Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity

by Steven Weinberg

Book Overview

A leading physicist delves into relativity and experimental applications

Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity offers a Nobel laureate's perspectives on the wealth of data technological developments have brought to expand upon Einstein's theory. Unique in basing relativity on the Principle of Equivalence of Gravitation and Inertia over Riemannian geometry, this book explores...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471925675
• ISBN13: 9780471925675
• Release Date: July 1972
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent treatment of GR - written for a physicist

This is one of the finest GR books that is written for a physicist. Although it is slightly dated, it can still be profitably used today to learn the foundations of the subject that no other contemporary text has explained so clearly.There is a strong emphasis on the equivalence principle in the book, and many interesting illustrations of this principle can be found throughout the book. There's no discussion of black holes, of course, since the book hasn't probably been revised since its publication in the early seventies. However, Weinberg's book can be truly judged based on the brilliant presentation of the physical ideas of GR in a way that is so familiar to the physicist. A mathematically minded physicist who cares little about real physical insights will be obviously disappointed by this book.

A book based on the physics, not the mathematics

After a completing graduate school, I decided it was time to learn GR on my own. I got Weinberg's book, and, at first reading, I was put off by it--there are effectively no diagrams, no problems, and no pedagogy. So on to Misner, Thorne, Wheeler. Well these kings have no clothes: MTW contains almost no clean, declarative sentences and could be reduced to 1/4 its size with straightforward editing. So I bought B. F. Schutz's book read it, and and went back to Weinberg's book. With both in hand, I am acquiring a satisfying understanding of GR. And I now realize that Weinberg's book is a masterpiece. As in all his texts, Weinberg's passion is to expose the underlying logic of the physics. All follows from the Equivalnce Princple, and this view gives his book a logic coherency that other's lack. (Try seeing where the Equivalence principle fits in Schutz's presentation.) One criticism: I believe that Weinberg was writing a text for his peers to set them straight about GR; he neglected students. It would have been great if he could have included a mathematical appendix or two to make the text more accessible. But even so, it is a wonderful book.

The Best Exposition on General Relativity

Weinberg is a master. His style is efficent. His words not wasted. His insights are inspiring. Behind each statement dwells a reservoir of thought. His selection and organization of the material seems non-improvable. Completion of the book yields general relativity in a comprehensive manner.In addition to his methods, I am wholeheartedly biased towards his approach of basing general relativity on empiricism rather than geometry. Reading this book is almost synonomous with sitting at the feet of a master. The methods utilized are standard tensor analysis, which yields the best results and understanding of the physics in a first exposure. MTW, in contrast, uses different mathematical approaches and moreover does so in an inconsistent manner. Weinberg is the BEST book, existing today, on general relativity period.

The Best

I greatly appreciated this book when I was a student. The tensor analysis is very carefully explained; in addition, you really get a basic physics understanding. The equivalence principle and Mach-Einstein theories discussions are simply wonderful. Of course, some experimental data are too old now to be taken seriously.

Weinberg's Greatest Book on General Relativity

Steven Weinberg wrote the best book on general relativity in history. A Nobel Laureate, he has pioneered both in relativity and quantum theory. Readers who want to know more about him should read T. Cao's 1997 book (Cao is at Boston University) on quantum field theory, from which Weinberg emerges as probably the greatest quantum theorist in history. Unlike most quantum theorists, even the founders of quantum theory, Weinberg was the first to find errors in his own and others' theories, to modify them rapidly and ingeniously, and to establish the newest trends and ideas in each decade since the early years. He founded the latest quantum field theory school, effective gauge field theory, although he became disgusted with field theory's errors and went over to string theory (which seems to be at most an approximation to the real world). In general relativity, he resembles Sir Arthur Eddington in combining algebraic techniques with general relativity (e.g., those of Weyl) and in emphasizing the underlying principles - equivalence, the tetrad formalism, covariance, and even gravitational waves which are only now being tested by Project Ligo. The only book which comes near to Weinberg's on general relativity is the one by Meisner, Wheeler, and Thorne of the early 1970s, and it requires expertise in graduate geometry and is neither as concise nor as inspired and insightful as Weinberg's.