physics ( Penrose's , Celestial Mechanics..etc).Cosmology ( FLW) solutions ,..Inflation in some extent!!..Linearization and Gravitational Waves (Production and detection) .At the very end there is the Hilbert action etc.I want some Kaluza/Klein , which is possible and important for the fresh generation ( to understand completely String Theory you need to taste KK- theory ) and also , I want a given amount of solution for the huge number of issues at the end of every chapter.I hope to see both of these in future versions of this magnificent introductory book and then I will give the 5-star.
It should be among the standard choice of GR textbooks like Schutz and Carroll. It provides an exposition of essential differential geometry (if you wish mathematical rigor read Wald or a math book), comprehensive discussions on Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes, gravitational waves and FRW/ inflationay cosmology, to name a e best thing about this book is that it shows detailed steps in deriving equations, which most other authors regard as trivial but not for students. The exercises are also very helpful. It's also a very amazing source of is book is ideal for advanced undergrad/beginning grad students who learns GR for the first time, before moving on to more advanced items (e.g. Wald). I myself read Schutz and Hartle before discovering this book and this really got me e recent edition has most typos corrected.
The book is a very nice introduction, and having read through the whole book I can say the author really cared about making the book accessible and understandable. One thing that stood out to me is that the author included the answers to each and every exercise, usually with a full explanation as to how one gets to the ere are two caveats though:(1) the mathematical background is mostly covered in the book, but prospective readers should have some familiarity with differential geometry and calculus of variations, for motivation if nothing else,and (2) the book does not generally go into amazing depth on any particular other words, no one should buy this book as anything other than an introduction, but it excels as an intro to relativity.
I read this book after reading Cheng's book on GR. This book is a nice, gentle intro to GR for undergrads. It will provide a primary intro to GR and Cosmology before tackling more advanced texts on these subjects. I found it very clear to read and follow without any difficulty. A physics major in their third or fourth year could digest this material readily.
This is the fourth text I have studied on GR. I am a mathematician by training not a physicist. I found this book to be clear and concise, perhaps not as rigorous as I am use to seeing. But overriding this is all exercises are worked out and there is errata available. For me, I found this book to be the key I was looking for in my understanding of the theory at a primary level. I can recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in General Relativity and desirers to follow a self-study course.
Perfect book, it covers the needed mathematics in a very clear and thorough way. The exercises have solutions. Also, unlike some other mathematics books I got on kindle, the equations read well on kindle.
I've read a lot of books on general relativity, taken a course in it, and have done research that uses it. Ordinarily, I would not have considered buying another introduction. But the sample pages on Amazon's web website suggested that Boehmer had unusual skill in making concepts more digestible. That has been borne out. Boehmer's brief paragraph on the Lie derivative explained more clearly what it accomplishes and how to calculate it than have all of the other books I've used.
I've read a lot of books on general relativity, taken a course in it, and have done research that uses it. Ordinarily, I would not have considered buying another introduction. But the sample pages on Amazon's web website suggested that Boehmer had unusual skill in making concepts more digestible. That has been borne out. Boehmer's brief paragraph on the Lie derivative explained more clearly what it accomplishes and how to calculate it than have all of the other books I've used.
This is the fourth text I have studied on GR. I am a mathematician by training not a physicist. I found this book to be clear and concise, perhaps not as rigorous as I am use to seeing. But overriding this is all exercises are worked out and there is errata available. For me, I found this book to be the key I was looking for in my understanding of the theory at a primary level. I can recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in General Relativity and desirers to follow a self-study course.
The book is a very nice introduction, and having read through the whole book I can say the author really cared about making the book accessible and understandable. One thing that stood out to me is that the author included the answers to each and every exercise, usually with a full explanation as to how one gets to the ere are two caveats though:(1) the mathematical background is mostly covered in the book, but prospective readers should have some familiarity with differential geometry and calculus of variations, for motivation if nothing else,and (2) the book does not generally go into amazing depth on any particular other words, no one should buy this book as anything other than an introduction, but it excels as an intro to relativity.
Perfect book, it covers the needed mathematics in a very clear and thorough way. The exercises have solutions. Also, unlike some other mathematics books I got on kindle, the equations read well on kindle.
One of the most approachable introductions to the topic that I have seen. Gives the physical results and does not bury the reader with tensors or differential geometry. Has solutions to ALL exercises, which I found to be an extremely helpful learning tool.
One of the most approachable introductions to the topic that I have seen. Gives the physical results and does not bury the reader with tensors or differential geometry. Has solutions to ALL exercises, which I found to be an extremely helpful learning tool.
I don't like to post reviews of products here, but this book is so amazing that it deserves the effort. Despite the fact there are so a lot of amazing books about General Relativity (Schutz, Hartle, d'Inverno, MTW, etc), these books just "summarize" in the first chapters the primary ideas of Unique Relativity (SR) with no "depth", because it's assumed the reader already knows the subject. However, finding a amazing book about SR is such a hard task (I'm sorry, but I don't like A.P. French, MIT course). In his book, J.H. Smith explains the key ideas of the theory in a clear and elegant way, using more a "physical intuition" point of view (more in the Einstein spirit) instead of a massive mathematical and more "obscure" way, for example like the Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics. The author gives clear and very pedagogical examples for the reader to master the Lorentz transformations. The discussion of the "twin paradox" for exmaple, is one of the best I have found. I specially liked the chapter 12 about the four-momentum, including the applications of relativistic collisions. For self study (my case) this is one of the best books that I've found so far. I highly recommend it for undergraduate and even graduate students in Physics.
This is a fine book on Unique Relativity. All one needs is a grasp of algebra to follow the text. There are quite a few exercises at the end of each chapter. I specially like the fact that the author discusses the non-relativistic approach to a concept followed by the relativistic view. The chapters on Momentum and Energy and Particles of Zero Mass are plain nce no calculus to speak of is used some of the "derivations" are quite awkard. But that is a minor cavil. If you are still in school and algebra is new on your mind, this book will be a breeze. If your algebra is rusty, journey on, albeit slowly. The reward at the end of the street is worth it!
Puts the physics first. One of the better undergrad-level treatments. Suitable level for a intelligent high school senior to a bright college sophomore. Not mathematically sophisticated. Treatment of Lorentz covariance of Maxwell's equations rather sparse, but OK as an intro. Like all Dover paperbacks, the value for the cash is unsurpassed.
I used this textbook in my first undergraduate relativity course, and it is still one of the best introductions to the topic that I have ever read.While the book is aimed at second or third semester physics students, the math is confined to straightforward algebra. Although this makes the formalism a small less "neat" than in other treatments, it makes the topic much more understandable, especially for readers with less experience in higher e writing style is simple to read, and there are a lot of amazing explanations and worked-out examples. The "Twin Paradox", for example, is not only solved in its entirety, but cross-checked using three various approaches, all of which use unique relativity alone. The exercises in each chapter are well chosen, and prompt the reader to understand the significance of the answers.I consider this to be one of the best undergraduate introductory textbooks in relativity, and also recommend it to anyone with at least a high-school algebra background who wishes to learn more about this fascinating subject.
Judging from the title one might expect this to be a relatively simple book to understand - it is not. It is introductory for a college level undergraduate physics course, and the author often chooses a relative complex approach, vs the more straightforward ones found in other introductory books. For instance, instead of restricting the discussion to only one spatial dimension, X, much of the text utilizes two dimensions, X and Y, greatly complicating the text. The twin paradox is discussed in terms of a ver of unique relativity that approximates acceleration, rather than evoking General Relativity as is done in most books, which I found to be interesting, but hard to follow. I got the impression that this approach was done more to illustrate the novel thinking of the author, rather than providing a clearer discussion. The book employs complex four-vector mathematics. For instance, there is a section on “The Lorentz Transformation as a Rotation in Four Dimensions”, which I consider to be much more than introductory in nature, and much of the latest quarter of the book includes related very complex material. For instance, the book also has a section on electric and magnetic fields that goes far beyond what is covered in any of the other introductory relativity texts that I have read. Surprisingly, the book does not cover world-lines, light cones or other space-time ideas, which I found to be a significant deficiency. There are exercise issues for each chapter, but solutions are provided for only a few of them, and where they are they are given as just final answers instead of being worked out in e above comments not withstanding, I found things to like in the book, particularly the discussion of waves and how wave behavior makes the idea of the consistency of the speed of light expected and not as novel an idea as I had always considered it to be. Nonetheless, I recommend this book only as an adjunct to other more easily understood approaches and for a college level audience. This is especially real for a course that employs the level of complexity and mathematics used in this book. As a point of reference, I am a retired Materials Scientist, who has read a amazing a lot of books on Unique Relativity. I consider Mermin’s, “It’s about Time”, Taylor and Wheeler’s Spacetime Physics and especially Morin’s Unique Relativity For the Enthusiastic Beginner”, to be much more readable introductory texts. They develop concepts in a more comprehensive manner and employ a much less complicated mathematical approach. Morin’s book is especially amazing and I highly recommend it.
This book is the first one that explains the unique relativity very thoroughly. It is not like any others that talk and talk and doesn't give you any substance. There is no relativity without math, and this book uses easy math, mainly algebra, no calculus. The math is very simple to follow. It is the first time I understand unique relativity and really feel it. Now I can explain it to others using math and create them understand it. Of course there is more advanced approach for university level, but this ver is all what I need. I hope I can search a book James Smith for the general relativity to complete Einstein cycle. This book deserves 5 stars minimum.
I recently purchased a lot of beginner books on Unique Relativity to review it. I remember when I was a freshman at Rice, Unique Relativity was used in the sophomore physics class on electro-magnetism. I thought the other students had all studied it as freshmen so I spent an anxious few weeks learning it from all the elementary introductions in Fondren Library. I think that this book by Smith is probably the one that got me through. It is a very straightforward, step-by-step, calculations-oriented approach to primary Unique Relativity without calculus. Anyone who works through this book will have a complete grounding in both the ideas and calculations of non-calculus Unique Relativity--ready for anything!The book is very clear and thorough. The first chapter is the relevant ideas of Newtonian kinematics. Then there are separate chapters on the light experiment leading to Einstein's hypothesis about the speed of light, a chapter on time dilation, a chapter on length, a chapter on velocity and acceleration, the twin paradox, the Lorentz transformation, proper or four velocity, momentum and energy, particles of zero mass, center of mass, four vectors, and finally electro-magnetism. Most chapters are ten to twenty pages, so, as you can see, it is really a very thorough step-by-step introduction. I like the fact that he makes clear the distinction between first principles, or if you will "facts", and arbitrary ere is a common misperception that Unique Relativity cannot say anything about accelerating frames of reference, that acceleration is the realm of General Relativity. (I say it is common because I know an article in which the author quotes from a number of writings by educated people where there are false statements based on this misperception.) In fact, Unique Relativity works in flat space, whether or not there is acceleration. However, when things are accelerating, you have to use calculus. That's why Newton place the two together in his kinematics, and it's still real in Unique Relativity. My only criticism of this book is that the author never mentions calculus. Even if he doesn't wish to use it, he could still place in a footnote explaining this easy truth. In fact, in his short passage on acceleration, he uses finite approximations to avoid calculus. He almost reinvents differential calculus to do the calculation. There is nothing wrong with learning the primary ideas of Unique Relativity first with only algebra; after all, Einstein used to say that anyone with high school algebra could understand the theory. But anyone who studied Newtonian kinematics has already heard of calculus. You can define speed with just algebra, but in order to define acceleration, you need calculus. Why are so a lot of introductions to Unique Relativity allergic to mentioning this word?NB This review was written for a purchase two years ago of a used copy of the 1967 printing from Amazon.
This isn't really a review, just more or less making note of the condition of the book when I received it as to not be charged for already existing hurt later on. I wasn't sure if/where I could create notes like ese books are used, so I'm not expecting something in brand fresh condition. This specific book has the front and back covers torn half off. (This will not be the case with all books under this title, just the specific one I received).
Pages are perfect, but the spine of the book is more than a small worn. So much so that I think I'll be lucky if it makes it through the whole semester. Unfortunately, I don't wish to risk sending it back and not having a fresh one back in time for the fresh semester to start. Otherwise, amazing book.
The binding on this book was so worn out that I had to duct tape it together to prevent the pages from falling out. Other than that, just a few notes here and there throughout the book created it simple to use. I would recommend this for other college students as an alternative to buying this book for full-price.
Buyer Beware: This is a textbook only. It does not come with an access code or printed access card. The book's description cites: "The book's built-in integration with OWLv2 (Online Web-based Learning) turns your chemistry study time into active experiences that build your comprehension and bring concepts to life." The textbook, however, does NOT contain access or a subscription to the supplemental online OWLv2 system. If that is something you want, you must purchase the (optional) subscription separately through the Cengage www service ... or search another version/supplier of this textbook that contains an access code.
I always thought general relativity covariant derivative of a tensor, curvature tensor, etc was really advanced mathematics. But now I guess this is elementary classical physics. Book is written by 17 year old prodigy. The really advanced physics is quantum field theory of which I have only the foggiest idea the most elementary relatavistic quantum mechanics. I will have to figure out which book to buy on quantum field theory on Kindle, no amazing books on Kindle Unlimited. As though I might be capable of understanding it. Ex bright young man physics graduate student now senile 72 year old decrepit geezer. It is nice to review elementary relativity book. I first studied this over 50 years ago.
This is the first book in the "A Very Short Introduction" series I have read. Slightly larger than seven inches by four inches, and a bit over 100 pages long, they are diminutive books for sure. This one on relativity, I found very interesting. Relativity is a subject I have always had difficulty wrapping my head around but Stannard does a beautiful amazing job of making the topic sink e book is divided into two sections. In the first he covers unique relativity, and, in the second, he covers general relativity. In the preface, he mentions some ideas about space, time, and matter that we might take for granted in our Newtonian world. In the first section he redefines five common sense ideas: we are all in the same three-dimensional space, time passes the same for everyone, the idea of simultaneity, there is no speed limit, and matter is conserved - it can neither be made nor destroyed. In addressing these topics, Stannard delves into time dilation, length contraction, the twin paradox, loss of simultaneity, space-time diagrams, four dimensionality, and the ultimate speed of the universe - whew! All interesting items for sure. I particularly enjoyed the section on the twin paradox - and Stannard's clear explanation - where one twin travels to another far away planet and back at near the speed of light, only to search that the other twin has aged te that Stannard does use some formulas to demonstrate the concepts, but don't worry, if you have a primary background in algebra, it should all create sense to you. The formulas, I think, are important to convey a proper understanding of the material, but even if you are not up to par on your math, he does a amazing job of explaining the theory so you shouldn't have a issue here. He concludes with a discussion of different interstellar phenomena, such as quasars, pulsars, black holes, virtual particles, critical density, Hubble's law, and is book was well written in an explanatory fashion, so I think I will be checking some of the other titles in this series, of which there are many.
I recently read a handful of books on relativity, and I rank them as follows:Highly recommended introductory works: * Relativity Simply Explained by Martin Gardner -- best introductory book. * The Elegant Universe (chapters 2 & 3) by Brian Greene -- extremely lucid, but not as in-depth as Gardner's book -- possibly the best if you wish a shorter introduction. * Einstein by Walter Isaacson, chapter 6 (special relativity) & chapter 9 (general relativity) -- not just a amazing biography, also a very lucid explanation of Einstein's ideas. * The Fabric of the Cosmos (chapters 2 & 3) by Brian Greene -- a discussion of general relativity & the nature of spacetime.Further reading: * Inside Relativity by Mook & Vargish -- amazing introduction to Newton, along with amazing sections on what high-speed objects look like and a amazing section on how Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism relate to relativity. * Relativity Visualized by Lewis Carroll Epstein -- a amazing extra book to read, if you wish to delve more into truly understanding how it works. Not recommended as an introduction. * Relativity: A Very Short Introduction by Russell Stannard -- might be a amazing introduction, but not as lucid as some of the books above. * Relativity by Albert Einstein -- not recommended. It's amazing if you wish to see how Einstein explained it, but it is generally not a amazing introduction. bersome, difficult, and is book has a amazing section on 4D spacetime and the "block universe". There was also an in depth description of why the geodesic is the path with the longest proper ere were some statements in this book that seemed rather confusing to me and possibly outright incorrect. There are some sections that are massive on equations. Although some might search this to be a amazing introduction, I think there are better books out there, and I can only recommend this book with some annard is British, so his writing style might not seem quite as comfortable for an American. This is a very minor issue, but I felt less engaged by his writing style than I did with a lot of of the other books listed above. On the other hand, British readers might prefer his book over an American's.Anyone interested in truly understanding relativity will likely wish to read several books, in order to view it from multiple frames of reference.Enjoy your studies of this fascinating subject!cheers:)
A lot of years ago, Stannard was a tutor on my physics course and gave lectures on Unique Relativity. He was very good, with an obvious love of his topic and a genuine desire to communicate the ideas to 's quite surprising how a lot of physicists never go beyond the Unique theory to obtain a firm grasp of the General theory. Stannard is a notable turning to the topic a lot of years later, I naturally chose a book by him. And in any case, I'm gradually working my method through the entire VSI series.I really do think that this is the best book with which to begin if you wish to tackle Relativity, and an perfect refresher if you have already studied the subject. It clarified a lot of things for me and introduced a few completely fresh e math is fairly simple, certainly nothing beyond high school level, although the square root symbol written as a V had me puzzled for a e Amazon product description says the book has 144 pages. In fact it's 114, about par for this so, the Look Inside feature here will reveal some typos, like the '3/5 = 0.67' error on page 7, pointed out by another reviewer. In the copy I bought (from Amazon) these errors are corrected.[PeterReeve]
Russell Stannard's little book offers the reader a solid understanding of unique and general relativity. Having read more than 25 books on relativity, I recommend this book to everyone as their first primer in order to obtain an accurate understanding of the fundamental principles. For example, the so-called twin paradox, which is incorrectly presented in far too a lot of books, is properly and elegantly explained by Stannard. Also his discussion on the curvature of spacetime is novel mind opening.
A very thorough and well written math level is about tenth grade and I still had no major difficulties with comprehending the authors explinations.I found this book so intersting,I have purchased math textbooks to improve my math so the book contains recomendations of other books to further discover the subject.
Update: I am tired of the layout. This book makes you flip back and forth a lot. For example, a paragraph on page 63 will refer to a diagram on page 68. Why can't they place the diagram on the same page as the paragraph? Or some question will refer to the some specific page of another chapter? A easy reminder printed on the side of the page will save a lot of time. I have never flipped back and forth so often like this and I have been in college for more than 10 years. Maybe the British like to save paper and Americans prefer convenience.I major in biology and pharmacy. I am reading this book plainly as a hobby. The author has painstakingly created this book as simple as possible. There is a few locations I have to do some algebra but that's about it. Hopefully I will finish this book soon. Then I will obtain into calculus and advanced calculus, vector, tensor and review my linear algebra. I wish to be able to appreciate relativity in its original glory.
This book is an perfect primary overview of Newtonian and GR theory of Gravity Dr. Schutz presents both sides of gravity with minimum mathematics. A knowledge of highschool math or freshman college algebra is sufficient in order to understand any derivations. This text presents "readable" physics covering the topic from the classics to modern cosmology and black holes. This book is worthwhile reading before jumping off to some of the heavier works on this subject, especially Schutz's advanced text.
Overall this book is a real gem. As someone with no background in physics or calculus, this book was both challenging and accessible and has truly given me a much deeper understanding of relativity than one could obtain from a math-free book. Ultimately, this book has created me excited about physics, which is something I never thought I'd say.I would give this book 5 stars except there are some serious copy editing issues. Comparing issues with the solution set (found on the book's website) some of the exercises are just plain wrong. At one point he has a 4pi thrown into a issue that shouldn't be there. Unfortunately the exercise solutions run into the same problem; one solution assumes a water molecule has two oxygens as well as two hydrogens.I have no idea if the author plans to place out a fresh edition of this book, but if he does I hope it has a better editor.
How a lot of authors of famous science books start their books by boasting that they can teach true science to readers who have no math--or no math beyond primary algebra? And then what do you get? Either a tub full of metaphors sloshing about promiscuously or else a math course so compressed it would leave Newton saying, "Duh?" But not in this book. Bernard Schutz takes the reader by the hand and leads him gently on. There is scarcely a bump in the road; yet, by the end of the book, you've not only learned a amazing deal of physics, astrophysics and cosmology, you've also gotten an inkling of how a physicist thinks. How does Schutz manage to succeed where failure is the rule? Well, partly by magic, I think. But partly by the clever use of easy computer simulations (downloadable for free) and partly by means of a very carefully thought out pedagogical strategy. This gentleman is a teacher par excellence. If you're only going to read one science book in your life, read this one. Just be prepared to spend some time with it.
The software is (as of this writing) still available. Software info below for those that wish them (hopefully saves you searching like I did); it is not at all obvious that the software is a major requirement to have fun the book, aware that the www service for the book also has a PDF of solutions to the problems, which is amazing for someone doing so, I have not read that much of the book yet, but it is a quality item and a amazing read so far - well typeset, pictures, 400+ pages of fairly little print (but not too heavy to read in bed), amazing binding, unlike a lot of expensive physics texts these days. I am giving this 5 stars just to balance out the other review that dinged it due to the software link being broken - the book is 8 years old, the SW is free & not place out by the publisher, Schutz has moved institutions; it's not reasonable to hate on the guy for not having the links all , while the math may be accessible to a high-schooler, the writing style is more in the style of a standard undergrad physics text. It would need to be a beautiful advanced, self-motivated high school student (at least by US standards) to obtain through much of this for that reasons, despite the math being only to the software, it's called `triana', and is some sort of java front end. In fact, the idea seems to be that one might use this as an opportunity to teach oneself (or ones' students) java by messing with the code if you want... which actually seems like a very nice idea. Anyway, Most of what you need can be found at the book's website, but all the links to the main software pack itself are broken - don't obtain you even close to a put you could search it. Amazon usually seems to delete all typed links, so I will test to enter them below in a method that won't obtain trashed by a `bot: w^3 should be obvious, dd means "dot", ss means forward slash. They are:Book: w^3 dd gravityfromthegroundup dd orgThis link has color images, the PDF of the issue solutions, :w^3 dd gravityfromthegroundup dd org ss programs ss index dd htmlthis is java code, support files, descriptions of everything (actually, code is nicely doented). Probably worth downloading it all in case it goes away. WORTH BOOKMARKING for later use.w^3 dd trianacode dd org ss gettingstarted dd htmlthe actual triana software place; this page has directions. Note: I got the SW (see below), extracted it, place it in a folder as specified on c drive, used set TRIANA=C:\triana at the command prompt, and then ran the `triana application snapshot' executable jar file without doing any of the other things I was supposed to do, and it works fine. So consider just extracting the files, putting them where you want, & running that file - ignore everything else. Seems like the SW no longer requires a full build on your own. *** the ver I used already had the toolboxes installed - no need to download those separately either. Ironically, except for the broken links, things have gotten EASIER re: SW install.w^3 dd trianacode dd org ss [email protected]#$%!& download ssparent dir for the code. I used the triana-4.0.0 zip, since it didn't require a lot of mucking about with tar files or gzips. Simple as pie on Victory 7. Nb: this ver didn't seem to have the source for the java, but that is in the support pages listed in the 1st link above under "Software". NB#2: You MUST have java installed before doing all this. Most people do, but if not find for `java', download, & install it st notes: when you run triana, you obtain a program window with an "Untitled1" subwindow with nothing in it. To obtain started:- begin the `gftgu' folder on the left side (gftgu = title of the book...)- drag `cannontrajectory' over to the grey `Untitled1' window & drop it there- begin the `output' folder on the left side- drag `SGTGrapher' over to the `Untitled1' window- if it doesn't happen automatically, left-click on the small black tab on the `cannontrajectory' box, and drag a connector to the tab on the `SGTGrapher' box.- right click each box, and click on the `properties' tab to begin the control and graph windows- when changing parameters here, click `apply', not `OK' - the latter closes the windows.- click `run' (or the "play" button on the toolbar for the main window). A plot will appear in the graph window.- Nb: this plot never seems to change when you change parameters... unless you uncheck the `x-autoscale' and `y-autoscale' in the graph window :)From there you'll have the idea. The support files available at the 1st link under `Software' above seem sort of important to understand some of the modules, and `F1' does not bring up support on my triana install, so that page is worth l in all, beautiful simple to deal with, though - the instructions above create it sound a lot harder than it actually is.
This textbook on gravity is astounding! While limiting the mathematics to algebra and trigonometry (no calculus) it covers the physics of both Newtonian and Einsteinian gravity with depth and sophistication. I have a PhD in atmospheric physics and work in the field, so I am no stranger to either advanced math or physics. I have been trying to teach myself general relativity both for the pleasure of it and because when I retire (soon) I plan to incorporate it into a sci-fi novel I have planned. I have bought, read, and fought my method through relativity texts using the tensor calculus and developed a limited understanding of the math but small of the physics. I bought this book based on a review in Physics Today or Science News (can't remember which). When I first browsed it I thought it was going to be too elementary because of the lack of calculus. I was dead om the opening chapter the book introduces the fundamental physical concepts: Invariance, coordinate transformations, conservation laws (invarients as contrasted with invarience) with serious quantitative exercises, physical examples and cross-references to other parts of the book where the results or concepts will be revisited. It covers major subjects in orbital mechanics, stellar dynamics and structure (including neutron stars and black holes) and cosmology. The level of the math may be freshman, but the level of the physics is graduate school. In terms of readability, the writing is not only intensly informative, but also entertaining. It is simultaneously witty and deep. This book is brilliant!
This is a book with high school math and graduate school physics. It connects so a lot of disparate phenomena and physics concepts in a coherent fashion. Reading it is an intellectual adventure! This is physics teaching at its best, pure physics unhindered by incomprehensible math formulas. I am speaking from a perspective of someone who is afraid of math. I have a Ph.D. in Physics. Yet I still want I have come across this book earlier to give me the physics insight that is lacking in a lot of physics textbooks.
I swear I read that this was used, but when I got it, it was still in its original wrapping. So to obtain this item brand fresh at this price was SO WORTH IT! The school I go to sells this text book for about $250 and there was no method I was gonna pay that for a brand fresh stinking book. I found this book for literally half that price, I was so thankful for that
CUDA programming is often recommended as the best put to begin out when learning about programming GPU's. The learning curve concerning the framework is less steep than say in OpenCL, and then you can learn about OpenCL quite easily because the concepts transfer quite is book is aimed at a beginner in CUDA and the level of the explanations clearly shows that the authors are aware that it is so fresh to the reader that he/she will need a lot of explanations. However there are times in which I feel the style of this book is insufferable. For example there is a joke of a program which prints Hello World. This can be annoying to someone keen to see the first true example of parallel programming. The authors dont give you much support with regards to t, I cant think of any book that can really replace this book. If you are starting out, you beautiful much have to have it. It covers certain topics that Wen-mei Hwu does not cover in his book. In fact in the latter's Coursera course he suggests that you read Sander's book for certain topics.
This is a not good workbook, which provides the bare minimum of info to walk you through the motions of doing the experiments with very limited explanations for the 'why's and 'how's. The layout and arrangement of info and questions is largely unremarkable but sometimes very confusing, and generally gives the impression of small or no editing. The questions are worded confusingly and ask about irrelevant tidbits of information.Unfortunately, if your professor requires this for class, you don't really have much of a choice.
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This is one of the best books on general relativity. In my opinion it is somewhere between the classic Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler tome and Wald's General Relativity in its mathematical requirements. I like the tone of the discussion of topics. It is comprehensive enough to be useful in applications and leading to more advanced studies.
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The descriptions of the mathematics in the first few chapters is rather drawn out but simple to read. I'm taking Quantum Field Theory, using Peskin and Schroeder, and I've found that reading about operations on Metrics and Tensors in component form in Carroll is much easier. Haven't created it through the whole course yet but I'm happy so far.
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This is the best book I have ever encountered on the a physicist and a mathematician, it was VERY necessary for me to obtain themathematical background and framework for General roll delivered it with finesse.
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